Unfixed: How AI Is Reshaping the University

In this episode, Nik and Zach unpack how Trump’s alignment with AI labs, deregulation, and political culture wars collide with higher education. With weak federal guidance, states—and universities—are left to chart their own AI futures. Zach Justus and Nik Janos, Inside Higher Ed, AI Has Gone MAGA  Mohar Chatterjee, Politico, AI is Opening a MAGA-Trump Split   Thoughts and suggestions? E...

California State University leaders Emily Magruder and Leslie Kennedy join Unfixed to discuss how the CSU–OpenAI partnership is reshaping conversations about teaching, technology, and faculty work. They share lessons from system-level innovation, union tensions, and the future of AI in higher education. Emily Magruder Leslie Kennedy Nik Janos, Melts into Air,  Thoughts on the first AI-powered...

Alchemy Learning’s Brett Christie joins us to unpack real gaps on campus—tools, culture, and strategy—and how partners can help. We discuss “build vs. buy” to faculty buy-in and smart governance and explore how Universal Design for Learning is as important as ever in the AI age.  Alchemy Learning Website Alchemy Webinar Series    Zach Justus on Melts into Air, “ AI Is Making Edtech...

In this episode of Unfixed, Nik and Zach explore the rise of AI agents—autonomous, goal-driven systems that can research, plan, and even collaborate with learners. From inbox triage and coding prototypes to the not-yet-ready world of full computer control, they unpack where agents are already useful on campus and where hype outpaces reality. The conversation turns to higher ed implications: assess...

In this episode of Unfixed, Nik and Zach unpack the “enforcement illusion” behind AI use policies in higher education. From the impossibility of a true “no-AI” classroom to the cultural gap between faculty and students, they argue why cultivating dispositions, transparency, and dialogue offers a more meaningful path than rigid rules in the age of generative AI. Note: Dear listener please forgive t...

Zach and Nik brings you the biggest AI-in-education headlines shaping higher ed this fall—from ChatGPT’s new Study Mode and Canvas integrations to Microsoft’s agents, Big Tech partnerships, and Grammarly’s AI grade oracle. OpenAI ChatGPT Study Mode Instructure: Canvas ChatGPT integration Microsoft Copilot Agent LA Times: Big Tech as Savior Reuters: Google Pledges Over $1 Billion for AI Training Gr...

In this episode of Unfixed, we talk with Ray Schroeder—Senior Fellow at UPCEA and Professor Emeritus at the University of Illinois Springfield—about Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) and what it means for the future of higher education. While most of academia is still grappling with ChatGPT and basic AI tools, Schroeder is thinking ahead to AI agents, human displacement, and AGI’s existential...

In this episode of Unfixed, “Ready for a Fight?”, we explore the growing resistance to generative AI in higher education. While we don’t adopt the “Fight AI” stance ourselves, we take it seriously—as a revealing response to the rapid automation of knowledge work. Drawing from educators, artists, organizers, and labor movements, we unpack what motivates this rejection of AI, what it’s defending, an...

AI is reshaping every level of education—but K–12 and higher ed often feel worlds apart. In this episode, we talk with Teach Smarter podcast hosts Stephanie Dinnen and Pete Siner about how generative AI is transforming K–12 schools, the evolving challenges across grade levels, and what higher education needs to understand about the next generation of AI-native students. Stephanie Dinnen is an impl...

Advising is part mentorship, part logistics—and often a confusing mess. In this episode, we explore how AI might help (or hurt) students and advisors trying to navigate course selection, degree requirements, and policy mazes. We share what happened when we built our own advising bot and tested it in the wild. Could this be the future of student support, or just another edtech fantasy? With special...

In this episode of Unfixed , we unpack the mounting pressures that are destabilizing higher education. From the looming enrollment cliff and partisan political attacks to the unresolved trauma of COVID-19 and the disruptive arrival of generative AI, universities are being pulled in multiple, often contradictory, directions. Nik and Zach explore how these forces intersect to create what they call t...

Generative AI is upending higher education but can the university keep up? In this episode, we explore why institutional change in academia is so slow, even as AI accelerates disruptions across academic integrity, tenure, curriculum, and writing. From campus bureaucracy to the post-COVID pivot, we ask: what happens if we don’t adapt? And what would it take to respond differently, before the univer...

In this episode of Unfixed, we unpack Chico State’s recent ChatGPT rollout and what it reveals about the CSU system’s broader AI strategy. Why are universities centralizing AI adoption? What’s at stake for faculty, students, and the future of higher ed? We explore institutional motivations, equity and sustainability concerns, vendor influence, and the disconnect between AI hype and on-the-ground r...

In this special breaking-news episode of Unfixed , Nik and Zach dive into urgent headlines warning that AI could eliminate millions of entry-level white-collar jobs. They unpack what this means for students, the public perception of higher education, and what colleges must do now to stay relevant. Featuring insights from Kevin Roose, Dario Amodei, Hard Fork , and more, the episode explores how uni...

Melts into Air, Assistant for the Rest of Us Melts into Air, Tenure, Promoton, AI Melts into Air, AI Personality Disorder

Inside Higher Ed, Assessment of Student Learning Is Broken Thoughts and suggestions? Email us at unfixed@meltsintoair.org You can find the full show notes and our writing a meltsintoair.org

Thoughts and suggestions? Email us at unfixed@meltsintoair.org You can find the full show notes and our writing a meltsintoair.org