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Tech Tips: April 2026 Faculty/Staff Newsletter

This message was originally shared to all faculty and staff via email on April 30, 2026.

At a Glance

Each month, Information Technology Services provides tech tips for the Orange community. Pressed for time? Here are this edition’s topics:

SITETL Symposium on AI for Teaching and Learning

Curious about how AI can enhance your work? This free, three-day virtual event is open to all faculty and staff, featuring practical sessions on officially supported AI tools for all experience levels. Join us May 19-21, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Attend one session or all of them, whatever fits your schedule. Register.

    5 Claude Features You Didn’t Know You Needed

    Claude does more than you think. Beyond basic Q&A, you can upload files for instant summaries and action items, browse the web for current information, assign Claude a persona to sharpen its output, use its memory feature to save your preferences and generate code or Excel formulas—no technical skills required. Read Article.

      Spring Events

      ITS hosted a series of hybrid and online workshops this spring covering a range of technology topics. Recordings are now available for the following sessions:

      Tech To-Dos

      If you are retiring, graduating or transitioning elsewhere, it’s important to know how long you’ll retain access to University tools like Microsoft 365 (email, OneDrive, Teams), Google Workspace and more. Visit Answers for timelines and make reviewing digital assets part of your exit process. Answers.

      Adobe Express

      As an Adobe Creative Campus, Syracuse University provides faculty and staff with free access to Adobe Express—a web and mobile design tool for creating social media graphics, videos, web pages, and marketing materials using ready-made templates and simple editing tools. Learn More.

      Information Security Tip: Summer Sign-Off

      Logging off for the summer? Don’t forget to log out—everywhere. Make sure you’re signed out of shared or public devices, enable multi-factor authentication and avoid accessing sensitive accounts on public Wi-Fi. Stay Safe.

      Digital Accessibility Tip: Aira Access Site

      Aira visual interpreting is freely available to all students, faculty, staff, and visitors while on Syracuse University main campus. Open the Aira Explorer mobile app to start using Aira today! Aira.

      AI Insights

      Explore the latest in artificial intelligence with AI Insights, the newsletter for all things AI. Whether you’re looking to enhance your work with smart tools or simply stay informed, each issue brings you news from higher ed and the tech world and weekly AI tips. Newsletter. 

      Tech Tips Weekly

      Stay connected and ahead with Tech Tips Weekly—for quick, practical advice to make the most of campus technology. Each week, our new newsletter delivers easy-to-follow how-tos, timely service updates and insider looks at the newest features, tools and resources. Subscribe. 

      Helpful Resources

      ITS and the campuswide information technology community are available year-round to help with your tech questions. Resources include:

      • Academic and administrative IT staff

      • Classroom Resource Guide

      • ITS Service Center

      • Self-Serv NetID and password management portal

      Thank you for reading. Go Orange!

      Orange Online: April 2026 Student Newsletters

      This message was originally shared to all students via email on April 30, 2026.

      Orange Online at a Glance

      Pressed for time? Information Technology Services (ITS) has you covered. Here are this edition’s topics:

      Tech To-Dos Before Graduation

      Congratulations, soon-to-be-graduates! On Answers, find a full list of IT resources including email and post-graduation access timelines. Before you go, remember to migrate your Google Drive data and transfer ownership of any Qualtrics surveys by emailing qualtrics@ot.syr.edu from your @syr.edu address. 

      5 Ways to Use Claude

      Claude does more than you think. Beyond basic Q&A, you can upload files for instant summaries and action items, browse the web for current information, assign Claude a persona to sharpen its output, use its memory feature to save your preferences and generate code or Excel formulas—no technical skills required. Read Article.

