It’s the future. It’s going to take all of our jobs. It’s a tool. It’s dangerous. It’s a necessity. It doesn’t belong here.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its use on Millikin’s campus has become a hot-button issue. Some students were disturbed by some professors’ adoption and integration of AI technologies within the classroom. There are also some professors who are known to encourage the use of AI to aid in students’ work and processes.
The response to AI from students has varied. Some students have chosen to fully embrace AI, others are a little more skeptical of the extent it should be used, and on the opposite end of the spectrum, there are students calling for the removal of AI on Millikin’s campus altogether.
Alexa Dillow, a junior at Millikin studying the commercial music field, began a petition to ban AI usage on campus for any academic purposes for students and professors alike. Her passion for the subject was fueled after attending a class where the ability to use AI was being promoted by a professor as a valuable resume skill.
“I found advocating for that, especially in the creative fields, pretty abhorrent,” Dillow said. “I think AI use is a scapegoat for a lot of people, and it kind of proves that you don’t have the grit it takes to actually problem solve.”
Dillow voiced concerns about students’ reliance on AI and the negative impact it can have on creativity and learning. She fears reliance on AI will cause students to take shortcuts instead of honing their skills and knowledge through hard work and meaningful application attempts.
“All of the work that you are doing at Millikin and all the money you are shoveling into this university is going down the drain if you are not actually doing the work and learning the curriculum,” Dillow said.
Not all students share in Dillow’s beliefs about AI usage. In fact, others are spearheading efforts to expand AI usage on campus. Dalton Hoadley, a senior at Millikin majoring in Communication and Entrepreneurship, is committed to ushering Millikin into the new AI age.
“It’s a tool in the fact that you can use it for literally everything,” Hoadley said. “If you know how to use it, it is going to be the future. Whether you like that or not, everyone’s going to have to use it at one point or another. Everything we write, everything we do, everything we create is going to use AI in some way in the near future. If you don’t know how to use it, you’re going to fall behind.”
Hoadley is working closely with the Tabor Business School and the Center for Entrepreneurship to put together resources for Millikin students and professors to educate them on the proper usage of AI and best practices for interacting with it. The goal is to curb the misuse of AI by approaching its integration from an educational standpoint.
“I definitely think people rely too heavily on it, but they do it for the wrong reasons,” Hoadley said. “People are now using it to do pretty much everything for them, whereas, just like anything else, I think it is better to integrate it and help you do the things. We need to teach them the correct way to use it. The way that most students are using it is not only unethical, but they’re not learning anything in the process.”
Hoadley sees AI as a tool that can be used to enhance students’ academic experience. Professors can use it to create lesson plans, quickly accomplish less important tasks, and personalize teaching materials to better suit the specific learning needs of different students. Hoadley sees AI as almost the equivalent of a personal assistant.
“Personally, I use AI for everything, whether that’s Grammarly to fix my grammar or research assistants to find good sources,” Hoadley said. “There is a use for AI in almost everything, especially [in] school. It is important to know how to research and find good sources yourself, but at the same time, if I need to do something quickly or if I need to make sure all my sources are accurate and up-to-date, it is easy to check with AI.”
AI can obviously expedite the completion of tasks, but Dillow makes the case that faster doesn’t always mean better. Dillow cited a specific songwriting class at Millikin where the students were tasked with playing with an AI lyric generator. The exercise did not sit well with Dillow because she believed they should be writing their own lyrics, no matter what, especially in a course about songwriting.
“I think we, as a university, should stay a safe haven for the human side of learning for the actual humanities,” Dillow said.
Dillow is adamant about maintaining intellectual integrity on campus through banning AI as well as expanding education on the dangers and risks associated with AI. So far, her petition has garnered the support of 273 people (as of Sept. 29, 2025). Dillow encourages students, professors, faculty, parents, alumni, and community members to support the cause by signing the petition.
“When it comes to the work you’re supposed to be doing, like studying, taking the time, and working through material to find your own information and form your own opinions, I don’t think that stuff should be relied on by a chatbot,” Dillow said.
Dillow wants students to emerge from Millikin as well-trained and educated individuals in their fields. However, her faith in the institution to ensure that outcome has been shaken largely due to a significant number of professors taking a pro-AI stance and modeling that approach to students.
“I think the way my petition was worded rubbed especially professors the wrong way because I pushed on them,” Dillow said. “I think a lot of the way that this campus-wide attitude has shifted to straight-up apathy towards AI is definitely rooted in professors openly using it. I think if you don’t cut it at its source, it’s just going to keep growing like a bad weed.”
Like all issues, it is not black and white or right and wrong. This issue and the way people feel about it live on a spectrum. There are those who can recognize the potential benefits of AI while championing for academic responsibility and limited AI use in the classroom.
“I feel like people should stick to their original thoughts,” a Millikin senior Biology Life Sciences major, Addison Oyer, said. “I don’t want it to take away from anybody’s creativity. I feel like there’s a lot of creativity at Millikin and a lot of uniqueness. I don’t think there is a specific need for AI. We would have been fine if it [had] never [gotten] developed, but I do see how people could utilize it in a good way too.”
Oyer uses AI more frequently for reasons outside of academia, such as crafting workout plans that take into account materials available to her and time constraints. She strives to use AI as minimally as possible for school purposes but views AI as an aid that can provide useful suggestions from time to time.
“I feel like a lot of biology is hands-on, and obviously, you can’t have AI do that for you,” Oyer said. “I do see people using it to help them make sense of their research. I think in biology it is better to have a human aspect. I don’t know if biology will ever be taken over completely by AI, but I can definitely see people using it.”
Oyer worries about the rate AI is evolving and how much more advanced it will become. She notices that it is already becoming harder to discern AI images from animations that real artists have created. It is unclear where the line on AI should be drawn in an academic setting with so many factors and viewpoints to consider.
“It’s something that is obviously going to have to be regulated and be taught how to use it correctly,” Hoadley said. “There [are] a lot of ways it can help and make things better, but obviously, there [are] a lot of ways it can hurt. There’s a balance with everything, and I just don’t think we’ve found it yet.”
Many larger universities across the nation have established dedicated teams to make sense of this murky issue. It is these teams that are typically making the recommendations for how to navigate the rapidly changing AI landscape. Millikin has yet to implement such a team. The university has also not yet responded to Dillow’s petition or communication attempts.
“The best way to go about making actual change in the world is to simply be annoying, is what I’ve found, so that’s what I plan to do,” Dillow said. “I don’t plan on shutting up any time soon.”
AI doesn’t seem to be going away any time soon, meaning standard university guidelines surrounding AI are inevitable. The only question is which side those guidelines will favor.
“If we don’t teach AI, if we don’t allow access to AI, we’re going to fall behind,” Hoadley said.
The AI dilemma is an issue that is not going away. It is a unique challenge that educational institutions, workplaces, and industries will have to grapple with and decide where they should position themselves.
AI is far from a “Millikin issue.” It is a global phenomenon. AI use is becoming inescapable through its implementation on almost all social media platforms and search engines. When deciding how to use AI, it is important to weigh personal values and ethics to make a decision that is right for you.
