IBL News | New York
Columbia State Community College received this month a $2.02 million, four-year federal grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education.
With the funding, this community college — the only one in Tennessee — will establish a new AI division and expand AI literacy across its programs, an initiative which is part of COMPASS (Community College Operational Model for Promoting AI Student Success).
This program is designed to build institutional capacity for AI while ensuring students gain practical AI skills, according to the announcement.
The grant will also help integrate AI tools across academic programs and student services, benefiting more than 1,200 first-year students each year.
“This grant establishes us as an AI cutting-edge institution, integrating AI throughout our curricula and services,” President Janet F. Smith said in the announcement.
“What we build here can serve as a model for community colleges nationwide,” Mehran Mostajir, Columbia State dean of the Business and Technology Division and assistant professor of Engineering Systems Technology,