Cuyahoga Community College President: AI Fluency Is a Moral Imperative

At a Crain’s Cleveland Business May 14 educational forum, Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C^®) President Michael A. Baston discussed how AI is reshaping higher education.

As part of the conversation, Baston highlighted how advancing AI could create a gap between those fluent in its use and those who are not, framing the understanding of AI as an equity issue.

"In this community, there's still a significant digital divide in Cleveland, where people don't have basic broadband access and those kinds of things," he said. "So, if we're now also not going to arm them with this AI fluency, not only are we simply compounding the permanent underclass that permeates society, but we will not make our community as strong as it could be."

He called AI education a "moral imperative."

Baston joined leaders from The Ohio State University, Case Western Reserve University and Baldwin Wallace University in a panel discussion on how higher education is responding to the rapid development of AI technology.

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May 27, 2026

Jarrod Zickefoose, 216-987-4750 or jarrod.zickefoose@tri-c.edu