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The rise of ChatGPT. Art by Addie Martin. Generative AI is rapidly changing our society in ways we can’t fully understand. Young and old people alike are becoming increasingly dependent on an unreliable and ethically questionable technology. Its sycophantic nature combined with its lack of empathy or critical thinking often enables or encourages dangerous behavior, especially in younger people with more vulnerabilities than experience. In response to this problem, OpenAI is r

Dolly Parton during her visit to Willamette University in September 1989. Photo from Willamette Archives. Across Willamette’s campus, a culture of civic engagement—actions that individuals or groups take to address the concerns and well-being of their communities—drives students to step up, get involved and apply their skills to improve the public life of the greater Salem community. Especially now, that drive is taking a page out of Dolly Parton’s book. Parton’s impact on t

This robot has a question. Art by Basil Allen. Starting this semester, two new interdisciplinary minors are introduced at the Salem campus, combining engineering and ethics surrounding artificial intelligence. These minors include engineering AI, with the described curriculum including Python, data science, machine learning and neural networks, and understanding AI, taught through courses in math, philosophy, psychology, anthropology and music. Both minors were announced thi

The Willamette University Bearcats play the Pacific University Boxers in Salem, Oregon on September 13, 2025. Photo credit to Henry Jensen and Willamette University. Willamette University football ended a 12 game losing streak against Pacific University on their Sept. 12 away game, defeating the Boxers 6-3 at Hanson Stadium. This marks Willamette's first victory over Pacific since 2013. Pacific's football program was discontinued for a period before being restored in 2010, a