AI is reshaping coursework and classroom expectations. Student well being is front and center amid a growing mental health crisis. Phone bans are popping up across K-12 schools. And actions from the Trump administration have put schools in defense mode – with the threat of funding freezes in K-12 districts and high-profile showdowns unfolding at some of the most visible universities.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: there are two Gen Zs. That division shows up not just in politics, but in culture, technology, and, clearly, in education. The campus context for Gen Z 2.0 is drastically different from the one that shaped the sub-generation that came before them.
At The Up and Up, we’ll break down these themes throughout the year, with a special edition and a big announcement this Thursday.
But first, some thoughts.
Last week, I wrote in an op-ed for The Washington Post that “the AI cheating panic is missing the point.” The real story is that students are anxious and confused about how to actually use AI, and desperate to learn how to use it right.
“Having easily referenced standards so that students know whether it’s okay to use AI to outline their class notes, or to go over a math homework question, or to suggest an essay topic would be helpful. But it’s only part of what students tell me they need. What they often want most are classes that don’t just acknowledge AI but also show them how to properly use it. Ohio State is now requiring students to take an AI fluency course, for example. That’s a step in the right direction,” I wrote.
Rather than blame students for using AI incorrectly, schools need to support them. Students aren’t looking to cheat with AI; they’re looking to compete with it. They know AI is reshaping the job market, and they want to be well positioned to succeed by using it as a tool to supercharge their own capacity.
Phones, Social Media, and Mental Health
Beyond AI, I’m seeing a shift in how tweens and teens are thinking about social media, cell phone usage, and mental health.
While older Gen Zers often try to hide – or surrender to – their iPhone addictions, younger Gen Zers don’t want to repeat that cycle. Many say they want to confront the role technology plays in their lives head-on. Phone bans in K-12 schools tap into this mindset (though whether schools are leading the change or responding to it is up for debate).
Gen Z 1.0 would have resisted those restrictions. Gen Z 2.0 understands that they’re necessary. I’ll be curious to see how students lead this movement, not just in K-12 classrooms but on college campuses, too.
Higher Ed in a Political Spotlight
The post-October 7th and post-2024 election climate has sparked a wave of campus initiatives aimed at promoting conversation across ideological lines – and not just partisan divides, but cultural and social ones too. Students appreciate the effort, but many say these programs fall flat.
At Harvard, my alma-matter and ground zero in the Trump administration’s higher ed battles, an “Intellectual Vitality” initiative seems to be taking full hold. The initiative isn’t new, but I’m told by students on campus that it feels more integrated with student material than it did last fall, after it was announced in February, 2024.
Harvard has clear incentives to highlight its commitment to diversity of thought amid negotiations with the Trump administration, which has taken aim at Harvard’s handling of antisemitism on campus, DEI, and admissions after the Supreme Court’s ruling against affirmative action.
The school has also updated its required first-year training to include modules on combatting antisemitism and Islamophobia, alongside a new section described as something that “will help you learn to understand divergent perspectives without compromising your own beliefs, and to foster an environment where living, learning, and collaborating is enriching and rewarding.”
Campuses Nationwide Experiment with Dialogue Initiatives
It’s not just Harvard. Campuses across the country are ramping up initiatives to spark dialogue.
I checked in with some of The Up and Up Community ambassadors to see how initiatives like these were taking hold on their campuses – and how they feel about them. Here’s some of what they shared.
“Every year incoming freshmen have to do these modules about things like wellness, learning at Duke, and gender violence. But this year they added a whole new section called perspectives,” said one of The Up and Up Community’s ambassadors at Duke who helped with freshman orientation. “And then during orientation they had to do an in person ‘chat’ with their small groups where we talked about having different perspectives and how to have civil conversations with other people.”
At The University of Michigan, one of The Up and Up Community’s ambassadors tells me that while certain initiatives like these exist, “we could always use more.”
“Much of the discourse has been led by student groups rather than the university itself, which I see as inefficient and insufficient,” he said. “I would argue that high[er] education doesn’t lean towards a liberal viewpoint, but rather focuses on treating our university like a company and avoiding controversial issues which is antithetical to what university is supposed to be. I wouldn’t want them to take stances on these issues, but I would expect them to encourage dialogue, which is lacking in that regard.”
As a result, this ambassador told me he’s working on a speaker series to “invite compelling speakers with some proximity to power or knowledge, and have them speak with an opposing or slightly different viewpoints and a moderator.” He plans to moderate the first session on Israel and Palestine.
Meanwhile at George Washington University, one of The Up and Up’s campus ambassadors says she feels genuine dialogue across differences is lacking altogether.
“I think it's something that's been missing on campus! If there have been efforts, they seem to be performative & diluted by university bureaucracy (I just recently found out last year’s theme for my school was ‘colors of democratic discourse’ or something like that but when I asked admin to show support for our democratic debate on the Israel-Palestine conflict there was radio silence),” she said. “Universities will say they're in favor of civil discourse but leave out the diff ideologies part.”
What Students Really Want
As I told Harvard Magazine in a piece on ‘How MAGA Went Mainstream at Harvard,’ as Gen Z shifts right with Gen Z 2.0 leading the charge, students are looking for natural discourse across party lines.
They recognize that the tide on campus is shifting (take a look at the chart below). The majority liberal population wouldn’t surprise anyone, but the growing cohort of conservative and moderate students might.
So what? Across campuses, students aren’t looking for forced kumbaya moments or training modules during orientation that no one pays attention to. Instead, they want real, natural opportunities for debate and dialogue.
They aren’t naive – they’re tired of seeing tough issues painted in black and white. Gen Z 2.0’s perspectives exist in the nuance. And they want campus life to reflect that complexity, not avoid it.
Noteworthy reads
College-Age Jews Are Heading South, Rose Horowitch for The Atlantic
AI Is Eliminating Jobs for Younger Workers, Will Knight for Wired
How teachers say they’re embracing AI in the classroom, Bethany Braun- Silva for ABC News/GMA
The Nearly Normal Young Adulthood of Vivan Wilson, Brock Colyar for The Cut