Sinclair Community College launches $5 million AI Excellence Institute

Sinclair Community College launched its $5 million, three-year AI Excellence Institute on July 1, 2025. The goal of the initiative is to set the college up to be a leader in AI teaching and in AI learning. The AI Excellence Institute will build upon the college’s other efforts to leverage and incorporate AI into the college’s strategies and curriculum, including the AI Action Team.

According to an article on Sinclair Community College’s website, Dr. Steve Johnson, who serves as the president and CEO of Sinclair Community College, was quoted as saying of the new AI Excellence Institute, “Employers expect graduates with AI fluency and competency now. Artificial Intelligence is not a future trend…it’s a present force that is reshaping how students learn, how institutions operate, and how employers hire. Sinclair will be a national model for community colleges in harnessing AI to transform both workforce readiness, as well as teaching and learning.”

The AI Excellence Institute was approved at the college’s Board of Trustees’ May meeting. The resolution, “AI Excellence at Sinclair,” is a strategic framework the college will use as a guide through the end of the 2027 school year. Under the plan, there are two pillars: “Unlocking Opportunity” and “Mitigating Learning Loss,” which, respectively, focus on preparing more students to enter into jobs that provide wages to support families and will introduce innovative student retention practices.

During the college’s research process, artificial intelligence was brought up as something it should address in both teaching and in learning. The plan for the AI Excellence Institute was born, which will address institutional restructuring, building technology infrastructure, and transforming the college’s curriculum. The Institute will build AI literacy among students, faculty, and staff, and will become enmeshed with the college’s workforce development curriculum.

Mike Duffey, the Chancellor of the Ohio Department of Higher Education, said, "Sinclair College is a national leader in curriculum innovation. The AI Excellence Institute seeds this technology across various credential and degree pathways at Sinclair College, helps faculty develop ways to use AI in their classrooms and helps ensure Sinclair graduates are AI literate far beyond the average college graduate today. I want to thank President Johnson and the team at Sinclair for embracing this new world.”

The key objectives of the AI Excellence Institute include embedding meta-AI skills into the curriculum, integrating AI as a “learning partner,” redefining the usage of AI within the classroom as an opportunity, developing AI competency among faculty, using AI for student support services, and improving AI workforce readiness.

Dr. Christina Amato, who serves as the Dean of Sinclair’s eLearning Division, said of the Institute, “The AI Excellence Initiative will deliver measurable returns on investment in four key areas; student success, faculty and staff efficiency, employer alignment, and operational efficiencies. This work will position Sinclair as a leader in the most advanced, scalable eLearning curriculum design and workforce areas, preparing students for an AI-powered future.”

For more information about Sinclair Community College, visit the school’s website.