Unfixed: How AI Is Reshaping the University – Details, episodes & analysis

Inside Higher Ed, Assessment of Student Learning Is Broken

Thoughts and suggestions? Email us at unfixed@meltsintoair.org

You can find the full show notes and our writing a meltsintoair.org

Thoughts and suggestions? Email us at unfixed@meltsintoair.org

You can find the full show notes and our writing a meltsintoair.org

Advising is part mentorship, part logistics—and often a confusing mess. In this episode, we explore how AI might help (or hurt) students and advisors trying to navigate course selection, degree requirements, and policy mazes. We share what happened when we built our own advising bot and tested it in the wild. Could this be the future of student support, or just another edtech fantasy? With special guest Jamie Gunderson.

Josh Farris and Chi Chan, Guiding First-Generation Students to Success

Lauren Coffey, An AI Boost for Academic Advising

Liam Knox, The (AI) Counselor Is in

Thoughts and suggestions? Email us at unfixed@meltsintoair.org

You can find the full show notes and our writing at meltsintoair.org

In this episode of Unfixed, we unpack the mounting pressures that are destabilizing higher education. From the looming enrollment cliff and partisan political attacks to the unresolved trauma of COVID-19 and the disruptive arrival of generative AI, universities are being pulled in multiple, often contradictory, directions. Nik and Zach explore how these forces intersect to create what they call the “insecure university.” What does it mean to learn, teach, and lead in institutions struggling to justify their very existence?

Inside Higher Ed, “College-age demographics begin steady projected decline”

Rufo in City Journal

Venkatesh Rao, “Knowledge Under Siege” (cooked with AI)”

Nils Gilman on Theory of Change podcast

Thoughts and suggestions? Email us at unfixed@meltsintoair.org

You can find the full show notes and our writing at meltsintoair.org

Generative AI is upending higher education but can the university keep up? In this episode, we explore why institutional change in academia is so slow, even as AI accelerates disruptions across academic integrity, tenure, curriculum, and writing. From campus bureaucracy to the post-COVID pivot, we ask: what happens if we don’t adapt? And what would it take to respond differently, before the university becomes obsolete?

Mark Carrigan, Are Universities Too Slow to Cope With Generative AI?

Melts into Air, Thoughts on the First AI-Powered University

Seb Murray, Business Schools Ease Their Resistance to AI

Thoughts and suggestions? Email us at unfixed@meltsintoair.org

You can find the full show notes and our writing at meltsintoair.org

In this episode of Unfixed, we unpack Chico State’s recent ChatGPT rollout and what it reveals about the CSU system’s broader AI strategy. Why are universities centralizing AI adoption? What’s at stake for faculty, students, and the future of higher ed? We explore institutional motivations, equity and sustainability concerns, vendor influence, and the disconnect between AI hype and on-the-ground realities.

Nik Janos, Thoughts on the First AI-powered University

Rob Nelson, What is an AI-empowered University

Rob Nelson, Alignment Problem

Thoughts and suggestions? Email us at unfixed@meltsintoair.org

You can find the full show notes and our writing at meltsintoair.org

In this special breaking-news episode of Unfixed, Nik and Zach dive into urgent headlines warning that AI could eliminate millions of entry-level white-collar jobs. They unpack what this means for students, the public perception of higher education, and what colleges must do now to stay relevant. Featuring insights from Kevin Roose, Dario Amodei, Hard Fork, and more, the episode explores how universities can reposition themselves in an era of accelerating automation and economic uncertainty.

Kevin Roose, For Some Recent Graduates, the A.I. Job Apocalypse May Already Be Here - The New York Times

Jim VanderHei and Mike Allen, Behind the Curtain: A white-collar bloodbath

Artificial Intelligence coverage from Axios

Hard Fork, The A.I. Jobpocalypse, Building at Anthropic with Mike Krieger and Hard Fork Crimes Division - The New York Times

Thoughts and suggestions? Email us at unfixed@meltsintoair.org

You can find the full show notes and our writing a meltsintoair.org

Melts into Air, Assistant for the Rest of Us

Melts into Air, Tenure, Promoton, AI

Melts into Air, AI Personality Disorder

In this episode of Unfixed, we sit down with William Hardaway and Jason McGensy from CSU Fresno to explore how institutions are actually implementing AI in higher education. The conversation moves from the practical—faculty training, instructional design, and scaling AI initiatives—to the emotional, including the idea of “grief” as faculty confront rapid technological change. We also examine how this work connects to broader efforts around equity and institutional transformation. The episode closes by interrogating the limits of using therapeutic metaphors to understand AI adoption in academia.

Jason on LinkedIn

Feedback literacy

AI Institute video recap

Report on our Academic Affairs Staff AI Community of Practice

Thoughts and suggestions? Email us at unfixed@meltsintoair.org

You can find the full show notes and our writing at meltsintoair.org

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Asynchronous online courses have become a cornerstone—and a cash engine—of modern higher education, but in the age of AI, the model is starting to crack. In this episode, we unpack how large-scale, low-touch online classes create fragile conditions for trust, especially as generative AI makes it easier than ever for students to outsource their thinking. We explore the growing tension between institutional incentives to scale enrollment and the reality of eroding learning quality, faculty burnout, and widespread uncertainty about what student work actually represents. Drawing on firsthand teaching experience, we examine how instructors are adapting and where those efforts fall short. The result is a stark question: can asynchronous education be rebuilt for the AI era, or are we sustaining a system we no longer fully believe in?

Thoughts and suggestions? Email us at unfixed@meltsintoair.org

You can find the full show notes and our writing at meltsintoair.org

Subscribe to the Unfixed Newsletter—The AI Higher Ed Breakdown our bi-weekly newsletter unpacking the top news stories at the intersection of AI and higher education.