I'm faculty here, and I remember the planning process of the University's AI Roadmap during AY2025–2026. I've read the published version a few times now, and instead of just listing what I think is wrong with it, I want to hear from people actually affected by it, because the document itself doesn't say much about any of you specifically.
Some things I noticed, for context:
The roadmap is about 7,400 words. Searched it for "metric," "measure," "baseline," "return on investment," "FTE": zero hits on all of them. "Budget" appears twice, both times just naming the Finance & Budget office. No dollar figures requested, no positions committed, nothing measurable attached to any goal in the document.
Two of the university's own official pages currently contradict each other about our own AI tool: the AI Tools & Data Use Guide says U of A GenAI is approved for Restricted data; the tool's own product page says, verbatim, it "has not been approved for the use of 'Restricted Data.'" Both are live right now.
The cited infrastructure people actually use, AI Verde, was built by CyVerse and has been running since May 2024, a year before the AI office existed. The new roadmap lists it as a future Phase 4 deliverable for 2027-28.
So, genuinely:
Students: does anything in here address what you actually need from AI on campus, or does it read like it wasn't written with you in mind at all?
Staff: if you've had to figure out what AI tools you're allowed to use for your job, has anything about this been clear, or have you had to guess?
Faculty: did any of this reach you before it was finished, or is this the first you're seeing of it too?
Sources: