College News

Giving flowers: Introducing CMDI’s outstanding spring graduate

Joe Arney — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 21:46:49 +0000

Giving flowers: Introducing CMDI’s outstanding spring graduate Joe Arney Mon, 04/20/2026 - 15:46

Hannah Stewart

Until she took a class in human resources as a high school student, Lauren Lopez was pretty sure she was going to become either a florist or a welder.

‘CMDI makes it really easy to choose your own path, which I really love,’ says Lauren Lopez, who graduates this spring with both the William W. White Outstanding Graduate Award and as the outstanding senior in the communication major. Photo by Kimberly Coffin.

By the time she completed that class—offered through a partnership between her high school and Austin Community College, in Texas—she knew she wanted to make a living in HR.

She’s now one step closer to that dream as she graduates from 91��ý’s College of Communication, Media, Design and Information with a degree in communication, and as the college’s top student.

“CMDI makes it really easy to choose your own path, which I really love,” she said. “I've always been able to do the classes I want to do, which is really I think that's really built my experience here.”

Each year, the CMDI student with the highest GPA receives the William W. White Outstanding Graduate Award. On top of that, Lopez graduates as the outstanding senior in the communication department, an honor that recognizes students based on academics, professional achievement and service to the college.

Rarely is a graduate recognized at both levels, but it’s hardly surprising, considering how engaged Lopez has been. On top of graduating early, she will walk with two minors—in sociology and leadership studies—completed an honors thesis and held four on-campus jobs, including one as a CMDI ambassador.

Christi Wade, who supervises ambassadors as the college’s student recruitment program manager, said Lopez made an incredible impression right from her initial interview.

“She brings a positive attitude and smile to every interaction with prospective students, and will be greatly missed on our team,” Wade said.

Leaving a legacy

Lopez said she loves her roles as an ambassador and as a peer mentor with the Office of Precollege Outreach and Engagement. Both programs, she said, offer the opportunity to make an impact by leaving a legacy for future students while extending her community. Thanks to her communication and leadership classes, she feels prepared to serve and guide her peers, whether by providing coaching on a resume or advising prospective students on choosing a major.

Her biggest piece of advice is to do the best you can. Lopez said it’s easy to feel burned out, especially when juggling a lot of classes and other responsibilities, but staying curious and putting in the effort pays off. It’s how her honors thesis came together.

“I’ve heard a lot of things in college about intimate partner sexual assault, and I think it’s really important to talk about,” she said. “And then I read Everybody Lies, by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz. He basically says people lie on surveys. I thought, ‘That's amazing, I want to do exactly that, but with this topic.’”

So Lopez turned to Reddit—where she assumed people would be more candid, since the platform is largely anonymous—ultimately analyzing 300 posts and identifying themes. She presented her findings to her thesis committee, which recommended she receive summa cum laude honors.

“We were all impressed with her study,” said Joëlle Cruz, an associate professor of communication and Lopez’s thesis advisor. “Between the amount of the data and type of data, Lauren’s thesis had a level of sophistication I've rarely seen for an undergraduate student. She is so hardworking and it was a pleasure to work with her on it.”

Lopez said she loved the thesis experience—and all of her time at college—and though she’s certain she’ll miss the learning environment CMDI cultivates, she’s excited for what’s next. In her case, it’s a role with the HR team at local marketing firm Boulder Heavy Industries.

“Graduating college is such a privilege—I’m so grateful, and I hope I’ve made my family proud,” she said. “CU has been the best decision I’ve ever made. I love the university and the city, and I’m excited to stay in Boulder after graduation and keep cheering on my fellow Buffs as an alum.”

Hannah Stewart graduated from CMDI in 2019 with a degree in communication. She covers student news for the college.

Lauren Lopez is graduating a year early after holding four on-campus jobs and completing an honors thesis, in addition to her academic accolades.

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Apart from the heard

Hannah Stewart — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 22:00:53 +0000

Apart from the heard Hannah Stewart Wed, 04/15/2026 - 16:00

Hannah Stewart

Brook Vann has long been interested in sound as a tool for both data analysis and digital storytelling.

“I have some really fond memories of having story time and having something read aloud,” Vann, a PhD candidate in media production, said. And they’re particularly interested in how the accessibility of sound can help a story better resonate with an audience.

Brook Vann curating an art show at D.D.D.D., in New York. Photo courtesy of Brook Vann.

“If your car is making a strange noise, you don’t have to be a trained musician to think about whether something is wrong with it,” they said. “And sound can help make sense of data that might otherwise be impalpable—it allows for a certain viscerality.”

Visceral is a good word for two research projects Vann has collaborated on—the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting and a eugenics campaign North Carolina embarked on a century ago. They said they are motivated to research heavy topics because they believe it’s important to be curious and talk about difficult things. Creative work, they said, brings stories to the public in a digestible way, and inspires a sense of curiosity in viewers—which is even more powerful when that audience is students.

“I get to teach undergraduates why media is important, and how and why you should engage with it,” Vann said. “I love talking to students about their intentions with the project versus how their peers interpreted it. And that’s where my creative practice comes in because I can share my own experiences working through a project and how I can be certain my audience receives the message I intend.”

It was this passion for teaching that led them to be one of six graduate students who represented the college at last year’s Institute on Teaching and Mentoring Conference, in Atlanta. Vann said it was a great opportunity to not only represent the college, but to also network with scholars from different fields, thus gaining new perspectives.

Their advisor, Betsey Biggs, an assistant professor who’s working with them on the Pulse project, said Vann’s perspectives are a reason for their success.

“They are willing to bring a lot of different fields together, such as sound studies, gender studies, music, art, cultural theory, materiality and so on,” Biggs said.

The Pulse team created a 24/7 web broadcast made up of eight individual audio channels. Alone, the channels are abstract, at times eerie and disjointed. For the full experience, users must listen with other participants, each using their own mobile device, in the same setting.

The inspiration for the project was a graffiti wall at the site of the shooting, where survivors and allies left messages in remembrance of the victims. The wall was recently torn down; in contrast, Vann and the team hope to further develop the memorial, expanding the eight channels to 49—one for each victim of the shooting—and integrating voices into the broadcast stream.

“With the graffiti wall, you could see messages, but then they faded with time and new messages,” Vann said. “By allowing the community to contribute, it won’t have an end point—it will continue to be a space that holds memory and grief.

“Community engagement is something that’s always been important to me and has been a big part of the research and work I’ve done here at CMDI.”

