Agentic AI in Higher Education IT

CLAC Mindshare Program

Lafayette College | July 28–30, 2026

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About the Mindshare

Agentic AI represents a significant shift in how artificial intelligence can be applied in higher education. Unlike traditional AI tools that respond to individual prompts, agentic AI systems can autonomously plan, execute, and adapt multi-step workflows—monitoring networks, triaging security alerts, streamlining administrative processes, and more. These capabilities are evolving rapidly, and IT organizations at liberal arts colleges face the shared challenge of understanding, evaluating, and responsibly adopting them.

The pace of development in this space means there is far more to learn than any single institution can tackle alone; we hope you'll join us at this mindshare event so that together we can gain a greater understanding of working with Agentic AI.

This Mindshare Aims to Address Several Pressing Needs:

Shared Understanding

Many CLAC institutions are at different stages of exploring agentic AI. A collaborative forum would help establish a common baseline of knowledge about what these tools can and cannot do in our context.

Operational Impact

Agentic AI has direct implications for how IT teams manage infrastructure, respond to incidents, and deliver services. Institutions need practical insight into where these tools add value and where they introduce risk.

Security and Governance

Autonomous AI agents acting on institutional systems raise important questions about access control, data privacy, accountability, and policy. There is no established playbook for governing these tools in higher education.

Community Advantage

Liberal arts colleges share similar scales, values, and constraints. By pooling our early experiences, we can accelerate learning and avoid duplicating effort across dozens of institutions working in isolation.

Anticipated Outcomes

This mindshare is designed to produce tangible, lasting value for the CLAC community. Anticipated outcomes include:

  • Community knowledge base: A written summary of findings, use cases, and lessons learned, shared with all CLAC member institutions.
  • Governance framework: A draft policy and governance template that institutions can adapt for managing agentic AI tools in their environments.
  • Collaboration roadmap: An action plan for ongoing cross-institutional collaboration, including shared evaluation of tools, joint pilot projects, and regular knowledge sharing.
  • Peer network: Strengthened professional connections among IT leaders at CLAC institutions working on AI adoption, forming a lasting working group.
  • Conference presentation: Findings and recommendations suitable for presentation at the CLAC Annual Conference or similar venues.

Participating Institutions

Bryn Mawr College Bucknell University Cedar Crest College Connecticut College Davidson College Denison University Franklin & Marshall College Lafayette College Lehigh University Moravian University Northampton Community College Princeton University Rollins College Smith College Stanford University Trinity College Wellesley College Whitman College Williams College Yale University

Register Today

We believe this mindshare represents an excellent opportunity for our community to collectively navigate one of the most significant technology shifts in recent years. We hope you'll join us as we navigate this shift together.

Register Today