#226: ASU, Cloudflare & IDC on AI Governance in the Higher Ed Wild West
In this EDUCAUSE episode, Lester Godsey from Arizona State University, Dan Kent from Cloudflare, and Matthew Leger from IDC break down why most institutions are still in the AI Wild West - and what it actually takes to govern, secure, and scale AI across a campus before agentic systems make the problem exponentially harder.
Featuring
Lester Godsey is Chief Information Security Officer at Arizona State University - back at ASU after 30 years, having previously served as CISO at Maricopa County where he led cybersecurity through the 2020 and 2024 elections.
Matthew Leger is Senior Research Manager at IDC covering worldwide education and EdTech digital strategies - previously an academic researcher at Harvard Kennedy School and administrator at SUNY Albany, with over a decade across nearly every seat in higher education minus professor (though it’s on the list). : )
Dan Kent is Field CTO at Cloudflare - focused on helping public sector customers navigate emerging technologies, with 18 years working alongside higher education organizations and five kids who between them have given him more higher ed exposure than most.
Timestamps
(2:40) The Higher Ed AI Wild West - Matt on aimless experimentation, siloed adoption, and why coordination is the real governance problem
(5:45) ASU's Create AI Platform - Lester on the walled garden approach, 50+ LLMs, and the internal ethical AI engine built before he arrived
(8:00) AI in 2025 is where cloud was in 2010 - Dan on why undefined terminology is creating fear in boardrooms and legislatures
(10:00) Agentic AI is the biggest security concern - Dan on why giving agency to a machine is a fundamentally different risk than generative AI
(17:00) Shadow AI is just shadow IT - Lester reframes the governance problem and walks through ASU's nuanced three-tier DeepSeek response
(22:00) Less than 50% have a data governance plan - Dan on what he's hearing from public sector customers on AI readiness
(27:00) Declining trust in higher ed - Matt on whether the ROI skepticism is real and how AI can help institutions demonstrate value
(30:40) ASU's student-led SOC - Lester on training the next generation of analysts with agentic AI and security orchestration
(33:00) Final takes - AI as a security tool, tabletop exercises for AI threats, and why today's students will shape AI's ethical future
Listen now: YouTube x Apple x Spotify
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