From Fear to Fluency: A Grassroots, Collaborative Approach to Campus-Wide AI Literacy

No mandate. No dedicated budget. Just colleagues who decided waiting wasn't an option and a campus community willing to learn and iterate. When LLMs hit the mainstream, our institution didn't respond with a top-down policy or a sweeping initiative. Our response grew organically, through conversations with the potential to drive change. IT, librarians and faculty colleagues worked together to organize events and create spaces to weigh in and reflect. Faculty shared expertise. Staff gave time. Enthusiasts became advocates. Skeptics became essential critics, finding the fault lines that turned sharing into iterative learning. This investment has yielded 30+ workshops, four expert speakers, and poster and panel sessions showcasing innovations and student voices. We’ve reached 70% of faculty and hundreds of staff, building a culture of literacy where shared expertise turns individual uncertainty into collective confidence. Results include targeted staff training, for-credit student AI skills courses, a campus AI resource hub, and a cross-functional AI Advisory Group giving our work an institutional shape. When a AI platform was deployed, it wasn't IT pushing a tool—it was the faculty advocating for a documented need to support teaching and learning. This poster shares the strategies, lessons, and structures developed during our journey and makes the case that at any institution, the most powerful AI initiative you can build is one your colleagues actually own.