And their research has taken them beyond Boulder. Last summer, Vann was a research fellow for the Digital Justice Lab, at Dartmouth College, where they worked closely with faculty and data scientists on a project called Eugenic States, which tracks forced sterilizations in North Carolina, Iowa and California. There were thousands of historical documents to sort through—many of which were heavily redacted—that had to be rendered into data points.

To make sense of the information, Vann created a booklet as well as an interactive digital platform that shows sterilizations filtered by age, assigned sex and county. Depending on the data’s value, the points vary in size and color, and there’s an ambient sound element Vann created to go with the data visualization.

“I was inspired by the blue ghost fireflies in North Carolina—when you're far away, they tend to have a green hue, but when you're closer, they look blue,” Vann said. “The counties with smaller numbers of sterilizations have a smaller ring with fewer green layers, while the counties with more sterilizations are blue, have more layers and take up more of the screen.”

Vann plans to continue working with the lab after graduating from CMDI in May, helping the Dartmouth team to integrate the interactive platform onto the servers there.

Biggs said their contributions to the college extend far beyond their creative successes.

“They’ve really helped the culture of our department for the graduate students, and so we'll miss them, but we know they're gonna go out and do great things,” she said.

Hannah Stewart graduated from CMDI in 2019 with a degree in communication. She covers student news for the college.

PhD candidate Brook Vann was one of six students to represent CMDI at a national teaching conference last fall. Their research and creative work blends sound with social justice, which makes them a stronger instructor.

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Throwing shade

Joe Arney — Tue, 14 Apr 2026 16:05:36 +0000

Throwing shade Joe Arney Tue, 04/14/2026 - 10:05

Joe Arney

When you’re thinking about urban infrastructure, the first things that come to mind are probably related to transportation, utilities, communications and public services.

Shade is probably not on that list. But if you’re a mile closer to the sun, as Denver is, it should be, according to an expert in environmental health and urban greenness.

“As the climate changes, many cities have increased their focus on studying sun exposure,” said Sara Tabatabaie, an assistant teaching professor of environmental design. “But they’re doing so mainly from a heat mitigation standpoint, and not necessarily for skin cancer prevention.”

Earlier this year, Tabatabaie received a third grant to continue studying how Denver, and other cities, can engage in sun safety planning and shade design to make the outdoors a less hazardous place for your skin. Worldwide, skin cancer is the most common form of cancer; in Colorado, it is a rising problem, per the National Cancer Institute.

Creating novel guidelines

It’s such a novel consideration for designers and public health officials that Tabatabaie’s work really had to start at the beginning. In the early phases of this project—a partnership between the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and the Community Engagement, Design and Research Center—she developed an intensive methodology to assess ultraviolet exposure in different urban environments, or typologies. From there, she proposed design guidelines—customized for different public space typologies—to help neighborhoods hit appropriate sun safety thresholds.

“This work incorporates lived experiences of shade and place into real design guidelines,” she said. To do so effectively, she and student researchers from CEDaR completed extensive surveys—audits, observation, environmental modeling and parametric simulation—to establish design guidelines that could improve UV safety for each typology as the sun moves through the sky during the day.

Sara Tabatabaie’s research looks at sun mitigation from the standpoint of UV protection. Other research has mostly focused on heat prevention. Photo by Nathan Thompson.

Project visualizations illustrate the placement of shade structures related to play areas. This one shows shade at Scott Carpenter Park, in Boulder, in the afternoon.

The current phase of the project is translating her evidence-based findings into actionable strategies that can guide policy and transform neighborhoods for sun safety. Tabatabaie hopes that, through this work, CDPHE can craft stronger urban forestry initiatives, improve streetscape requirements and invest in neighborhoods that lack sun protection.

“In this next phase, I’ll be investigating the institutional and political pathways for shade interventions, so we understand how to integrate these findings into urban policies, regulatory codes and planning frameworks,” she said.

She also plans to perform a cost-benefit analysis of shade.

“We want to be able to share the cost of implementing shade against the health benefits that shade offers to residents,” she said. “We know cost will be an important consideration for helping people understand the value of introducing shade into these typologies.”

Jota Samper

In the first phase of the project, the team—Tabatabaie; Jota Samper, associate professor and co-director of CEDaR; and a team of environmental design students—surveyed six different neighborhoods throughout the city to assess shade and sun risk. The orientation of streets, walkability and sidewalk types were shown to directly affect the sun risk index; the survey also revealed neighborhoods with a higher percentage of children provided limited shade—problematic, as children are more susceptible to sun damage than adults.

“What I found fascinating about Sara is that she took tools that are used in other fields”—like Rhino, a versatile 3D modeling tool, and related applications like Grasshopper and Ladybug—“and applied them to her interest in research,” Samper said. “It was amazing to see how she implemented them not just to measure sun exposure, but to show how different modalities of design could have different impacts, and help us visualize and understand that in a more complex way.”

The work may seem simple on its face, but there are a number of quirks that become apparent the more you look at shade. Cover from trees, for instance, is variable on windy days and mostly disappears in the winter. Meanwhile, surfaces designed to reflect sunlight, and protect from heat, may reflect those UV rays back at people.

“Until now, shade thresholds have not been consistently defined across all typologies, which has made it more difficult to design sun-safe places,” Tabatabaie said.

“Community engagement, and using people’s lived experience, is so important in the design process. Because if people don’t believe in the design, they won’t use it.”

Sara Tabatabaie, assistant teaching professor, environmental design

All this is happening against the backdrop of cities embracing the outdoors and encouraging residents to spend time outside by investing in parks, multiuse trails and micromobility options. But based on average UV levels in Denver, more than 20 minutes of direct sun exposure is not recommended, especially for fair-skinned people.

Balancing more time outdoors with more awareness of sun risk is something Tabatabaie takes seriously in her work.

“Community engagement, and using people’s lived experience, is so important in the design process. Because if people don’t believe in the design, they won’t use it,” she said. “We can’t just design something that looks great. We have to observe how people behave and interact with a design to ensure we’re creating something people want to use.”

Student research impact

That’s a lesson she imparted to the students working alongside her on the project. Gabby Rodriguez, a senior majoring in landscape architecture, studied urban trail systems to help guide recommendations for that typology.

“Looking at the climate we live in today demonstrates that smart landscape architecture projects are more needed than ever—especially at a time when everything is changing so rapidly,” said Rodriguez, who hopes to do more public-oriented projects after graduating this spring. “But the challenging part is definitely putting the scientific processes and methodologies into terms that the general public can understand, so you can convey that importance to people.”

