Butler partners with free AI wellness coach Wayhaven – The Butler Collegian
Wayhaven partnership launched this fall, providing 24/7 resources to students, faculty and staff. Photo courtesy of Wayhaven.
KATE NORROD | STAFF REPORTER | knorrod@butler.edu
Wayhaven, an AI chatbot created specifically for college students, has partnered with Butler. It is designed to help students through difficult transitions and assist with the everyday problems they face. The platform is free to students, faculty and staff to use 24/7.
Bridget Yuhas, the executive director of strategy, assessment and operations for the division of diversity, equity and inclusion and student affairs, is spearheading the partnership. She has nearly two decades of experience working with college students and believes that this program will help to supplement the resources already available.
A representative from the Educational Advisory Board (EAB), a company that provides educational resources, came to campus to speak with the student affairs department on students’ “Netflix approach” to life. Students have become used to having experiences tailored to them and everything they could need available to them “on demand”. However, faculty and staff are only available to students during working hours and cannot be there all the time to answer questions or concerns.
“We had to really rethink how we’re going to be able to support students and meet their expectations,” Yuhas said. “When Wayhaven came along, it seemed to really meet that need.”
Yuhas explained that, unlike ChatGPT, Wayhaven is “built with Butler resources” and gives 24/7, accurate information to students.
Dr. Keith Magnus, the director of Counseling and Consultation Services (CCS), noted Wayhaven’s use as a supplemental resource to benefit students and help to advance the BU Be Well initiative. Wayhaven is another of Butler’s many resources available within the Mind and Body area of the BU Be Well program.
“[Some of] the benefits [to this partnership] are the accessibility, the 24/7 [access] any time of day [when] a student has a question they want to ask,” Magnus said.
First-year music performance major Andie Wisniewski generally prefers face-to-face help with mental health or other social and emotional problems, but can see the use of a 24/7 agent to assist when others are not available to listen or give advice.
“When there’s nobody working or available to help you, [the chatbot] would be a great use,” Wisniewski said. “If you need the help and you need that in the moment, that is a great resource.”
Ankur Gupta, the chair of the computer science and software engineering department, recently co-authored a book on the use of generative AI in an academic setting and was able to offer some insight into how the platform works and about the abilities of an AI chatbot in this role.
“It is solving a narrow set of questions, so you can train it deeply about all of the implications of those questions and provide really good answers,” Gupta said. “If it’s a low-stakes ask, then I would think that [the bot is] perfectly safe and reasonable.”
Yuhas emphasized that Wayhaven is not meant to be a substitute for therapy sessions or replace the services offered through CCS.
“[The AI coaches] will always bounce back if somebody is expressing worrisome comments, or they’re in a crisis, or things like that,” Yuhas said. “They will always direct back to a human.”
Students are encouraged to reach out to professionals in the case of mental health concerns or emergencies.
Tara Lineweaver, the chair of the neuroscience department and a former clinical neuropsychologist, corroborated the inability of AI to replicate therapeutic interventions in a meaningful way.
“I don’t know that you can teach [AI chatbots] empathy and sympathy and some of the key hallmarks of a therapeutic relationship,” Lineweaver said.
Magnus supported Lineweaver’s thoughts with his background as a clinical psychologist.
“The use of [Wayhaven] is not a substitute either for face-to-face or human interaction,” Magnus said. “Hopefully, students see this not as a tool to substitute for relationships, either with their friendships, or again, a substitute for therapy.”
Instead, Wayhaven can help with smaller problems and give student-tailored advice.
“It’s available to students wherever they are,” Yuhas said. “If students are feeling stressed out about finals, but it’s Thanksgiving break, they still have Wayhaven and can access it from wherever [they] are. It can help navigate some of those higher-stress situations or relationship issues and things like that, so they can still stay connected with Butler and with resources, no matter where they are.
Wayhaven can be accessed directly through their website, where students can log on with their Butler email and get started for free. Additional mental health resources, such as counseling appointment scheduling, can be found on the CCS website.
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