AI & Ethics: University of Portland Students Get Real with Artificial Intelligence

PORTLAND, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Artificial intelligence will take a front row seat this fall in Dr. Natalie Nelson-Marsh’s ‘Future of Work’ Organizational Communication class at the University of Portland.

“This involves more than future-proofing our students’ careers. It’s about leading conversations that will define the future of work itself.” Natalie Nelson-Marsh, Ph.D., University of Portland Associate Professor

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Students won’t simply rely on AI tools and tasks to complete assignments, however. They’ll hold AI up to the light, and, through an ethical lens, examine how this ubiquitous technology is rapidly disrupting the global workforce they’re about to join.

The Future of Work is one of six courses set to pilot the University of Portland’s Ethical AI Initiative — a campus-wide endeavor to explore the ethical and societal impacts of artificial intelligence in various fields of study.

Launching in the 2025-26 academic year, the Ethical AI Initiative includes Dr. Hannah Highlander’s mathematics course, ‘Ordinary Differential Equations,’ which will guide sophomore-and-junior level students to critically examine the ethical implications of mathematical modeling in machine learning.

The initiative will cross over to business analytics, technology in education, and AI’s influence on society. As Dr. Nelson-Marsh sizes up the future workplace, she says students in all majors will benefit from grasping AI’s impact on organizational culture.

“When students understand how human-AI collaboration shapes the way we organize, they are empowered not just to use these technologies — but to integrate them ethically,” Dr. Nelson-Marsh said. “This involves more than future-proofing our students’ careers. It’s about leading conversations that will define the future of work itself.”

Dr. Valerie Banschbach, Dean of UP’s College of Arts and Sciences, says UP is one of the first universities in the nation to offer a cross-curricular Ethical AI Initiative.

“As a Catholic, Holy Cross University, we seek to develop the whole person, and that includes accompanying our students as they navigate an AI-shaped world,” Dr. Banschbach said. “As we launch this Ethical AI Initiative, it is our aim to incorporate AI tools as we teach about this emerging technology through an ethical lens — providing critical AI literacy and values-based framing.”

“Our Ethical AI Initiative beautifully reflects our mission and priorities at the University of Portland,” said Dr. David Mengel, University Provost. “It offers all our students, whatever their major, opportunities both to use powerful, new AI technologies and also to ask how and for what purposes these tools should be applied."

The 2025-26 Ethical AI Initiative builds off the University’s commitment to curricular innovation and dialogue in the burgeoning AI arena. Last fall, UP welcomed faculty, administrators and religious affiliates from 19 institutions for a national conference: Catholic Higher Education and AI: Mission-Based Teaching for the Future of Humanity. UP is making plans to host its second AI conference for Catholic higher education leaders in October.