The work is especially important to Rodriguez, who—like many native Coloradans—never turns down an opportunity to be outdoors.

“It’s exciting to see a project like this come to the surface,” she said. “I loved the opportunity to work with Sara, who is one of the most intelligent people I’ve known and is focused on cultivating a good space to bring design solutions for important problems to light.”

Tabatabaie’s gift for encouraging her students to become passionate about these issues speaks to her teaching ability, Samper said.

“The rigor Sara brings to her research really rubs off on her students,” he said. “The students understood the stakes were high, that this was a real client with a serious issue, and that their research was really going to impact policy in Colorado. That elevated the whole output of the students, which was really wonderful.”

Joe Arney covers research and general news for the college.

More cities are studying ways to mitigate heat from intensely sunny days. One expert is more focused on the dangers posed by UV exposure.

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Beyond the game

Joe Arney — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 16:03:06 +0000

Beyond the game Joe Arney Tue, 04/07/2026 - 10:03

Iris Serrano

Lincoln Roch reviews his notes by the Ralphie statue outside Folsom Field. Despite being a rookie on the sports beat, he captured a prestigious Hearst award for a feature story on fan behavior after the Buffs hosted Brigham Young University in the fall. Photo by Hannah Howell.

A year and a half ago, Lincoln Roch walked into a Sko Buffs Sports meeting not knowing what a third down was. The story of how he got from there to winning one of the most prestigious awards for collegiate sports writing is a bigger story than any game he has covered.

In the fall, the University of Colorado Boulder was fined $50,000 by the Big 12 Conference after hateful and discriminatory language targeting The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was chanted from the stands during a football game against Brigham Young University.

Lincoln Roch, a senior studying journalism at the College of Communication, Media, Design and Information, was sitting in the student section at Folsom Field during the game, and could hear fans shouting derogatory chants. When the fine was announced, he wrote about it before moving on to other news.

It wasn’t until later that week that Jake Shapiro (Jour’18), his sports practicum professor and advisor of Sko Buffs Sports, encouraged the class to dig deeper and find a new angle about the human impact. Roch searched BuffConnect and found Institute, a campus organization affiliated with the church.

The group was meeting that night, so he rushed to his apartment to change out of a football jersey and shorts and headed to Wolf Law, hoping someone would talk. When one of the organization’s leaders asked who had been to the game, Lucy Reese raised her hand, and agreed to speak with Roch afterward.

“That’s where I realized this was way worse than I had thought,” Roch said.

This was the first of many conversations that reframed the story: Less than a week after the fine was announced, Roch published “Slurs and Harassment at BYU Game Alienate Mormon CU Students,” featuring firsthand accounts from sources who felt alienated or threatened by the behavior during the game. The article won first place in the sports writing competition of the 2025-26 Hearst Journalism Awards Program.

He credited Shapiro and Harrison Simeon, president and editor-in-chief of Sko Buffs Sports, for pushing him to find a story with deeper meaning and helping him perfect the piece.

A willingness to learn

“Lincoln joined the club with no sports background whatsoever—he didn’t know what a third down was a year and a half ago,” said Simeon, also a senior in journalism. “But what he did was learn. He's our best journalist, in terms of willingness to learn.”

The article is the most-viewed story on Sko Buffs Sports, with more than 8,000 views. The story was also shared on X by the assistant athletic director at BYU and the governor of Utah.

“I’m incredibly proud of the impact it had. It kind of restored my faith to see a lot of dialog between BYU and CU fans in the comments on social media,” Roch said.

Roch received a $3,000 scholarship for the article and qualifies for the National Writing Championship, in San Francisco, in June, when he has the chance to be one of the top three intercollegiate winners.

For Vicky Sama, associate teaching professor and director of student media at CMDI, this recognition comes as no surprise.

“The Hearst awards are prestigious acknowledgements of student journalism nationwide, so it’s very competitive,” said Sama, whose journalism career included a producer role at CNN and extensive freelance work. “Lincoln shows a lot of promise. He’s going to make the university proud when he graduates.”

Iris Serrano is studying strategic communication and journalism at CMDI. She covers student news and events for the college.

Lincoln Roch took home a first-place award in the Hearst Sports Writing Competition with a powerful story that highlighted the impacts of discriminatory chants at a CU football game.

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‘Good evening, I’m an A.I., and this is your nightly news’

Joe Arney — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 13:40:58 +0000

‘Good evening, I’m an A.I., and this is your nightly news’ Joe Arney Tue, 03/31/2026 - 07:40

Joe Arney

Most Americans haven’t yet encountered A.I.-generated news anchors, but the popularity of the technology abroad—and the potential cost savings—mean that’s likely to change, says PhD student Muhammad Ali. Here, he showcases his work at the university’s Three-Minute Thesis competition. Photo by Glenn Asakawa.

The rigors of pursuing a doctoral degree leave even the most dedicated students occasionally questioning what brought them on this difficult path.

For Muhammad Ali, a PhD student in journalism, motivation is never far from the surface. His father, Malik Sajid Diyal, was killed in 1990 after being the driving force for establishing the first girls’ schools in his conservative Pakistani hometown.

“My father was a government contractor, he was a social worker—but more than that, he was a person who believed education can transform society,” Ali said. It’s a reason he left a career in public relations behind, seeing education as “not just a way to give information, but a powerful tool for resistance, hope and transformation.”

“This degree is not just a piece of paper for me. It is a legacy I have to carry forward, and a change I can make to society.”

As he prepares to graduate this May, Ali’s research work, which explores how news stations are using generative artificial intelligence—especially in on-air broadcasting—is shedding light on an area with enormous implications for how the news is delivered in the future.

‘A completely A.I. newsroom’

His interest was piqued when he was watching Channel 1, out of Los Angeles, and realized something was a little off about the telecast.

“It’s a completely A.I. newsroom, where they are producing, disseminating and gathering news content through A.I.,” Ali said. “You could see it if you looked closely at the anchors’ mouths, and some of their gestures.”

‘A.I. videos are generating views on social media, they’re making money on social media—and the business managers will be paying close attention to that,’ Muhammad Ali says. Photo by Glenn Asakawa.

Muhammad Ali, right, accepts a best paper award at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication’s annual conference. Photo courtesy Muhammad Ali.

