News & Events

In this Section

Tech Tips: June 2026 Faculty/Staff Newsletter

his message was originally shared to all faculty and staff via email on June 11, 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:

AI at Work

What does Claude actually look like in practice at Syracuse University? Join us on June 24 from 9:30 to 10:45 a.m. in 500 Hall of Languages or on Microsoft Teams for the next AI at Work session—real stories, real takeaways straight from colleagues across campus. Register.

    Claude Design

    Claude Design—built into your Claude account—lets you generate presentation slides through a conversational prompting process. Upload source files, pull in docs from OneDrive, refine through back-and-forth edits and export a finished .pptx. Read Article.

      Spring 2026 Favorites

      Our Tech Tips Weekly newsletter wrapped up the semester with a greatest-hits edition—and the results are in. Here are the five most-clicked stories from Spring 2026, curated entirely by reader engagement:

      • 5 Claude Features You Didn’t Know You Needed – Memory, file uploads, web search, custom personas and code generation. At least one of these is probably hiding in plain sight.
      • AI at Work: Claude Skills – A session on building, sharing, and managing Skills inside Claude, with live demos of writing-style, branding and accessibility skills.
      • Claude Design – Describe what you need, refine through conversation and export to Canva, PDF, or PPTX—no design background required.
      • Complete Guide to Building Skills – Anthropic’s deep-dive on creating reusable instruction sets to automate workflows and get consistent results without re-explaining yourself every time.
      • Generative AI Video Playlist – Everything from Claude basics to advanced features like Projects and Skills, plus past AI at Work session recordings. Learn at your own pace.

      Want more tips like these delivered to your inbox every week? Subscribe to Tech Tips Weekly.

      Information Security Tip: Phishing

      Phishing attempts targeting the Syracuse University community are on the rise—and getting harder to spot. Scammers are impersonating trusted sources to steal your login credentials and personal information. Phish Bowl.

      Digital Accessibility Tip: Alt Text

      With updates to Blackboard Ally, adding alt text to images in Blackboard has never been easier, and you can do so right within your Blackboard Ultra course. There’s even an AI assistant available to help!! Add Descriptions.

      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. 

      Classroom Technology

      The ITS Learning Environments team provides orientation sessions to help faculty become familiar with classroom technology. You also can schedule a tour or workshop at the MakerSpace over the summer. Classroom Tech.

      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!

      AI Insights for May 28, 2026

      This message was originally shared to subscribers May 28, 2026.

      AI at Work Returns June 24

      Your colleagues have been putting Claude to work—and they’ve got stories to tell. Catch the next AI at Work session on June 24, 9:30 to 10:45 a.m. in 500 Hall of Languages or on Microsoft Teams to hear what’s clicking, what’s surprising and how AI is showing up in everyday work across campus.

      This Issue’s Tip: Build a Presentation with Claude Design

      Got a presentation to build? Claude Design—Anthropic’s visual design tool built into your Claude account—lets you generate slides through a conversational prompting process. Upload your own files, pull in docs from OneDrive, refine through back-and-forth edits and export a finished .pptx when you’re done.

      News and Views

      In Summary

      Anthropic is on the verge of its first profitable quarter, with revenue set to top $10 billion. Bristol-Myers Squibb just rolled out Claude to 30,000 employees. Meanwhile, universities are navigating campus-wide AI adoption with mixed results, new grads are entering an AI-reshaped job market and Silicon Valley’s lobbying push is intensifying by the day.

      Academia and Higher Education

      • Artificial Intelligence and Grade Inflation (UC Berkeley)
      • UCF Commencement Speaker Met with Boos Over Pro-AI Remarks (NY Post)
      • Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt Booed During Graduation Speech About AI (NBC News)
      • AI Will Make the Academic Article Obsolete (The Chronicle of Higher Education)
      • Why Are Students Opening Up to AI Instead of People? (Inside Higher Ed)
      • College Students Are Booing Commencement Speakers Celebrating AI, but Still Using It to Cheat (Fortune)
      • Ban for Authors Submitting AI Content ‘Welcome but Unenforceable’ (Inside Higher Ed)
      • Theo Baker Is a F**king Menace! (The Chronicle of Higher Education)
      • This Big University System Is Embracing AI. Students and Faculty Aren’t All on Board (NPR)
      • The First Class of AI Natives Is Graduating. Offices Are Getting Ready. (The Wall Street Journal)

