Written by Mila Mascenik
Fear about job prospects was the main finding in a survey of 43 undergraduate students at the Hussman School of Journalism and Media about their feelings and use of generative AI.
Scott Geier, assistant professor at the Hussman School, said this was his takeaway from the survey after reviewing the responses to its one short-answer question, which asked students how they feel AI is affecting the value of their college degree and their desired career. Other questions asked included the AI tools students use for their coursework and the AI skills they want to develop further.
Geier noted that up to this point, all technological revolutions had been driven by physical labor, citing the Industrial Revolution as an example. He said what’s unprecedented to him about AI is that it breaks from this mold.
“Now it’s replacing intellectual labor, and when intellectual labor isn’t valued as much as it used to be, we’re going to be at an interesting spot,” Geier said. “And it’s interesting people are aware of that.”
This ties into another noteworthy finding he pointed out in the survey results: students’ awareness that AI harms critical thinking and creativity. When asked how AI affects their critical thinking, the top answer, at 37%, was that it has “somewhat weakened it,” followed by “no change” at 35%. In the short-answer question, one student wrote that AI hampers their academic and intellectual growth.
“It’s the ultimate double-edged sword,” Geier said. “It can bolster creativity and creative thinking. It can help you learn, or it can circumvent all that, and you don’t learn anything. It’s all in how you use the tool.”
Students fill the walkways in front of Carroll Hall during a class change on the first day of classes on the campus of UNC-Chapel Hill in Aug. 2023. (Photo via Jon Gardiner/UNC-Chapel Hill.)
As GenAI reshapes higher education nationwide, research efforts are underway to offer insights into these changes. A 2025 national survey by the American Association of Colleges and Universities and Elon University’s Imagining the Digital Future Center drew attention to concerns among college and university faculty about AI, including that it will lead to students’ overdependence on the technology. On a global scale, the USC Center for Generative AI and Society published a report in 2025 that found that students use AI tools to get answers faster instead of to deepen their understanding.
UNC-Chapel Hill is heavily involved in the conversation around AI and its implications for higher education. The university has a website dedicated to generative AI, and last year it announced that its School of Data Science and Society and the School of Information and Library Science would merge to create a new school with an emphasis on AI.
“The yet-to-be-named school is a bold step forward in our commitment to preparing students for a world increasingly shaped by data, information and artificial intelligence,” according to a university announcement.
Regarding AI and academics, the university offers a guide for instructors to consult when creating AI guidance for their courses, and some professional schools, including the Hussman School, have their own. In the absence of a standardized, campus-wide policy, AI use can vary widely across classrooms.
Among the students surveyed, nearly all of whom were Hussman School majors, 41% use generative AI tools for academic work several times a week, with ChatGPT the top tool. The most common academic task students used AI for was editing and proofreading at 81%. Two students selected the option that they don’t use AI.
Lochlan Triplett, a sophomore advertising and public relations major at the Hussman School, is one of these students who uses AI several times a week. She summarizes notes and class readings, motivated by the desire to save time.
One of Triplett’s worries about AI, which she mentioned in the survey, is its impact on entry-level positions. She wants to pursue a career in advertising, and she said that people in this profession shouldn’t lean on it entirely for creative ideas.
So far, in each of the five classes Triplett has taken at the Hussman School, she said all her instructors have addressed AI use. She’s among the 42% of students who indicated that Hussman instructors explicitly address AI use in their courses.
“I think my Hussman professors, more than any other professors, have been working with it rather than against it, which I really appreciate,” Triplett said.
In all of the courses Geier teaches at the Hussman School, such as “Introduction to Digital Storytelling,” an undergraduate course, and the graduate version, “Digital Content Creation,” AI use is required. He said he wants students to learn how to use the technology “ethically, effectively and efficiently.”
One instance of students using AI in one of Geier’s classes involved him asking them to do a coding exercise without AI in class, and then, for homework, they had to replicate what they did using it.
“I’m not even really looking at the work product,” he said. “I’m looking at the chatbot conversations; that’s my policy.”
Geier uses a teaching approach in his courses called “CHAIR.” The “C” stands for concentrate, communicate and collaborate, where students are not to use technology when they’re learning new material, he said.
Next, after students have learned the skills, is where “H,” for human, especially working together with others, comes in. Once they’ve done the work without technology, as in the coding example, they can use “AI” and, finally, “R” to reflect on their experience by writing a short essay. Students answer questions such as where AI is better than they are and vice versa, and how they feel about it.
Students in Laura Ruel’s class are also asked to be thoughtful about their use of AI.
Ruel, an associate professor at the Hussman School, has students in her “User Experience Design and Usability” class devise an AI philosophy at the beginning of each semester. At the end of the semester, students revisit what they wrote.
For each assignment, she asks students whether they used AI and, if so, what they used it for. They should also provide examples of their chatbot prompts.
“There’s no need to hide AI use from me, but there is a need to be transparent about it,” Ruel said.
She said she doesn’t require students to use AI in her classes, recognizing that students have concerns about the technology, including environmental ones. In the survey results, 47% of students marked this concern as one they have regarding the use of generative AI in coursework.
While Ruel acknowledges the different concerns students have about AI, she would also advise them to remember that they are entering a workforce where people use it, she said
Triplett understands that AI is part of her experience as a student and a future professional in the media industry.
“This is just a tool that you’re working with nowadays,” she said. “You might as well just work with it rather than against it, and not use it to substitute learning.”
Full survey results are available in the appendix here. Mila Mascenik is a graduate student at the Hussman School of Journalism and Media. The survey and this accompanying piece were created as part of a faculty-supervised independent study in February 2026.
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‘It’s All In How You Use The Tool’: The Academic Use of AI at UNC Chapelboro.com.
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