It’s the sort of thing Ali had never seen in American journalism before, but A.I. anchors have been in use throughout Asia and the Middle East, including his native Pakistan, for years, and they’re quickly getting better at mimicking human speaking behaviors.

“What’s really unknown, especially in the US, is how audiences will react to these changes, and whether they will accept A.I. news presenters,” he said. “It’s one thing for a movie or cartoon, another when it’s the nightly news.”

Even if you have been following the rise of A.I. journalists and anchors, you may not be aware that stations have required anchors to sign deals giving the company the rights to their faces, to build digital versions that are available day and night, don’t require holidays, health insurance or sick time, and don’t have long commutes.

You probably have an idea of where this is going, but Ali said A.I. will create new kinds of jobs in journalism without replacing editorial judgment or human curiosity. Stations in Pakistan, for instance, have started employing “prompt managers” who use A.I. to create and refine content for the digital anchors to read.

“The influence of technology companies on the news is much more than what we ever expected.”

Muhammad Ali, journalism

Even if job displacement is minimal, there are many ethical considerations to moves like this—and given the speed at which A.I. is rolling out in news and elsewhere, research like Ali’s is critical to slowing down and challenging us to ask the right questions about how this technology could change our relationship with the news.

“If something goes wrong, who will be responsible?” he said. “The organization is requiring the journalist to give his face, but that face doesn’t come with his integrity and objectivity and beliefs. There is real potential for misuse.”

In fact, he’s finding examples of that already, including authoritarian regimes and terrorist groups that are using A.I. anchors to disseminate misinformation and propaganda in ways that look convincing.

A matter of perspective

Ali’s advisor, Patrick Ferrucci, said the work is important because there is little scholarship on this topic in western Europe or the United States, where free presses have historically helped journalists push back against these kinds of innovations. And his background—not only growing up in a place where A.I. anchors are more common, but bringing years of leadership and industry experience in public relations—make his perspectives especially valuable, in class and as a researcher.

Patrick Ferrucci

“Journalism here historically fights new technology well past losing that fight,” said Ferrucci, a professor and chair of the journalism department. “Because of the economics of the news, you can absolutely see A.I. anchors coming to journalism.

“But I see some of the things A.I. can do and I think, ‘That would have helped me when I was a journalist,’” he added. “Understanding how to use these technologies without making yourself irrelevant is something we talk to our students about, and Ali’s research is really important, especially as the topic is so understudied outside of Asia.”

The interdisciplinary nature of a CMDI education—where students are encouraged to explore the intersections of different industries and schools of thought, to better uncover innovation—helped Ali bring a tech-oriented perspective to the craft, and business, of journalism.

“The influence of technology companies on the news is much more than what we ever expected, and means we have to answer for new kinds of biases or hallucinations in the data that aren’t being fact checked,” he said. “And like we’ve heard about in other industries, editorial decisions are being impacted by these technologies, as well.”

He’s already started to make his mark in academic circles, including earning a best student paper award at the conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, and the Kappa Tau Alpha Award for top student paper.

Motivated by his father’s memory, Ali is committed to using his PhD—which he expects to complete in May—to teach future generations of students to work with these technologies and become smart consumers of news who are aware of A.I.’s inroads into the nightly news.

Especially because, as he’s found, younger viewers are more accepting of their headlines coming from a machine.

“The younger generation wants to experience new things, see new things, and they’re used to using their technology and social media to do it,” he said. “These A.I. videos are generating views on social media, they’re making money on social media—and the business managers will be paying close attention to that.”

Joe Arney covers research and general news for the college.

More stations are experimenting with A.I. anchors, and a PhD student says the trend has finally reached the United States.

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Documenting deportation as it comes to hospitals

Ellie Chase — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 16:15:49 +0000

Documenting deportation as it comes to hospitals Ellie Chase Thu, 03/26/2026 - 10:15

Hannah Stewart

Photos by Kimberly Coffin (CritMedia, StComm’18) and Jessi Sachs

Months before Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were going through Minnesota neighborhoods, Jessi Sachs was going through Reddit threads searching for a niche angle to investigate immigration under Donald Trump.

That was when she first learned about medical deportations.

Sometimes called medical repatriation, medical deportation is when hospitals and medical transport companies attempt to—or successfully—return an uninsured, noncitizen patient to their country of origin.

“Not only did we tell a story that was really impactful for Junior, but we spoke truth to power in the niche intersection of healthcare and immigration.”

Ann Marie Vanderveen (Jour'25)

“I found the post and thought how crazy it was,” Sachs, a senior majoring in journalism, said. “I didn't even know that people could be deported out of the hospital without the involvement of ICE in any way.”

Last year, Sachs and Ann Marie Vanderveen (Jour’25) participated in the prestigious Carnegie-Knight News21 Fellowship hosted by Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Their story about medical deportations was picked up by multiple outlets, including The Associated Press.

“It felt really impactful that it was picked up by so many media organizations once it went out on the AP wire,” Sachs said. “I wanted to write about something people weren’t super knowledgeable about and bring awareness to a unique facet of the immigration conversation.”

First launched in 2005, News21 is a two-semester intensive experience where student journalists investigate a topic such as hate groups, juvenile justice, gun rights and, last year, immigration under the Trump administration. In the spring, students attend weekly workshops and classes to develop knowledge around the theme before embarking on a 10-week reporting fellowship based in Phoenix that culminates in a published story.

Jessi Sachs, left, and Ann Marie Vanderveen, right. Photo taken by Kimberly Coffin and provided by Ann Marie.

Vanderveen wanted to be a journalist since she dressed up as a reporter for an elementary school career day, and she quickly found her people by joining the CU Independent in her first year, which is where she met Sachs.

The News21 piece wasn’t the first time the reporting duo worked together—at the CUI, they collaborated with another writer on a story about a sexual assault investigation involving a Ralphie handler. But covering medical deportations was definitely the most challenging piece either had written while still in college.

“It took a long time to find people to talk to us,” Vanderveen said, as they looked for sources on social media and GoFundMe. “Our breakthrough came when we found an activist coalition in Philadelphia, but it took time to build trust with them. Eventually, they connected us with other people.”

Legally, only the federal government can remove an individual from the United States, and Medicare-participating hospitals are required to treat people—including uninsured noncitizens—with emergency conditions. But federal cuts mean there’s less money to reimburse hospitals for costs associated with those treatments—and through their reporting, the pair learned some hospitals have been attempting to repatriate patients without searching for other pathways for medical coverage.

