Kate Santini
Co-Editor-in-Chief
Roughly 700 Holy Cross students regularly use Gemini, a popular generative artificial intelligence (AI) platform, according to David Shettler, the College’s Director for Information and Technology. While this figure might raise questions about AI’s place at Holy Cross and the degree to which students rely on it, Shettler’s department argues that AI should not be seen as an inhibitor of learning but rather as a tool for deeper research.
In Spring 2026, under Shettler’s leadership, the Office of Information and Technology launched SuarezAI, one of the first-ever artificial intelligence platforms to be developed at a college or university. Since then, many colleges and universities have followed suit, offering students access to premier AI services and platforms included in their tuition.
SuarezAI is a platform that cross-references data from several leading AI models, including ChatGPT 5.2, Claude Sonnet 4.5, Google Gemini 3 Pro, Meta Llama, and Mistral. All students and faculty members can gain access to the platform after completing a brief module on “Generative AI Literacy Essentials” on Canvas.
“Slowly, we’ve been adding more models to the platform as new models get released,” Shettler said. “We want to make sure that students have access to all of the tiers” of different “top-of-the-line models” to address equity problems.
Some models, however, pose a greater environmental risk than others, Shettler said. In this case, the school would deem it “irresponsible to grant access to those models.”
Unfortunately, the College may never get a full picture of AI consumption amongst its students because not all AI platforms, such as OpenAI and ChatGPT, provide user analytics to institutions, Shettler explained. For this reason, it will be difficult to imagine how AI usage will coincide with the College’s initiative to be Carbon Neutral by 2040.
Even so, the Office for Information and Technology is constantly looking to embrace more sustainable intelligence models as they enter into the market and is brainstorming ways to balance out the College’s AI usage with plans to decrease its carbon footprint.
Aside from professors incorporating SuarezAI within course curricula, the platform has been slow to gain traction with students, Shettler said. However, the platform has “definitely benefit[ed] the administration and faculty [who] use it much more than the students do.”
Shettler speculated that some of the “student apprehension” might be stemming from the fact that SuarezAI is a College-monitored platform that provides records of how the platform was used. If a student is looking to use AI to cut corners, they are not likely to turn to the College model, Shettler admitted.
“This new era of AI needs to force us to think a little bit differently about how we assess students and learning,” Shettler said, acknowledging the rising concerns over the implications AI models will have on institutions of higher learning. While challenges are unavoidable, he ultimately feels that “Holy Cross is well positioned” to address them.
No matter the resources made available to them, students will still need to develop the “calluses” necessary to conduct academic research and think critically to engage with course materials, Shettler reasoned.
“I have never learned more in my career than I have in the last year,” Shettler noted. This year, he has worked with professors across a variety of disciplines to incorporate AI models into the classroom. Part of the beauty of being at a liberal arts institution like Holy Cross, he explained, is that a variety of departments can come together to develop projects that engage and derive meaning from new and emerging technologies.
Interviewers: Kate Santini ‘27 & Amelia Ciarleglio ‘27, Co-Editor-in-Chiefs
Copy Edited by Julia Kane 11/10/26
Leave a Reply