Literature, genAI, and leadership: A call to action for higher education leaders, in this episode of Reimagining Higher Education: Brian Rosenberg

In this episode, host Prof. Judyth Sachs speaks with Brian Rosenberg - President Emeritus of Macalester College , Visiting Professor at 美国哈佛大学 , and author of “Whatever It Is, I’m Against It” - about his journey in higher education, the challenges facing institutions today, and the evolving role of technology in learning.?

Brian emphasises the need for alignment between faculty and students, advocates for adaptive pedagogy, and reflects on the changing landscape of higher education.

Discovering a passion for literature and learning

Brian Rosenberg shares how he found his calling in literature and academia early in his undergraduate career:

"I decided very early in my career as an undergraduate at my university, really as early as the first semester of my first year, that I wanted to devote my life to studying literature. I fell in love with it during a comparative literature seminar on the European novel. And I decided before that year was over that I wanted to be a teacher and to teach about books."

After obtaining a PhD in English, he spent 15 years as a professor, which he believes laid the foundation for his later leadership role:

"And it was only when I became a teacher that I found my voice. You know, when you're a college president, you are in many, many ways a very public figure. And without my 15 years in the classroom, I would never have been able to be a college president."

Addressing the current challenges facing Higher Education - through a literary lens

Brian highlights the importance of fostering personal growth and agency within educational institutions, prompted by Judyth to use his other passion - Charles Dickens’ literary works - as a lens.

"First of all, just in general, Dickens was someone who was deeply concerned about the tendency of institutions and bureaucracies to rob people of their humanity."

"I think he would have found much in contemporary higher education to satirise and to criticise."

He warns that higher education faces a potential crisis unless institutions adapt to the realities they face, suggesting:

"Do you keep butting your head against the wall, doing the same things over and over again, and consign yourselves to the dark future... or do you adapt and change?"

The role of AI for Learning

Brian discusses whether there is a place and purpose for AI in higher education. He stresses that universities are doing a disservice to their students if they are only concerned with cheating, and should instead be looking at how to integrate it into the student learning environment, in order to realise the immense opportunities available.

“Most of the conversations about AI that I hear are about things like students using it to cheat, which for me are the least important and interesting conversations. There aren't nearly enough conversations about how AI can affect, is likely to affect, could affect that might beneficially affect the teaching and learning process. And, and the dangers that it might bring to the teaching and learning process.”

“My experience is that students are way ahead of faculty generally in understanding the implications of AI, particularly older faculty like me, who have been doing things in a particular way for a long time and find it hard to even wrap our heads around the fact that the assignments we have given for so long, the kinds of exams we've given for so long, might soon simply become relics rendered essentially impossible or ineffectual by artificial intelligence.”?

“Which doesn't mean that there aren't new and interesting ways to teach and for students to learn. But we have to evolve to that point. And most people are still doing things the way they've always done them. And sooner or later and sooner rather than later, that's not going to work very well.”

Advice to his younger self

Brian offers personal reflections on his experiences and the evolution of the university presidency:

"I would probably… have encouraged myself to be less defensive about the status quo."

He believes that the expectations placed on university presidents have become unrealistic, advocating for a reconceptualisation of the role:

"To expect one person to do these two jobs, each of which is a full-time job at least, and be successful at both, is frankly unrealistic."

Brian stresses the need for university leadership to focus on value-adding activities rather than being restricted by status quo.?

Listen to the full episode here