Vanderveen and Sachs spent one week in Philadelphia, eventually building their story around Junior Clase and his wife, who was being threatened with medical deportation. While in the field, they also spoke with attorneys and activists. By the time they returned to Phoenix they had copious notes and interviews, but between the training from News21 mentors and their own experiences reporting in Boulder, they felt prepared to take on such a delicate story.

“To be able to tell someone's story who doesn't normally get to speak in the media is exactly what I want to do with my life,” Vanderveen said.

According to student journalist Ann Marie Vanderveen, it took time to develop trust with sources, but their hard work paid off. She and her peer Jessi Sachs traveled to Philadelphia, where the duo spent time with Junior Clase and his wife, who was being threatened with a medical deportation. Photo by Jessie Sachs.

Within two weeks of publication by News21, it was picked up by The Philadelphia Inquirer, AP and others.

“When we saw our names published in the AP, Jessi and I dropped everything and went to get Champagne, because we were so overjoyed,” Vanderveen said. “It was definitely the hardest summer of my life, but it was also the best. Not only did we tell a story that was really impactful for Junior, but we spoke truth to power in the niche intersection of healthcare and immigration. It also gave me a lot of confidence for the future.”

Jessi Sachs in the field. Photo provided by Sachs.

Professor Patrick Ferrucci, chair of the journalism department, said he was impressed when he read the piece.

“Our students in News21 always do really good work, but this particular year—with the timeliness of the story and the story itself—they did an amazing job,” he said. “When you have students like Jessi and Ann Marie who are super involved in student media—really caring about journalism beyond what they're doing in a classroom—it sets a culture for the department.”

Vanderveen, now a reporter for The Journal, in Cortez, said News21 developed her technical skills, but her experiences with the CUI and networking opportunities with CMDI deepened her love for the craft.

Sachs, who will graduate in May, agreed.

“I felt very prepared going into News21 because of my classes, and especially the CUI,” Sachs said. “I walked away from the experience not only with an impactful story I was proud of, but also as a more mature writer."

“Wherever I end up, I have what it takes to find sources, be creative and get the story done.”

Hannah Stewart graduated from CMDI in 2019 with a degree in communication. She covers student news for the college.

Photographer Kimberly Coffin graduated from CMDI in 2018 with degrees in media production and strategic communication.

Two students collaborated on an investigative journalism project that was ultimately picked up by The Associated Press.

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Junior Clase spends all his free time caring for his wife, who is being threatened with medical deportation. Student journalists Jessi Sachs and Ann Marie Vanderveen traveled to Philadelphia to hear their story. Photo by Jessi Sachs

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An education in empathy

Joe Arney — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 07:00:00 +0000

An education in empathy Joe Arney Tue, 03/24/2026 - 01:00

Joe Arney

Ross Taylor, left, runs an on-camera interview as part of his latest documentary project, A Refuge of Scouting. The film, which has been screened around the country and will be on PBS in the fall, draws on the strong sense of empathy Taylor, an associate professor of journalism, brings to his work and his classes. Photo by Pat Clark.

By his own admission, Ross Taylor was not a very successful Boy Scout, having never advanced beyond second class.

“I went on one camping trip, and it rained a lot and I didn’t like that the weather was bad,” said Taylor, now an associate professor of journalism at 91��ý’s College of Communication, Media, Design and Information. “So, I went home and complained to my parents and asked if I could stop.”

His own time with the Scouts may have been short lived, but he’s returned to the organization—not to tie knots or pitch a tent, but to tell the story of an all-refugee troop in Aurora.

“This film is about reframing how we see American identity through a traditional lens,” Taylor said. “Scouting brings with it a lot of traditional norms and preconceived ideas of identity in America. And this troop works within a lot of that framework, but helps expand our understanding of what it means to be an American.”

A Refuge of Scouting was accepted to, among others, the Maryland International Film Festival, which takes place this month, and, like Taylor’s other documentary work, will be shared via Public Broadcasting Service beginning in the fall.

The film, which Taylor co-directed with fellow CMDI professor Pat Clark, is a continuation of work he did with P.J. Parmar, a medical doctor who owns and operates Mango House, a shared space for refugees in the western United States. The property is run for, and by, refugees, and was the subject of Taylor’s 2021 documentary, Mango House.

“Parmar was a Boy Scout himself, and he often said scouting was a safe space from facing racism, and he wanted that experience for refugees,” Taylor said.

Building trust within refugee communities

“To engage in these spaces requires me to be a better person, a more empathetic person.”

Ross Taylor, assistant professor, journalism

Doing this kind of work, and immersing yourself in a community of refugees—especially children who have fled significant trauma—requires a special kind of personality. It’s an approach to work—and life—that Taylor brings to his projects and his classes from his nearly 20-year career as a photojournalist.

“Building trust within the populations I work with requires a high level of empathy—I’m working in spheres that involve traumatic events, or the aftereffects of trauma,” Taylor said. “To engage in these spaces requires me to be a better person, a more empathetic person.”

It’s a lesson he learned the hard way. As a photographer, Taylor was once scolded by a mother for taking a photo of a crying boy after striking out during a youth baseball game. He credits that experience with teaching him to bring a more empathetic perspective to what he’s capturing.

And in class, that means showing students they can be empathetic, but also confident in using their voices to tell important stories. It shows up even in the simplest acts, like opening classes by asking students to share something good in their lives.

“It really warms up a classroom environment, and it sets an example of how I conduct myself in the work that I do,” Taylor said. “I want them to see empathy in action and think about what it means for them when they become professionals and leaders.”

91��ý Chancellor Justin Schwartz, right, recognized Ross Taylor with an End Zone Innovators Award at a Buffs home game in the fall. Photo by Vivenne Malone.

Ross Taylor credits his sense of empathy with helping him build trust among the people whose stories he tells in his work, including his most recent documentary about a Boy Scout troop made up of refugees.

In A Refuge of Scouting, Taylor shows how the values of scouting look through the eyes of young refugees from around the world. Early work on the film began before Donald Trump returned to the White House, but it’s hard not to see this project as a rebuke of the othering that the federal government has engaged in, from Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids, to sealed borders, to deportations and mass incarceration.

“We are all much more alike than we are different,” Taylor said. “When you spend time with a young kid who’s a refugee from another country, you begin to quickly realize, they’re a kid just like any other kid you would know.

“Working within the refugee community has given me a lot more respect, care and admiration for the people I’ve met and the contributions they make to our culture. My hope for this film is to help more people have the same experience I’ve had, so that we have more compassion for each other.”

