The first Christian university to launch ChatGPT Edu campus-wide

By Bella Agnello

On Friday, August 8, Dr. White announced Cedarville University to be the first evangelical Christian university to launch an OpenAI initiative campus-wide.

The decision came as a response to the rapid adaptation of artificial intelligence (AI) in the workforce as a time-saving tool. When Dr. White, president of Cedarville, met with the Cabinet on their retreat, they did not immediately set out to make the university the first Christian college to adopt ChatGPT Edu. However, after discussing the benefits and challenges of the tool and speaking with a representative from ChatGPT, it became clear that integrating AI into the 2025-2026 school year would best prepare students for the workforce.

“At this point, I became convinced that, one, AI is not going away and two, employers are demanding varying levels of familiarity and expertise,” White said. “This means students need varying levels of exposure and preparedness — thus the comprehensive system with faculty freedom on implementation. 

This technology provides students, faculty and staff with extensive access to ChatGPT’s advanced models, data analytics and web browsing. While there are several other AI technologies, ChatGPT Edu proved to be the leading tool in the EDU space. They also offered to directly train faculty and staff to utilize AI in the higher education sphere.

In only the first year the campus is learning to use the tool, White is focusing on two major goals: access and training.

“We have some super users and early adopters that will lead the way, but for many of us, we need access and training in order to understand what AI can do and what it should be used to do,” White said.

On September 15, a trainer from ChatGPT hosted a training session to help train the faculty, staff and leadership team to use the tool well before teaching students to do the same.

While some students and faculty are still hesitant to use the technology, White anticipates that, over time, people will view AI as casually as they do a computer program or the internet: as tools that can “help or hurt” depending on how they are used.

“Some students and faculty may have legitimate concerns about how AI will affect our society — I know I do,” White said. “It encourages me that we are wise enough to be cautious, and I certainly don’t want anyone to violate their conscience.”

Though AI is now formally included in Cedarville’s education, the policy prohibiting the use of AI as a substitute for creativity and diligence remains in effect. Now with direct encouragement to utilize this tool, students can learn in and out of the classroom how to ethically approach it before entering the workforce.

“I hope that we will not use it to hinder our creativity, prevent the development of critical thinking skills or replace our ability to engage with other people,” White said.

A month into the school year, White was encouraged to see ChatGPT Edu’s impact on the campus.

“I have been very pleased with the roll out of this decision,” White said. “If anything surprised me, it may be a larger number of students than we anticipated that have not engaged with AI. Our faculty and staff have done a great job.”

Dr. Miller, senior professor of Biblical Studies, was experimenting with AI at its beginnings in 2022. As it is a comprehensive generative program, he saw it as a “game changer” technology.

The world is rapidly changing because of AI. Miller encourages students not to be afraid of it but to use it as a tool in light of 2 Corinthians 10:5, which says, “We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.”

“How can this tool be used well to aid the work that we do and our creation mandate of subduing the earth?” Miller said. “In every kind of technology, the answer is always the same, how can this hinder or help in a godly way?”

When it comes to using AI in the Bible department, Miller said, “We are still figuring that out.” As it pertains to his classes, he created a chatbot for his Old Testament class. He uploaded his lecture notes into the bot and instructed it to answer questions according to the information in the files.

To prepare for exams, Miller encourages his students to ask the “Miller Bot” questions.

“If you have study questions that you don’t know the answers to, look it up here,” Miller said. “If you wanted to say, ‘Question me over Deuteronomy,’ it’ll start asking you questions to which you can reply. I can evaluate those answers based upon the files I’ve uploaded and then give you the right answers.”

Miller discourages students from using ChatGPT for all of their assignments, calling some assignments “out of bounds with the bot.” For example, papers reacting to books of the Bible should only include a student’s wrestlings and takeaways from studying the book.

In general, Miller encourages his students to steward AI as a necessary research tool. While not every answer from ChatGPT is correct, he sees this as an opportunity to challenge thought and stimulate deeper understandings of the Scriptures.

“As a researcher and somebody who wants to study and dig deeper, it has been very helpful,” Miller said. “I hope my students will really dive in and see what it can do, and see how we can help each other learn about it.”

Cedarville will continue to educate students on how to use AI in a way that will serve them well in their future careers. As students tinker with it throughout the school year, White hopes they will learn to steward AI as a way to give glory to God.

“If we use it wisely as a tool, then we can use it for good. If we use it as a shortcut to avoid hard work, then we will not benefit from it,” White said. “I hope for wisdom in implementation that allows us to use this resource for God’s glory.”

*This article was featured in Cedars’ fall 2025 edition of the print magazine.

Bella Agnello is a junior Broadcasting, Digital Media and Journalism major with a concentration in Journalism. She enjoys thrifting, listening to records and reading classic Russian literature in her spare time.