      Summer Hours

      Planning ahead for summer? Here’s what to know about in-person and phone support availability for two key campus resources:

      • MakerSpace – Closed for Commencement weekend, then open Mondays and Fridays noon to 4 p.m. and Tuesdays through Thursdays noon to 6 p.m. Tours and workshops are available by request. Visit the MakerSpace contact page for details.
      • Service Center – Phone support remains unchanged (Sunday through Thursday: 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.). In-person support runs 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily starting May 6, then weekdays only beginning May 11. Check the Service Center page for the latest updates.

      Information Security Tip: Summer Sign-Off

      Logging off for the summer? Don’t forget to log out—everywhere. Make sure you’re signed out of shared or public devices, enable multi-factor authentication and avoid accessing sensitive accounts on public Wi-Fi. Stay Safe.

      Digital Accessibility Tip: Aira Access Site

      Aira visual interpreting is freely available to all students, faculty, staff and visitors while on Syracuse University main campus. Open the Aira Explorer mobile app to start using Aira today!. Aira.

      AI Insights

      Explore the latest in artificial intelligence with AI Insights, the newsletter for all things AI. Whether you’re looking to enhance your work with smart tools or simply stay informed, each issue brings you news from higher ed and the tech world and weekly AI tips. Newsletter. 

      Tech Tips Weekly

      Stay connected and ahead with Tech Tips Weekly—for quick, practical advice to make the most of campus technology. Each week, our new newsletter delivers easy-to-follow how-tos, timely service updates and insider looks at the newest features, tools and resources. Subscribe. 

      Helpful Resources

      ITS and the campuswide information technology community are available year-round to help with your tech questions. Resources include:

      Thank you for reading. Go Orange!

      AI Insights for April 30, 2026

      This message was originally shared to subscribers April 30, 2026.

      Upcoming Events

      Curious about how AI can enhance your teaching? The SITETL Symposium on AI for Teaching and Learning is a free, three-day virtual event for the entire Syracuse University community, running May 19–21 from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. daily. Sessions cover officially supported AI tools at both basic and intermediate levels, with practical content you can put to use right away. Drop in for one session or attend all three days—whatever works for you. Register today to get your single access link.

      This Issue’s Tip: Adobe Express

      Did you know Syracuse University provides free access to Adobe Express for all faculty and staff? Whether you’re designing flyers, social media graphics or short videos, Adobe Express makes it easy to create polished, on-brand materials with no design experience required. It also includes AI-powered tools like Generate Image, Generate Video and Clip Maker—all powered by Adobe Firefly, which is trained on licensed content so everything you create is safe to use in university communications. Read the full article to learn how to get started and make the most of what Adobe Express has to offer.

      News and Views

      In Summary

      Universities are launching AI literacy programs, rethinking curricula and grappling with student trust and workforce readiness gaps. Meanwhile, Anthropic released Claude Opus 4.7 and secured a $40B Google investment and enterprise AI adoption is surging—even as organizations struggle to trust AI enough to deploy it fully.

      Education, Teaching and Learning

      • Penn State Launches AI Literacy Course for Employees (EDSCOOP)
      • AI is Reshaping Higher Ed Workplaces (EdTech)
      • ASU+GSV 2026: AI for Student Advising Has Promise, Limits (GovTech)
      • ASU+GSV 2026: Preparing Students for the Future of AI-Enabled Work (GovTech)
      • 4 Higher Education Leaders on AI’s Biggest Benefits and Risks (Higher Ed Dive)
      • Survey: Americans View AI Use on Campus as Important, Yet Remain Skeptical (Inside Higher Ed)
      • The Classroom of 2031: Why AI Will Not Dissolve the School (The Information)
      • When AI Can Do Everything, What Is Left to Learn? (The Chronicle of Higher Education)
      • College Students Are Changing Course in Search of ‘AI-Proof’ Majors (AP News)
      • Advancing AI Literacy: A Faculty Course Refresh Institute at Indiana Wesleyan University (Educause Review)
      • From Prompt to Practice: A Framework for Transparent GenAI Use in Higher Education (Educause Review)
      • When AI Meets Data: The Promise and the Pressure of Bringing AI into Higher Education Systems (Educause Review)
      • Faculty Concerned About ASU’s ‘Frankensteinian’ AI Course Builder (Inside Higher Ed)
      • Students Are Using AI to Guide College Decisions. What Is It Telling Them? (The Chronicle of Higher Education)
      • College Students Are More Polarized Than Ever. Can AI Help? (Inside Higher Ed)