Clark, an award-winning filmmaker and assistant professor of critical media practices, joined the college at the same time as Taylor, and they’ve taught and collaborated before—but said seeing up close the sense of empathy and connection his colleague brings to his projects was inspiring.

A model for authenticity

“Ross, the journalist, is able to unpack all these threads and find the people who help tell the story,” Clark said. “But it’s his personality that makes him so good at what he does. I talk about it in my classes a lot—the more you spend time with the folks you’re working with on the film, the more authentic they will be on camera. And that’s who Ross is. He gets people comfortable, he brings them in close and he makes everybody feel good about him being there. That’s how you really tell the story.”

For his part, Taylor said he appreciated Clark’s immense technical knowledge. It’s part of what makes CMDI special—the encouragement of authentic collaboration between separate, but related, disciplines to create meaningful impact.

“We are stronger as a unit than as individuals, because some projects require a substantial amount of expertise that crosses departments,” Taylor said. “This is definitely an example of that.”

Taylor is already thinking about his next documentary project, though his immediate plans are more centered on photography projects. He remains in awe of the medium’s power to make the world a better place; A Refuge of Scouting is his third documentary.

“Documentary—and, by extension, journalism—is a wonderful way to see a shared experience,” he said. “And it can help break down the preconceived notions we have about each other, and help us care for one another as we navigate the very real and challenging daily life we all experience.”

Ross Taylor and Pat Clark are no stranger to classroom collaboration, but A Refuge of Scouting is their first documentary together. Here, Taylor, left, and Clark are kneeling in the front row, off to the right, with the scouts in a theater.

Joe Arney covers research and general news for the college.

A hard lesson from his days as a journalist has helped a CMDI professor tell moving stories through documentary.

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Seeking a sports media career? Don’t sit on the sidelines

Joe Arney — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 11:00:00 +0000

Seeking a sports media career? Don’t sit on the sidelines Joe Arney Mon, 03/23/2026 - 05:00

Iris Serrano

Alumni Michael Davies, a Fox Sports senior vice president, left, and X Games CEO Jeremy Bloom during a fireside chat at the CMDI Sports Media Summit. More than 200 students attended this year’s event. Photo by Hannah Howell.

Success, in sports, comes down to the athlete willing to go the extra mile and push the limits of endurance to accomplish what seems impossible.

Success in sports media often amounts to the same thing.

That was the lesson Izabelle Stewart-Adams took away from this month’s Sports Media Summit, hosted by the College of Communication, Media, Design and Information at 91��ý.

“A dream job for me would be working anywhere in the sports events world—whether that's X Games, Olympics, World Cups,” Stewart-Adams said. “The biggest piece of advice that I've been given today is to show how hungry you are to stand out.”

“Find your tenacity, and show whoever you’re interviewing with, ‘I am here to work. I’m here to prove myself.’”

Jeremy Bloom (A&S ex’06), CEO, X Games

The senior journalism major was one of more than 200 students to attend the two-day event, which was supported by alumni Neal Scarbrough (Jour’84) and Michael Davies (Jour’94). As co-chairs, both brought alumni and industry professionals with distinguished careers in journalism, marketing, production, technology and more to the event.

The highlight of the summit was a fireside chat between Davies, a senior vice president with Fox Sports, and X Games CEO Jeremy Bloom (A&S ex’06), who played football for the Buffs and in the NFL, and was a three-time world champion skier.

Bloom talked about the drive and dedication it takes to make it in such a competitive field—but also the rewards and enjoyment he draws from his work.

“I want to find people who have passion and love for the product that is at our company, and somebody who's got that look in their eye that they're on a mission and they're going to do whatever it takes to help us become more successful,” he said. “Find your tenacity, and show whoever you’re interviewing with, ‘I am here to work. I’m here to prove myself.’”

‘When you are sitting down and that camera’s in front of your face, then you know it’s all worth it,’ Justin Adams (Jour’09), a reporter and sports anchor for CBS Denver, said at the event. Fellow panelist Cassidy Davis (StComm’23) listens in. Photo by Kimberly Coffin.

A full Touchdown Club at Folsom Field listens to a panel discussion on how media rights and streaming technologies are forcing journalists and others to reimagine fan engagement and attention. Photo by Hannah Howell.

Panel and networking sessions featured a mix of professionals in terms of their industries and experience levels—from reporters who cover games from the broadcast booth to Scarbrough, a vice president and general manager at Marketplace who’s worked in sports for ESPN and The Denver Post. During the main program day, discussions explored sports consumption, audience engagement and the growing impact of generative artificial intelligence and how it is changing the field, especially within marketing and fan engagement.

Students also took advantage of a new addition to this year’s program—an hourlong networking lunch where they were encouraged to ask questions and build meaningful connections to the invited panelists.

Passion, but pressure

Cassidy Davis (StComm’23) remembers attending the summit right after she graduated to get some motivation and perspective from speakers. Now, as a corporate partnerships coordinator for the Seattle Seahawks, she paid it forward by attending as a panelist and sharing her own experiences with students: An hour after the event ended, she was still fielding questions from attendees.

“These students are so interested in the sports industry, and they know that's where they want to be,” she said. “As alumni, we were in their exact shoes, so we can provide inspiration and hopefully answer some of those questions that they're hungry to learn more about.”

Davis said while students are passionate about the industry as a career, they’re also feeling pressure.

“Students are more concerned with how they stand out against all of these competitors they're going up against,” Davis said. “I've been telling them to find places where you can prove that you can provide value to a team, where you can add a new perspective.”

Joining Davis on a panel about early-career professionals was Carey Kronhart, a junior majoring in media production with a minor in sports media. The aspiring operations manager’s biggest piece of advice to fellow students was to “network, network, network.”

Event co-chair Neal Scarbrough (Jour’84), left, talks with a student during a break in the action at the Sports Media Summit. Prior to his work with Marketplace, Scarbrough had a distinguished sports career, including work at The Denver Post and ESPN. Photo by Kimberly Coffin.

Last year at the summit, he bonded with Michael Davies over a shared love of motorsports—a connection that led to freelance work as a production assistant for Fox Sports.

“He offered to let me go to a few races with a NASCAR crew,” Kronhart said. “I started on as a production assistant and runner, learning the ins and outs—it was really like drinking from the fire hose. But my boss took a shine to me, asked me what I was doing for the next three races. One thing just led to another, and it’s all from having that first conversation with Mike.”

