Silicon Valley Colleges Rethink Education Models in AI Era

Published: September 5, 2025 – Source: Silicon Valley Business Journal – Author: Aaron Welch

When ChatGPT was released to the public in late 2022, the response from higher education could be summed up in one word: pandemonium. Immediately, some commentators began heralding the death of the college essay and the end of high-school English. Many professors responded by focusing on AI prevention, pivoting to in-class assignments and implementing AI cheating detectors. Of course, others were more hopeful that generative AI could become “a teacher’s best friend.” But either way, the consensus was that higher ed must adapt to meet this new technological era.

Fast-forward to today and it’s clear AI has gone mainstream—even in academia. With institutions like the California State University system now embracing AI in the classroom, the Silicon Valley Business Journal invited leaders from higher ed and industry for a workforce development summit, where panelists shared innovative approaches to ensuring student success in a post-LLM world.

By far the most provocative comments came from Nick Ladany, president of San Francisco Bay University, a Fremont-based college offering four-year and graduate programs in STEM and business. “The current model of student development, frankly, is broken,” Ladany told the audience. “At San Francisco Bay University, we’ve worked from the premise that higher education has largely failed students, particularly low-income students, students of color and women.”

Ladany described his university as “all in” on AI. Beyond incorporating generative AI chatbots and AI learning into the curriculum, SF Bay University will “without a doubt” have AI professors teaching students within the year. He described AI professors as avatars of “the best versions of the best professors you will have.” Still, he emphasized that human guides and mentors will remain essential, even in an AI-driven future.

Other panelists took a more measured approach. Cassandra Volpe Horii, Associate Vice Provost of Teaching at Stanford, highlighted her university’s programs in undergraduate and postgraduate AI education. However, she stressed the importance of grounding AI learning in human critical thinking and social context. She cited a course on ethics and AI, taught by philosopher John Etchemendy, as one that helps students internalize complex ethical reasoning. Another course offers a simulated experience of being a congressional staffer crafting AI policy—holding students accountable for their use of AI tools.

The summit wasn’t just about AI’s role in pedagogy; it also focused on how universities can better prepare students for the workforce. Sheryl Ehrman, Dean of Engineering at San José State University, emphasized the importance of closing the “valley of death” between academic theory and real-world application. “We’re a regional university, we want to serve our region, so that means building programs quickly with direct input from companies—or directly for companies—to meet needs,” Ehrman said.

She explained how SJSU involves industry partners through hackathons and workshops, giving students hands-on experience solving practical problems while also expanding their professional networks. Ehrman also highlighted the success of cooperative education (co-op) models, where students alternate semesters between coursework and full-time internships. This allows for more in-depth workplace experience than typical summer internships.

“We have a [group] of students who might not think about a summer internship until spring break. That’s too late for many companies,” she noted. “We want to communicate to companies that we’re really flexible. People may not think of San José as a co-op school, but it’s really easy for our students to drop down their unit load or even take a semester leave of absence.”
Ehrman added that co-ops are often more valuable to businesses as well. “When you bring in a summer intern, you’re going to get a productive two weeks, maybe at the end of the internship. But if you have a co-op, it’s a much longer time.”

Whether through AI-powered classrooms or innovative workforce pipelines, it’s clear that higher education leaders in Silicon Valley are rethinking how to educate and empower the next generation of students for a rapidly evolving world.

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