      Enterprise AI and Agents

      • 85% of Enterprises Are Running AI Agents. Only 5% Trust Them Enough to Ship. (VentureBeat)
      • Most Enterprises Can’t Stop Stage-Three AI Agent Threats (VentureBeat)
      • OpenAI Updates Its Agents SDK to Help Enterprises Build Safer, More Capable Agents (TechCrunch)
      • How CIOs Can Tackle AI Ownership (CIO Dive)
      • AI-Written Software Creates Hassles for Wary Security Teams (CIO Dive)
      • What Happens When A.I. Runs a Store in San Francisco? (The New York Times)
      • First Take: Claude Design by Anthropic Hastens the End of Siloed UX (Gartner)

      Claude and Anthropic

      • Google to Invest Up to $40B in Anthropic in Cash and Compute (TechCrunch)
      • Introducing Claude Opus 4.7 (Anthropic)
      • Anthropic Chief Dario Amodei: ‘I Don’t Want AI Turned on Our Own People’ (Financial Times)
      • White House May Give Federal Agencies Anthropic Mythos AI (GovTech)
      • Anthropic and Freshfields Agree Deal to Create Legal AI Tools (Financial Times)
      • Anthropic Ran a Marketplace and Bots Closed Every Deal (PYMNTS)

      Industry and Policy

      • OpenAI Takes Aim at Anthropic with Beefed-Up Codex (TechCrunch)
      • Google and Pentagon Reportedly Agree on Deal for ‘Any Lawful’ Use of AI (The Verge)
      • You’re About to Feel the AI Money Squeeze (The Verge)

        Literacy and Skills

        • Prompt Like a Pro (Axios)
        • Can AI Do Your Taxes? We Found Out. (PYMNTS)

              Workforce, Jobs and Economy

              Access to The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and other paywalled content is available to all students, faculty and staff with a valid Syracuse University NetID. Learn more.

              This Issue’s Win: Can AI Judge Itself?

              A prompt is how you ask generative AI tools to do something for you (e.g., creating, summarizing, editing or transforming). Treat it like a conversation, using clear language and enough context to get the result you have in mind.

              To get more practice, use the generative AI tool of your choice (for example, Microsoft Copilot, OpenAI ChatGPT or Anthropic Claude) to execute the following prompt:

              “You are a skeptical employer hiring a recent college graduate. Based on what you know about AI’s impact on entry-level work, design a 5-question interview that tests whether a candidate can think critically about AI outputs—not just use AI to produce them.“

              Helpful Resources

              Thank you for reading. Go Orange!

              AI Insights for April 16, 2026

              This message was originally shared to subscribers April 16, 2026.

              Upcoming Events

              Did you miss yesterday’s AI at Work: Claude Code session? You can catch up anytime—recordings from this semester are available to watch on demand.

              Also, students are invited to join us for our upcoming Orange AI: Chat Session with Newhouse Professor Adam Peruta. We’ll meet on April 23 from 3 to 4 p.m. in the Graham Scholarly Commons (114 Bird Library) to explore AI and put students’ prompting skills to the test.

              We want to hear from you. Take a quick survey to share how you’re using AI at work and what topics matter most to you—your input directly shapes our programming.

              This Issue’s Tip: 5 Claude Features You Didn’t Know You Needed

              Claude can do much more than draft emails or answer questions—and you might be missing out on some of its most useful capabilities. From remembering your preferences to analyzing uploaded documents, browsing the web for up-to-date info and even generating code, these lesser-known features can save time and streamline your work. Whether you’re managing projects, writing for different audiences or tackling repetitive tasks, there’s likely a feature here that can make an immediate impact. Explore how you could start using these five features today.