Justin Adams (Jour’09), a reporter and sports anchor for CBS Denver, also shared how network connections gave him a head start in his journalism career. Early in his career, he sent a cold message to Rick George, now emeritus director for CU Athletics, asking for help in making connections that could help him call Pac-12 games.

George introduced him to the conference president, which led him to the broadcast booth almost immediately.

“Take that initiative, shake that hand, have that conversation, get that contact and make sure that your face is shown. That’s doing the hard work,” Adams said. “And when you are sitting down and that camera's in front of your face, then you know it's all worth it.”

Iris Serrano is studying strategic communication and journalism at CMDI. She covers student news and events for the college.

More than 200 students attended this year’s CMDI Sports Media Summit, learning from industry professionals how to break into journalism, media production, technology and more.

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Prompt response

Joe Arney — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 15:24:09 +0000

Prompt response Joe Arney Tue, 03/10/2026 - 09:24

Joe Arney

Pooja Iyer laughed when she saw the Anthropic Super Bowl ad about a skinny guy looking for tips to get stronger. When he asks his trainer—a chatbot—for help getting swole, he also gets sold an ad for shoe inserts.

Courtesy Anthropic

“Ads are coming to A.I.” the onscreen overlay reads. “But not to Claude.”

“I was one of the early adopters to ChatGPT, because I like to experiment with new technology,” said Iyer, an assistant professor of advertising at the College of Communication, Media, Design and Information. “And I remember immediately thinking this was search on steroids—so, personalized ads on steroids.”

Iyer said advertising on generative artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT was “inevitable,” especially if you consider how services like Google and Facebook monetized personal data to enable targeted advertising as core components of their products. And a chatbot that claims it will never rely on advertising should probably encourage its marketing and accounting departments to talk.

“There’s the cost of building and training a large language model, building data centers, hiring advertising and software teams—all that money has to come from somewhere,” she said. “Subscriptions, which are already higher than most streaming services, only get you so far. Newspapers ran because they were supported by advertising. If it was just subscriber money, newspapers would be long dead.”

Practical and academic expertise

Iyer studies advertising from the standpoint of data and technology, especially the consequences to consumers, who must surrender their data and privacy to use popular platforms. Her perspective is rooted in the pragmatic, as Iyer worked as an associate media director before earning her PhD in advertising from the University of Texas at Austin.

Pooja Iyer

A major problem she’s trying to solve is a lack of clarity on what data consumers are comfortable sharing with advertisers. It’s important to get that right, because while consumers generally are supportive of targeted digital advertising—studies consistently find about three in four consumers prefer ads tailored to their interests—there are plenty of cases where companies went too far. For instance, the pro-life Veritas Society used cellphone location data to serve anti-abortion ads to women who visited Planned Parenthood clinics.

“We are really lacking in research in that area of what people want, or will tolerate,” Iyer said. “We have asked questions to help understand how much and to what extent people are willing to share, but a lot depends on who you are. If I am in a vulnerable part of the country, or an immigrant, or of a certain gender or race, my level of comfort sharing data is very different than how you may share your data.”

Those consequences, right now, are not part of the digital advertising playbook. The entry of A.I. into this space—OpenAI has already started serving ads to ChatGPT users—adds urgency to bring a more ethical approach to how companies serve up ads in the future.

Privacy in class

And it’s even more interesting in the context of Iyer’s classes, which often visit topics around digital advertising, ethical data use and A.I.

“I’ll say something like, ‘I can target the people in this room, if I want to,’ and while plenty of them are taken aback, a lot just shrug,” Iyer said. “Privacy is only a concern if you know that you had privacy once. But if you were born in a world where that didn’t exist, you may not care.”

Part of what concerns her about ChatGPT and advertising is how quickly the platform has been adopted. From its public launch in November 2022, it has grown to 900 million active weekly users. No other technology has been adopted so quickly, or broadly, so there’s some uncertainty as to what advertising on the platform will look like.

“How do we build this balance of being ethical and mindful about using consumer data? That’s the question the industry needs to answer.”

Pooja Iyer, assistant professor, APRD

“I think Chat will take all your data, synthesize it and show you ads that may not be related to your query,” Iyer said. “You might ask it to help you become fit, and instead of a sneaker ad, you get something based on other life issues or queries you’ve put in.

“Chat says you’ll get mindful, context-aware ads, but I don’t know what that means. If I’m using Chat as my therapist, will I see ads aimed at uplifting me in some way? Or will it tell me to go shopping, and try retail therapy?”

It’s too early to share findings on her research, but Iyer hopes her work helps companies advertise in ways that are informative without being intrusive.

“Like A.I., advertising is here to stay. And I don’t think that’s a bad thing,” she said. “But how do we build this balance of being ethical and mindful about using consumer data? That’s the question the industry needs to answer.”

Joe Arney covers research and general news for the college.

How will advertisers operate on ChatGPT and other A.I. platforms? A CMDI expert is exploring the limits of data use in targeting customers.

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If you generate it…

Joe Arney — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 15:15:01 +0000

If you generate it… Joe Arney Mon, 03/09/2026 - 09:15

Joe Arney

Photos by Patrick Campbell, Kimberly Coffin (CritMedia, StComm’18), Nathan Thompson (Jour’24)

When Averie Dow tells the parents of prospective 91��ý students that she’s studying information science, one of the first questions she typically gets is around generative artificial intelligence.

“How A.I. is used in the classroom is their biggest concern, because they don’t want to send their kids here to just have them use A.I. for everything,” said Dow, a senior and university tour guide. “They tend to be grateful when I tell them our faculty acknowledge A.I., and that they have policies around when and how to use it. Because you can’t let it do your work for you, but you also can’t pretend it doesn’t exist, or you’ll graduate into a workplace where you’re the only one who can’t use it.”

“The way we learn about (A.I.) helps makes it a smaller problem. I’m seeing the advantages that comes from using it responsibly and ethically.”

Averie Dow

Finding that balance has been especially important to a discipline like information science, which incorporates ideas from computer science, social science and the humanities to reimagine how technology can unlock possibilities and better work for people.

A.I. is nothing new to faculty in the information science department of the College of Communication, Media, Design and Information, but the proliferation of tools like ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude—and the scramble by businesses to search for cost-saving innovations—have meant constant curricular course corrections to keep pace with shifts in the market: In February, the University of Colorado system announced a $2 million licensing deal with OpenAI to bring ChatGPT to all students, staff and faculty.