      Capabilities and Research

      • OpenAI Claims It Solved an 80-year-old Math Problem (TechCrunch)
      • Claude Mythos Finds 10,000+ Critical Vulnerabilities (Anthropic)
      • 2028: Two Scenarios for Global AI Leadership (Anthropic)
      • The AI Superstars Who Say a ‘Vibe Slop’ Crisis Is Coming (The Wall Street Journal)
      • These 5 Charts Show How ChatGPT Has Flooded Our Lives (The Washington Post)

      Enterprise

        Cybersecurity

        • AI Used to Develop Working Zero-Day Exploit, Researchers Warn (Cybersecurity Dive)
        • OpenAI Launches Daybreak to Combat Cyber Threats (CIO Dive)

          Safety, Ethics and Policy

                Workforce

                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: Make It Make Sense

                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 understand something I keep hearing about but don’t fully get. I’ll give you the topic, and I want you to explain it three ways: once like I’m a complete beginner, once like I’m an expert in an unrelated field, and once using an analogy from everyday life.“

                Helpful Resources

                Thank you for reading. Go Orange!

                Claude Has a Memory. Here’s How to Use It.

                By Shannon Glennon, AI Technology Transformation Specialist, Syracuse University ITS 

                If Claude has started feeling more familiar lately, there’s a reason. Anthropic rolled out persistent memory to all Claude users in March 2026, free and paid plans alike. Claude is now building a picture of who you are across conversations, quietly, in the background. 

                Here’s what’s happening and how to work with it. 

                What memory is (and isn’t) 

                Claude doesn’t save your full conversations. It synthesizes them. After each chat, it extracts relevant details like your role, your preferences and how you like responses formatted, then stores those as a running summary. You can view and customize Claude’s memory features by going to Settings > Capabilities > Memory. “Search and reference chats” and “Generate memory from chat history” are on by default, and you can click on “View and manage memory” to see what Claude has stored. 

                Two ways memory gets built 

                The first is automatic. Claude picks up on things you mention and adds them over time. The second is intentional, and it’s faster. In any conversation, you can say “add to memory that I prefer concise responses” or “remember that I work in higher education” and it updates immediately, no waiting. 

                That second method is where the real value is. The more you intentionally shape your memory profile, the more useful Claude becomes across every conversation. 

                When you don’t want something remembered 

                Sometimes a conversation is just a one-time thing. If you spend an hour asking Claude to help you source catering for a meeting, you probably don’t need Claude to suggest sandwich platters every time you open a new chat. 

                Two easy options: delete the conversation from your history after the fact (Sidebar > Chats > Select chats > Delete) or use login to Claude using Incognito mode in your browser before you start. Incognito sessions don’t get saved to memory or history at all. 

                “Add to memory” 

                … is the exact phrase I use when I want Claude to add something to memory. It’s quick and makes a big difference in my Claude experience. Honestly, this is one of my favorite features right now. Take five minutes to check your memory settings, then try telling Claude something specific about how you work and ask it to add to memory! 

                AI Insights for May 14, 2026

                This message was originally shared to subscribers May 14, 2026.

                AI at Work Returns June 24

                Curious how your Syracuse University colleagues are actually using Claude? Join us on June 24, 9:30 to 10:45 a.m. in 500 Hall of Languages or on Microsoft Teams for the next session in our AI at Work series. This one’s all about real stories from across campus—what’s working, what’s been learned and how Claude is fitting into everyday work.

                This Issue’s Tip: Claude Design

                Did you know Claude can now build formatted, shareable documents—slide decks, one-pagers, resource guides—without ever opening PowerPoint? Claude Design lets you describe what you need and get a polished, ready-to-share layout in return. No design experience required. Look for the palette icon in your Claude sidebar to get started, and read the full walkthrough for ideas and examples.

