The Perspectives of Two Student Services Professionals in Using GenAI
This is the final blog in a series by the CSU Student Success Network (Network) focusing on the California State University’s (CSU’s) systemwide approach to generative AI (GenAI). The first blog offered an introduction to CSU’s strategic approach to GenAI. The second described students’ perspectives about GenAI, based on survey findings across CSU campuses. The third focused on the perspectives of two CSU faculty members about their use of and classroom strategies regarding GenAI.
Almost two-thirds of CSU staff members (64%) across the system’s 22 universities say they regularly use GenAI in their work duties, compared with about 60% of faculty and about 53% of students, according to a report released by the CSU Chancellor’s Office in April 2026. Nine out of ten staff respondents (89%) say they have used ChatGPT. But keep in mind that in the fast-paced world of GenAI, these numbers have likely increased for all groups, since they are based on responses from a survey that was administered in 2025, prior to the CSU’s announcement of its systemwide adoption of GenAI in February 2026.
Dr. Doreen Wright, assistant vice president for student affairs at CSU Channel Islands, has been managing a series of AI trainings for her campus’ Division of Student Affairs & Enrollment Management. Since the start of the series in fall 2025, she’s been routinely asking for a show of hands—among over 100 staff members—as to how many have been using AI, particularly ChatGPT. “Back in October, only five or six people said they’d used AI,” she said. “Over time, more hands went up, and at the last session, almost everyone was using it.”
Dr. Nadine Kelley, executive director of University Housing Services at Sacramento State University, agreed that use of GenAI among staff and others has become much more widespread in the past year. “AI is already heavily embedded into things, almost like you can’t avoid it,” she said. “It’s part of Google searches, and the Chatbots that we all have to use, those are a form of AI. From my perspective, it looks like AI is here, and it’s not going anywhere.”
This blog on staff use of GenAI in the CSU draws from interviews with Dr. Wright and Dr. Kelley, both of whom could be described as routine and wary users of GenAI tools. They’re also experimenters who are still learning about the opportunities and challenges of GenAI use in higher education.
Experimenting with GenAI in a Fast-Changing Landscape
The CSU’s GenAI initiative is still in its first year, providing free access to the EDU version of ChatGPT for all staff, faculty, and students even as GenAI training and resources are still being developed and rolled out. Policies for privacy and security are established at the system and campus levels. Dr. Kelley and Dr. Wright said that their divisions and departments encourage staff to experiment with GenAI, including by providing trainings to help them do so. As with faculty members, however, CSU staff have leeway as to how and whether to use ChatGPT and other GenAI tools for specific tasks.
“Use of GenAI in higher education is super new,” Dr. Kelley said, “so I don’t think it has fully been explored yet. There’s still a lot to learn.” Recently, her Housing Services team attended trainings about new AI tools being piloted in the housing software that the office uses. The team reviewed the pilot AI functionality, and most of them decided they didn’t want to use those features. “My team knows they have options,” she said, “and they don’t need to utilize any tool that isn’t beneficial to their workflow.”
As an example of staff members being encouraged to experiment with ChatGPT, Dr. Wright said that this year’s theme for leadership and vision within the Division of Student Affairs & Enrollment Management at CSU Channel Islands involves integrating GenAI into the workplace. The Division has about 25 managers, Dr. Wright said, and each manager is required to submit an annual report at the end of the year. “This year there’s a section on how the managers integrated AI into their work,” she said. “I’m looking forward to seeing that data in about a month, to learn how people are using and experimenting with AI.”
GenAI Trainings and Common Uses Among Staff
Dr. Wright and Dr. Kelley said that a wide range of new professional development offerings has helped to introduce staff to the opportunities and challenges of using GenAI tools. These offerings include courses and trainings available at the CSU’s AI Commons, some of which offer microcredentials. In addition, workshops and presentations offered by the campus, primarily through the Division of Student Affairs, have also helped in providing staff with information about and hands-on guidance in using GenAI tools. According to Dr. Wright, “This year, we had about four professional development presentations linked to AI, as well as some webinars, and I led some conversations with staff members.” GenAI was also featured in several sessions at a conference for student staff members.
The training topics and formats for staff at Sacramento State and CSU Channel Islands have included ethical issues and human-centered use, an AI-in-action lab, AI-use coaching, presentations by experts who have wide-ranging views about AI, how to develop effective prompts, and guidance in checking AI results. Dr. Kelley’s Housing Services office manages events and conferences, and one of its trainings focused on using GenAI to help develop task checklists tailored to the event, to make sure important duties are not overlooked.
In terms of staff uses for ChatGPT or other GenAI tools that Dr. Kelley and Dr. Wright have either used themselves or seen others use, they offered a wide range of examples:
- The development of position descriptions.
- The development of interview questions aligned with new positions.
- Assistance in drafting emails and memos.
- The creation of presentations, including PowerPoint.
- The creation of short videos on a range of topics for students, including voice-overs.
- The development of meeting agendas.
- Assistance with calculations.
- The development of a chatbot that can answer common questions from students.
- Assistance in brainstorming about and writing drafts of newsletter copy.
- Ongoing conversations, brainstorming, and feedback about work decisions.
- Translations into Spanish and other languages.
- The drafting and editing of report sections.
- Gathering and summarizing qualitative responses from student surveys.
Dr. Kelley said that her office often generates pop-up surveys to find out what students think about various options associated with housing, but she no longer has access to staff who have expertise in assessments and evaluations. As a result, she’s been using AI to gather and assess the range of student responses from open-ended survey questions. “That was helpful,” she said, “because we needed to figure out what changes needed to happen based on what students were telling us.”
Dr. Wright and Dr. Kelley said that even as staff members are using GenAI tools they are also voicing concerns about it. Primary concerns include the inaccuracy of some results; the opaqueness of the algorithms and what happens to the data that is input; and potential environmental, social justice, and economic hardships that AI data centers may be causing to communities.
Conclusion
CSU staff are being encouraged but not required to use GenAI in their work. A wide range of workshops and trainings are being rolled out to assist them. Some staff members have concerns about the implications of AI use in higher education, but roughly two-thirds of CSU staff say they are using GenAI tools regularly in their work, and this share is likely rising.
“Some say it boosts efficiency and access, and others say it weakens skills,” said Dr. Wright. “Like past technologies, there are always concerns. But tools evolve, and I think people can benefit from experimenting with low-stakes usage. There are risks, but also opportunities.”
According to Dr. Kelley, “There are good things about AI, there are bad things, and there are things we’ll find out about in fifteen years.”
The Network is facilitated by the Education Insights Center (EdInsights) at Sacramento State University.