Virginia colleges race to build AI-ready campuses
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AI is rapidly reshaping Virginia higher education, with colleges rolling out new majors, tools and classroom policies to better prepare students for an AI-driven workforce.
Why it matters: Virginia universities are signaling that AI literacy may soon be essential across every field of study.
State of play: The University of Richmond launched SpiderAI — a platform for students and staff with multiple AI tools. VCU gives faculty and students Gemini and Copilot access, and ODU has MonarchMind, a university-managed AI hub for research, designing course content and managing task lists.
- CNU will offer a new AI major starting this fall, and Virginia Tech students can apply for a new AI minor.
- Virginia State University just got funding this month to build a Center for Generative AI and Industrial Cybersecurity and a new UVA program has students providing AI consulting to local businesses.
Zoom in: Despite growing concerns about AI-generated coursework, several university officials in Virginia tell Axios they're not expecting a widespread return to old-school testing methods like blue-book exams — as seen elsewhere.
- Though at UVA, blue books remain an option "at the discretion of individual instructors," spokesperson Bethanie Glover tells Axios.
- Instead, universities are focused on establishing clearer classroom rules, ethical-use expectations and redesigned assignments that AI can't easily complete on its own.
Case in point: JMU has its own AI task force to establish "campus-wide expectations" for both students and faculty, university spokesperson Chad Saylor says.
- "We recognize these tools are already shaping the workforce our students are entering, so simply discouraging their use would not prepare students for the future," Saylor tells Axios.
What we're watching: Virginia lawmakers this year ordered JLARC, the state watchdog, to review how colleges are handling AI, including policies around academic integrity and classroom use.
- JLARC is expected to issue its recommendations for a statewide policy at the start of the 2028 General Assembly session.
- Meanwhile, schools are taking notes from each other. UVA is "studying how peer institutions are responding to the emergence of this technology," Glover says.