                News and Views

                In Summary

                Anthropic’s powerful new Mythos model uncovered tens of thousands of software vulnerabilities, prompting the White House to weigh vetting AI models before release—while Claude Security entered public beta to help organizations patch what’s been found. In higher ed, SUNY rolled out a systemwide AI policy, half of campus CTOs are questioning AI’s ROI, faculty are voicing real concerns about student learning and 42% of students now say AI will influence their career choice.

                Education and Higher Education

                Business Strategy

                • Power BI Report (Power BI)
                • Design Your Company for AI, Not AI for Your Company (Boston Consulting Group)
                • AI Godfather Yann LeCun’s Blunt Advice for the AI Age (Axios)
                • From Deliverables to Decisions: AI Shifts the Atomic Unit of Business (Shelly Palmer)

                Claude and Anthropic

                  • Claude Security Is Now in Public Beta (Claude)
                  • Anthropic Releases New AI Agents for Financial Services Firms (The Wall Street Journal)
                  • Anthropic CEO Warns of Cyber ‘Moment of Danger’ as AI Exposes Thousands of Vulnerabilities (CNBC)
                  • Focus Areas for The Anthropic Institute (Anthropic)

                  Cybersecurity

                  • AI Used to Develop Working Zero-Day Exploit, Researchers Warn (Cybersecurity Dive)
                  • OpenAI Launches Daybreak to Combat Cyber Threats (CIO Dive)

                    Healthcare

                    • AI Outperforms Doctors in Emergency Room Tasks, New Harvard Study Shows (Harvard Magazine)

                          Policy and Government

                          • Disclosed Government AI Use Increased By 70% in 2025, Per OMB (FEDSCOOP)
                          • Top AI Companies Agree to Work with Pentagon on Secret Data (The Washington Post)
                          • White House Considers Vetting A.I. Models Before They Are Released (The New York Times)

                          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: Stress-Test Your Own Idea

                          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’m going to share an idea with you. Before responding with any encouragement or agreement, act as a thoughtful skeptic. Identify the three weakest assumptions I’m making, the strongest counterargument someone could raise, and one thing I might be overlooking entirely. Be direct—I’d rather hear it from you now than from someone in the meeting. Here’s the idea: [paste your idea].“

                          Helpful Resources

                          Thank you for reading. Go Orange!

                          Using Claude Design to Build a PowerPoint Presentation

                          By Shannon Glennon, AI Technology Transformation Specialist, Syracuse University ITS 

                          Claude Design is Anthropic’ s visual design tool, available at claude.ai/design. It’s browser-based, built into your Claude account and lets you generate visual assets, including presentation slides, through a conversational prompting process. Here’s how to get started. 

                          Step 1: Go to claude.ai/design 

                          Open your browser and navigate directly to claude.ai/design. You’ll land in the Claude Design workspace, where you can start a new project. 

                          Step 2: Write a Descriptive Prompt 

                          Be specific about your audience, key messages and any organizational context that should influence the design. Instead of “Draft a deck about AI,” try something like: “Create a 10-slide presentation introducing generative AI tools to university staff. Include an agenda slide, key use cases and a tips slide for getting started.” The more detail you give upfront, the less back and forth you’ll need later. 

                          Step 3: Bring In Your Own Files 

                          You don’t have to start from scratch. You can upload a Word document, PDF or notes file as source material, and Claude will pull content from it as it builds your slides. If you have files saved in OneDrive, connect your Microsoft 365 account through Claude’s connectors first. Once connected, you can reference those files directly in your prompt without downloading and re-uploading anything. 

                          Step 4: Review What Claude Generates 

                          Claude will build an initial version of your presentation. Read through each slide and note what’s working and what isn’t. Look at the structure, the amount of text on each slide and whether the key points land clearly. 

                          Step 5: Refine Through Conversation 

                          From there, you refine through conversation, inline comments or direct edits until it’s right. You can ask Claude to shorten a slide, reorder sections, rewrite a headline or adjust the visual layout. Treat it like a working draft you’re editing together. 

                          Step 6: Export as PowerPoint 

                          When you’re satisfied with the result, export the file. Export options include PDF, PowerPoint (.pptx), standalone HTML and ZIP. Download the .pptx to open and edit it in PowerPoint like any other file. 

                          Claude Design is still in research preview, so results will vary, and some iteration is expected. Going in with a clear prompt and source material will get you the furthest, fastest.