NMSU Dean Joins National AI Board to Shape Public University Governance

Public universities are seeking a shared approach to AI, but the tools to guide that work are still being written. New Mexico State University said October 7 that Enrico Pontelli, its arts and sciences dean and senior adviser for AI, will serve on a national board’s governance, ethics and risk workgroup, with a playbook planned for spring 2027.

The National Association of Higher Education Systems, or NASH, describes the initiative as the first national AI effort built exclusively for public university systems. Its 35-member AI Advisory Board brings together leaders from university systems, campuses and the wider AI field. The board began work in July 2026, selecting workgroups and establishing its strategic foundation.

The ambition is to share work that individual institutions might otherwise duplicate. Pontelli said public colleges should build a shared, secure foundation rather than spend time and money reinventing it. NASH executive vice president Jessica Todtman framed the effort as a move beyond isolated campus experiments toward coordinated readiness across public university systems.

Governance alongside teaching and student support

Pontelli’s workgroup will examine the policies, oversight structures and organizational capacity needed to balance innovation with accountability, ethics and risk. That places his role within a wider effort covering both academic work and university operations. The board’s five workgroups divide that remit into distinct areas:

• Teaching and learning.
• Student success and advising.
• Data infrastructure and privacy.
• Governance, ethics and risk.
• Operational capacity and efficiency.

Think of governance, ethics and risk as the brakes on a high-performance sports car. You don’t put brakes on a race car to make it go slow; you put them on so you can drive fast safely.

Enrico Pontelli, NMSU dean and senior adviser for AI

A playbook built to outlast individual platforms

The board’s approach focuses on capabilities that can remain useful as AI products change: governance, leadership, workforce preparation and decision-making. Its planned frameworks are developmental rather than compliance-driven. Instead of binary scorecards, they are intended to identify strong campus practices, highlight risks across a university system and help leaders move from assessment to action.

Shared resources are also meant to help systems assess their readiness and strengthen responsible AI practices within their own circumstances. NASH’s stated goal is to build capacity across institutions, address common risks and prepare learners for an AI-enabled economy—not tie the effort to a particular application or platform.

Workgroups are developing the assessment and playbook through fall 2026. Review, refinement and validation are scheduled to follow before publication and distribution to NASH member systems in spring 2027. That timetable makes the practical guidance a planned output of the board’s work, rather than a resource already delivered.