              News and Views

              In Summary

              AI is accelerating across sectors, with massive investment, new models and rising scrutiny. OpenAI raised a record $122B as Meta unveiled a competitive model, while regulators probe safety risks. Higher ed is adapting—teaching AI ethics and integrating tools into curricula—as students rethink careers amid job disruption. Experts warn AI will reshape society and demand urgent institutional response.

              Education, Teaching and Learning

              Big Tech, Industry Moves and Competition

              Policy, Regulation and Governance

              • ‘Subpoenas are Forthcoming’: Florida AG Opens Probe Into OpenAI, ChatGPT (Politico)
              • Anthropic Opposes the Extreme AI Liability Bill That OpenAI Backed (Wired)
              • Industrial Policy for the Intelligence Age: Ideas to Keep People First (OpenAI)
              • Decision-Making by Consensus Doesn’t Work in the AI Era (Harvard Business Review)

              Research, Frontiers and Advanced Applications

              • AI Takes on Mission Control as Artemis II Heads for the Moon (PYMNTS)
              • Fed Chair Jerome Powell Discussed Anthropic’s Mythos AI Cyber Threat with Major U.S. Banks (CBS News)

                Security, Risks and Ethics

                • OpenAI: Introducing the Child Safety Blueprint (OpenAI)
                • Project Glasswing: Securing Critical Software for the AI Era (Anthropic)
                • Building a Human Resilience Infrastructure for the AI Age (Elon University)

                  Society, Culture and Public Perception

                    Workforce, Jobs and Economy

                    • Which Jobs Are Most at Risk in the Age of AI? (Inside Higher Ed)
                    • Findings on AI Automation from Thousands of Worker Evaluations of Labor Market Tasks (MIT FutureTech)
                    • AI Adoption by the Numbers (Andreessen Horowitz)
                    • Why Some Companies Say AI ‘Tokenmaxxing’ Is Key to Survival (The Wall Street Journal)
                    • The Enterprise AI Readiness Gap: What Company Data Reveals About the Real Barrier to Scale (PYMNTS)

                    Access to The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and other paywalled content is available to all students, faculty and staff with a valid Syracuse University NetID. Learn more.

                    This Issue’s Win: 10 Smarter Ways to Use AI

                    A prompt is how you ask generative AI tools to do something for you (e.g., creating, summarizing, editing or transforming). Treat it like a conversation, using clear language and enough context to get the result you have in mind.

                    To get more practice, use the generative AI tool of your choice (for example, Microsoft Copilot, OpenAI ChatGPT or Anthropic Claude) to execute the following prompt:

                    “I want to use generative AI more effectively in my work. I am a [your role] in [your field/department]. I regularly work on tasks like [list 2–3 common tasks].

                    Suggest 10 practical, specific ways I could use AI to save time, improve quality, or try something new. Include a mix of quick wins and more advanced uses. For each idea, give a short example of a prompt I could use to get started.“

                    Helpful Resources

                    Thank you for reading. Go Orange!

                    AI Insights for April 2, 2026

                    This message was originally shared to subscribers April 2, 2026.

                    AI at Work

                    Ever wondered how developers are actually using AI to write, debug, and ship code faster? Our next AI at Work session is all about Claude Code, an agentic coding tool that brings AI directly into your development workflow. Join us on April 15 from 2 to 3:15 p.m. in 216 Marley or on Microsoft Teams.

                    Missed our last session? The recording from AI at Work: Claude Success Stories is now available—faculty and staff share how they are using Claude to draft communications, streamline tasks and more.

                    We want to hear from you. Take a quick survey to share how you’re using AI at work and what topics matter most to you—your input directly shapes our programming.

                    This Issue’s Tip: Ask Clementine

                    Clementine is Syracuse University’s new AI assistant that lets students and advisors search for courses using conversational language—no more digging through dropdown menus or complex catalogs.

