By Maron Guimarães – Some of the brightest ideas don’t come from large committees or outside consultants; they come directly from a group of students in the classroom. During fall 2025 and spring 2026, students in the Marketing Research and Marketing Campaigns classes worked on a project focused on one main question: How can Morningside become a forward-looking institution towards Artificial Intelligence (AI)?
The project began fall semester in the Marketing Research class and carried into this semester (spring) with the Marketing Campaigns class. In the research class, the group focused on four main questions that guided the entire study:
- How students are currently using AI,
- What their attitudes towards AI in coursework are,
- How well Morningside is preparing their students for a future with AI, and
- What differences in behaviors and attitudes exist between genders, majors, year in school, and international status?
To answer these questions, the class conducted secondary research, pairing it with primary research methods, including a campus-wide survey conducted in November 2025, which collected 352 responses from students across different majors, years, and backgrounds. showed that while students use AI frequently, many are unsure about ethical restrictions, barely verify AI-generated information, and experience different rules depending on the class. Focus groups were also conducted and revealed similar results. Students also expressed a strong desire for clearer rules, consistent guidance across courses, training on better prompts, and real-world examples of how AI is used in the professional world.
This semester, the Marketing Campaigns class built on that research and turned the findings into quantitative and actionable recommendations. The goal was to help Morningside guide students toward responsible, ethical, and career-ready use of AI tools. The students presented their work on Tuesday, January 27, 2026, in the UPS, in front of roughly 50 faculty members, with the intention of sharing their findings and encouraging the adoption of the recommendations.
The presentation concluded with three main recommendations.
First, introduce a clear, campus-wide AI framework, so students have clear expectations of what AI usage is allowed for each course and assignment.
Second, provide student training focused on ethical use, privacy, bias, prompt writing, and research verification.
Finally, provide opportunities for students to learn about AI with a program called “AI at Morningside”. This plan is already in place, as students will be invited to showcase their creative AI-based projects at the Palmer Research Symposium.
The response from faculty showed just how meaningful and important the project was. Morningside Provost Chris Spicer praised the work, saying, “Your presentation was clear, organized, and truly represented some of the finest work I’ve seen.”
Projects like this show what makes Morningside unique. On a smaller campus, students are not just in the classrooms; they are contributing ideas that can influence real decisions and that can help students get hands-on experience.
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