Overview

Trust in higher education has been eroding for years, and lately it is giving way at a pace that has caught institutions off guard. From contested AI policies to high-profile platform failures, the moments that once felt like edge cases are arriving in rapid succession, and academic leaders are being asked to respond before the foundations are repaired.

Presented at D2L Fusion 2026 in Phoenix, Arizona, as part of the Trust by Design track, this session shared findings from the AI and Governance research study, an international investigation of how academic leaders navigate AI governance decisions and how the development of AI literacies relates to that decision-making. Funded by WCET and D2L, the study gathered the perspectives of leaders from institutions around the globe. Dr. Angela Gunder hosted a conversation with study co-lead Dr. Nicole Johnson and Dr. Melissa Vito of UT San Antonio that moved from the findings first shared at the EDEN 2026 Conference in Portugal into the questions those findings raise on the ground: how institutions renegotiate trust with industry partners, and how leaders sustain the work their communities need in volatile times. Participants joined the conversation to name what they need from their industry partners now, and to consider together how trust gets designed into governance rather than assumed.