                    Just ask things like “I’m a third-year Public Relations major. What PR classes end by 4 p.m.?” and get results fast.

                    To try it out, visit clementine.syr.edu, log in with your Syracuse University credentials and select the “Class Search” assistant. The more context you give, the better the results.

                    News and Views

                    In Summary

                    Colleges are rapidly rethinking how they assess learning, with oral exams and new “AI-allowed vs. AI-restricted” models emerging. At the same time, federal policy is taking shape, and industry leaders warn of a massive workforce shift needed to support AI infrastructure. Meanwhile, new research highlights a growing tension: while AI creates opportunity, it may also be changing how students think, learn and engage with knowledge.

                    Education, Teaching and Learning

                    Environmental and Broader Impact

                    • AI’s Arrival Complicates Big Tech Climate Goals, and Some Worry It’s Locking in More Fossil Fuels (AP News)

                    Industry, Companies and Product News

                    • The Sudden Fall of OpenAI’s Most Hyped Product Since ChatGPT (The Wall Street Journal)
                    • Microsoft’s Research Assistant Can Now Use Multiple AI Models Simultaneously (Engadget)

                    Policy, Government and Regulation

                    • National Policy Framework – Artificial Intelligence (The White House)
                    • The White House Just Laid Out How It Wants to Regulate AI (CNN)
                    • U.S. Department of Labor – Make America AI-Ready (U.S. Department of Labor)
                    • David Sacks Transitions From AI/Crypto Czar to Technology Advisory Committee Co-Chair (PYMNTS)

                      Research, Behavior and Society

                      • Sycophantic AI Decreases Prosocial Intentions and Promotes Dependence (Science)
                      • Wikipedia Bans AI From Writing Its Articles (Wikipedia)
                      • Anthropic Economic Index Report: Learning Curves (Anthropic)
                      • AI and Bots Have Officially Taken Over the Internet, Report Finds (CNBC)
                      • There’s a Good Reason You Can’t Concentrate (The New York Times)

                        Security, Risks and Ethics

                        • Why MCP Security Can’t Be Patched Away (DarkReading)
                        • Behind the Curtain: AI’s Looming Cyber Nightmare (Axios)
                        • US Man Pleads Guilty to Defrauding Music Streamers Out of Millions Using AI (The Guardian)

                          Workforce, Jobs and Economy

                          • AI Success Stems from Better Collaboration, Not Prompts (CIO Dive)
                          • Nvidia’s Huang Pitches AI Tokens on Top of Salary as Agents Reshape How Humans Work (CNBC)
                          • AI Boom Drives Micron Margins to Record High Amid Chip Supply Constraints (Manufacturing Dive)
                          • Exclusive: U.S. Needs “Whole New Workforce” for AI, Meta President Says (Axios)
                          • To Scale AI Agents Successfully, Think of Them Like Team Members (Harvard Business Review)

                          Access to The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and other paywalled content is available to all students, faculty and staff with a valid Syracuse University NetID. Learn more.

                          This Issue’s Win: AI Tutor

                          A prompt is how you ask generative AI tools to do something for you (e.g., creating, summarizing, editing or transforming). Treat it like a conversation, using clear language and enough context to get the result you have in mind.

                          To get more practice, use the generative AI tool of your choice (for example, Microsoft Copilot, OpenAI ChatGPT or Anthropic Claude) to execute the following prompt:

                          “I want you to act as a tutor, not an answer generator.

                          Ask me 3–5 questions to assess my understanding of this topic: [insert topic]. Do not give me answers right away. Instead, guide me step-by-step, asking follow-up questions that help me think more deeply. If I get something wrong, don’t correct me immediately—give me hints so I can work toward the answer myself.

                          At the end, summarize what I understand well and where I need improvement.“

                          Helpful Resources

                          Thank you for reading. Go Orange!