But rather than focusing on particular tools, CMDI faculty teach students to think critically about the problem they’re trying to solve, as well as the benefits and limitations of the tools at their disposal.

Robin Burke

“Not every problem needs the biggest hammer,” said Robin Burke, a professor who studies recommender systems and teaches an undergraduate course on applied machine learning.

In that course, “we do talk about deep learning technologies, but we spend a lot of time on other machine learning techniques, because it’s important to know that range of possibilities,” he said. “You only get that if you understand what’s going on under the hood.”

Students who are technically oriented said they appreciate the real-world use cases where they can see what using A.I. looks like at work. Kaeden Stander is pursuing a master’s in information science to go with the bachelor’s degree he’s on track to earn in December. Thinking about how to use A.I. tools in the college’s Digital Legacy Clinic has helped him with his entrepreneurial aspirations; he’s the founder of PublishPoint, a content generation platform for WordPress sites.

‘A.I. is in every aspect of the workplace now’

“You input your information and the A.I. learns from your brand,” Stander said. “Then it’s able to make recommendations, generate blogs, social media captions, podcasts and even help create detailed data visualizations.”

His real-world experience using A.I. has helped him appreciate how to use it in class. In courses he takes for his philosophy minor, Stander said, no A.I. use is permitted, “so I don’t use it, but it’s not realistic—A.I. is in every aspect of the workplace now.”

“Why gatekeep something and put people behind when they should be ahead coming out of college? It’s something the information science program does well.”

Professor Jed Brubaker, center, of the Digital Legacy Clinic, which challenges students to help members of the community make plans for their digital estates. Photo by Patrick Campbell.

Burke’s research on recommender systems aims to enhance the fairness of algorithms by removing the biases that systems may inherit, whether from engineers’ design decisions or from the data used to train them. Right now, he’s interested in how to give users more control over what content or products the algorithm serves up.

You might expect him to be an A.I. evangelist, but Burke is more measured about the likely impact these tools will have.

“The hype is absurd,” he said. “I want students to focus on the proven capabilities of these technologies, as opposed to the claims people make about them.”

In fact, the critical perspective information science faculty bring to A.I. is one of the reasons students appreciate the degree. Dow, a self-described theater kid and art lover, said she came to college “as an A.I. hater, almost”; when she was given an assignment to use ChatGPT as part of an assignment, she was the only person in her class who hadn’t used it before.

“A.I. honestly scares me a little bit, when you think about it as this huge behemoth,” Dow said. “But the way we learn about it—here’s this tool, here’s what it can do, what do we think is wrong with it, what does it do poorly—helps make it a smaller problem. I’m seeing the advantages that come from using it responsibly and ethically.”

The ethical challenges A.I. poses are an important dimension for faculty, as well. That’s especially true at a college like CMDI, which prepares professionals for success in journalism, advertising, design and other creative fields. Because large language models have been trained on reams of copyrighted creative work, there is understandable hesitancy to adopt these tools.

Casey Fiesler

It’s why Casey Fiesler, the William R. Payden endowed professor in information science, leaves room for the “conscientious objectors” in her teaching; her public scholarship—which includes TikTok videos and standup comedy, as well as traditional thought leadership—is deeply concerned with the ethical dimensions of these tools.

She’s piloting a course this spring, A.I. and Society, that challenges students to examine broader societal implications around jobs, creativity, education and environmental impact as they relate to A.I.

“I don’t want students to not take this class because they have an ethical objection to using A.I.,” Fiesler said. “I wanted to create space for students who are really excited about A.I., and should think critically about it, and for those who need to learn how it works even if they’re critical of it.”

A counter to moving fast, breaking things

Chris Carruth approaches such challenges and perspectives from his artwork, which he calls “a slow, contemplative resistance” where he uses technology to “interrupt, interrogate and agitate conventional, normalized systems.”

That work, he said, is intended to run counter to the tech industry’s mantra of moving fast and breaking things.

“I get where Mark Zuckerberg was coming from when he said that, but that attitude incurs an ethical debt, which is what we’re trying to avoid,” said Carruth, an assistant teaching professor.

Rather than lecture at his students, Carruth challenges them to learn about topics like automation, policing and surveillance, and digital labor, and bring researched ideas to class for open discussion and debate. In doing so, he hopes to cultivate a sense of empathy among his charges.

“Ethics in computer science and computer science education should not be a feature. It should be the foundation.”

Chris Carruth, assistant teaching professor, information science

“I’m not saying we need to hit some big red stop button—and you’d probably get fired if you’re at work and pushing not to use A.I. at all,” he said. “To understand how this might actually work in your career, you need to bring a voice not of dissent, but of empathy, of nuance. So, be able to say, let’s not stop, but let’s pause, let’s think about impact before we roll these things out.

“Ethics in computer science and computer science education should not be a feature,” he said. “It should be the foundation.”

For Bryan Semaan, associate professor and chair of the information science department, the need for ethics in this space is expressed through the critical perspectives he studies in his research, which focuses on the interplay of race, media and technology. The Center for Race, Media and Technology that he manages has welcomed speakers like Ruha Benjamin, of Princeton University, and Timnit Gebru, formerly of Google, to encourage more critical thinking around the development of large language models and A.I.

Bringing their own identity, thinking

Bryan Semaan

In his class on race and technology, Semaan asks his students to write an essay reflecting on the benefits and harms of particular technologies. But before they start writing, they feed that prompt into ChatGPT.

“It’s a chance to think critically about what the A.I. returns to them,” he said. “What it’s written tends to not reflect the experiences my students have had. So, it becomes a way for them to see that it’s just giving them something, but they need to make sure their identity and thinking are infused in it.”

Something that makes information science at CMDI unique, he said, is that instead of rolling out countless new courses—which could quickly become dated by the speed of change in A.I.—the department has sought to integrate these tools into each course it offers.

“You won’t see A.I. in every course name, but we bring A.I. to every conversation we’re having, whether that’s data visualization, user-centered design or machine learning,” Semaan said.

As the technology becomes more integrated into students’ lives, those conversations are going deeper and deeper into their coursework.

“When I taught information ethics and policy at the graduate level, we started with a week on A.I. Then it was two weeks on A.I.,” she said. “Now, there’s no weeks on A.I., because it’s everywhere in that class and every other one. In almost everything we teach, A.I. is relevant to the topic.”

Joe Arney covers research and general news for the college.

By integrating generative A.I. into each course, the information science department is attracting students who want to be challenged to use A.I. effectively—and ethically.

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