AI at Xavier✨

AI Literacy at Xavier

At Xavier University, AI literacy is understood not merely as technical competence, but as a formative practice grounded in the Jesuit educational tradition. It prepares students to engage thoughtfully, ethically, and responsibly with AI technologies in ways that honor human dignity and serve the common good. In this context, AI is defined as systems that use data-driven models to generate content, classify information, make predictions, or assist decision-making.

Xavier is committed to developing AI literacy across the curriculum. Students will develop AI literacy:

  • Through an introductory course included in Road to Xavier for incoming first-year undergraduates and available to all students
  • In first-year writing courses for undergraduates
  • In discipline-specific courses at all program levels

Student Learning Goals

In four competency areas, Xavier has defined the following interconnected and mutually reinforcing learning goals for students:

Foundational Understanding

  • Students will be able to explain how AI systems work at a basic level.
  • Students will be able to describe AI capabilities and limitations in relationship to human learning and judgment.

 Critical Evaluation

  • Students will be able to critically evaluate AI inputs and outputs for accuracy, reliability, and bias.
  • Students will be able to assess how AI use supports or hinders their learning and skill development.

 Responsible and Effective Use

  • Students will be able to use AI effectively in academic, professional, and civic contexts.
  • Students will be able to maintain human oversight, appropriately document and disclose AI use, and protect sensitive information when using AI.

 Ethical Discernment

  • Students will be able to reflect, through a Jesuit lens, on AI’s impacts on human dignity, equity, privacy, intellectual property, environmental sustainability, and the common good.
  • Student will be able to use AI in accordance with University policies, including the Acceptable Use of AI Policy, Academic Integrity Policy, and course-specific guidelines.

Alignment with Jesuit Values

Guided by cura personalis and Jesuit practices of reflection and discernment, Xavier’s approach emphasizes human judgment, critical inquiry, and moral responsibility alongside practical skill. Students are encouraged to understand how AI systems work, to recognize their limitations and biases, and to reflect on when, why, and whether AI should be used in academic, professional, and civic contexts, including how AI use shapes their own learning, agency, and development of human capacities.

Consistent with Xavier’s commitment to service rooted in justice and love, AI literacy invites students to examine how AI shapes equity, access, and opportunity locally and globally. AI is treated as a tool that can support learning, creativity, and decision-making, but it cannot replace the human accountability, embodied intelligence, relational understanding, or sustained practice through which learning develops. Students are therefore encouraged to consider how AI may support their work while also attending to the human capacities including judgment, reflection, attention, and skill development that require practice over time.

Ultimately, AI literacy at Xavier is oriented toward formation for life - cultivating adaptable learners who engage emerging technologies with intellectual humility, ethical courage, and a commitment to the greater good.

Alignment with Teaching in a Liberal Arts Tradition

A liberal arts education prepares students to think across disciplines, communicate effectively, adapt to new contexts, and make thoughtful judgments about complex problems. Through engagement with fields such as philosophy, theology, history, the sciences, literature, and the arts, students learn that effective action requires critical thinking, creative problem-solving, ethical reflection, strong communication skills, and attention to context.

Xavier’s approach to AI literacy builds on this foundation by helping students understand how to use AI tools effectively while also asking when, why, and whether those tools should be utilized. Students are encouraged to reflect on how AI shapes their work, their learning, their development of human capacities, and their responsibilities to the communities around them. In this way, AI literacy supports the broader goals of a liberal arts education by preparing students to engage emerging technologies with discernment, adaptability, human oversight, and responsibility.