Manhattan University Bets on AI Literacy for All Students with New Cross-Campus Minor

Manhattan University has introduced a new undergraduate minor in Artificial Intelligence that breaks the mold of traditional departmental silos. The program is explicitly designed to "reside in no particular college or school," making it a cross-campus offering available to students from any major. More strikingly, every first-year student—regardless of their intended field—must now complete an online AI course developed in partnership with IBM SkillsBuild, earning a digital badge they can display on LinkedIn or their résumé. The move signals a fundamental shift in how higher education is thinking about AI: not as a niche technical elective, but as a foundational literacy for all graduates.

The AI minor is part of a broader institutional push that also includes new programs in cybersecurity and data science, all structured to be cross-disciplinary. Manhattan University already had a Computer Science minor (a 15-credit sequence in programming, data structures, and systems) and a B.S. in Computer Science with a concentration in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning that includes courses like *Neural Networks and Learning Systems*, *Artificial Intelligence*, and *Data Mining* or *Deep Learning & Generative AI*. The new AI minor extends these offerings beyond the CS department, aiming to serve students in business, liberal arts, and other fields who want structured AI study without a full CS degree.

The mandatory first-year AI course covers what AI is, what it can be used for, and how it works. Completion grants students a digital badge—a verifiable credential that employers can see. The course was developed with IBM SkillsBuild, a free online learning platform that offers skill-building in AI, cybersecurity, and data science. The university framed this partnership as a way to embed AI exposure immediately, rather than waiting for a full curriculum overhaul.

While the exact course list and credit requirements for the AI minor are not yet published in the university catalog, the structure of similar minors at Manhattan—such as the Business Analytics minor (15 credits) and the existing CS minor (15 credits)—suggests the AI minor will likely be a multi-course program of around 15 credits. This would make it accessible as a complement to most majors.

Manhattan University is not alone in opening AI education to all undergraduates. Cornell University and New York Institute of Technology, for example, already offer AI minors open to students from any discipline. But Manhattan’s approach is distinctive in two ways: it makes AI training a universal first-year requirement, and it explicitly ties that training to workforce readiness via a digital badge.

The initiative also bridges the gap between liberal arts education and high-demand technical skills. The university’s framing explicitly connects AI literacy to employability, signaling to employers that even humanities graduates from Manhattan will have a foundational understanding of AI concepts. This aligns with broader industry trends where companies increasingly value AI fluency across roles—from marketing to supply chain to HR.

For employers, the practical implications are immediate. Starting with the current first-year cohort, Manhattan graduates will arrive with a baseline AI understanding and a verifiable badge. This reduces the training burden for companies that otherwise must teach new hires what AI is and how to think about its applications. For roles that don’t require deep technical skills—like product managers, sales representatives, or policy analysts—a candidate with an AI minor and a digital badge signals that they can engage meaningfully with AI-driven tools and projects.

For startups and tech companies recruiting from Manhattan, the AI minor creates a pipeline of talent that combines domain expertise (from a student’s major) with AI literacy. A business major with an AI minor, for instance, could more effectively evaluate AI vendors or design data-driven strategies. The cross-campus nature of the minor also means that students from fields like psychology, economics, or communications can bring AI perspectives into their industries—potentially accelerating adoption in sectors that have been slower to digitize.

The most important missing piece is the detailed curriculum for the AI minor. Will it require programming prerequisites, or is it designed to be entirely accessible to non-technical students? The existing CS minor requires 15 credits of programming and systems courses, but the AI minor may lower the barrier by focusing on concepts, ethics, and applications rather than coding. The university’s catalog update will clarify this.

Also worth tracking: enrollment numbers and student feedback. If the mandatory first-year AI course generates interest in the minor, it could become one of the most popular minors on campus. Other universities—especially those with strong liberal arts traditions—will be watching to see whether Manhattan’s model of universal AI literacy is scalable and effective. For now, Manhattan has made a clear bet: AI is not just for computer scientists anymore.