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By Macy Byars, Reporter Nebraska Public Media News
Nov. 11, 2025, 3:16 p.m. ·
Last Monday, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln unveiled its new artificial intelligence chatbot, aptly named Cornelius.
Undergraduate students can send SMS text messages to Cornelius to ask questions about the university.
Amy Goodburn, senior associate vice chancellor and dean of undergraduate education, said Cornelius is a tool for student support.
“Based on their interactions, once they type in a response, the chat bot will give them back some resources or further information about whatever topic is being addressed,” Goodburn said.
Cornelius will also check in with students every few days to offer support. The chatbot can instantly answer questions on university topics like major changes, replacing a lost N-card, housing contracts and study tips.
“We've answered typical questions that students might have, but as students ask other questions, we'll continue to update our knowledge base that will then feed them the most up-to-date responses,” Goodburn said.
Cornelius received over 15,000 messages in its first week of operation.
The technology behind Cornelius is licensed through a company called EdSights. Goodburn said over 100 universities across the country are using EdSights’ chatbots —including the University of Nebraska’s Omaha and Kearney campuses.
Messages can be customized to fit university branding and guidelines. University Communications Specialist Lydia Coulson, who served as project manager for Cornelius’ implementation, said subject-matter experts helped craft responses.
“For example, financial aid is something that is very heavily regulated, and it's very important to provide accurate, up-to-date information to students, and so that was something that folks from Husker Hub and our financial aid office did take the time to review every entry for,” Coulson said.
A private foundation funded a $1 million grant split between UNL, UNO and UNK to run, promote and improve their chatbots over the next three years. Goodburn said the grant stipulates that private foundation can’t be named, though she does note the same source funded chatbots for Nebraska’s state colleges last year.
Because the technology is licensed through a third-party company, no students are involved in the daily operations of the chatbot. Those tasks are handled by a small group of university staff. However, a student graphic design intern created the logo and look of Cornelius.
Reactions from the student population have been mixed.
Common Cornelius talking points among students include a lack of trust in artificial intelligence, a mismatch with existing academic policies about AI at UNL and university spending priorities amid sweeping budget reduction plans.
Cornelius has also been a target of ire on Yik Yak, an anonymous social media platform popular on college campuses.
“I’m going to hunt Cornelius down and cook him with butter,” one user wrote. The post has over 75 upvotes.
Of course, a disembodied chatbot cannot be affected by threats of violence. However, Goodburn has individually reached out to students who have sent threats to Cornelius, warning that threatening and violent messages will be taken seriously.
“For some of them, it was clear that they were just playing,” Goodburn said. “You can play around with it, but it's really not a game. It's alerting our resources, and we don't want to waste our police department's time if their threat is not credible. So, it’s just letting them know in the future — don't mess with it. Use it for the purposes that it's designed for.”
When students tell Cornelius they may hurt themselves or others, messages are flagged. From there, Goodburn said her team reaches out to students individually, connects them with resources like counseling and psychological services or the Title IX office, or involves law enforcement.
The loudest detractors of Cornelius may not be in the majority.
Goodburn said 94% of students have continued to opt in to texts from Cornelius. About 40% are actively engaged and sending messages, adding up to over 27,000 texts since last Monday’s launch.
Based on what students ask Cornelius, Goodburn said the university can notice gaps in how they’re communicating with students, allowing them to change strategies.
“This week, we were struck by how many students were asking about enrollment, and if they didn't plan to enroll in classes next semester, what do they need to do, and who is someone they should talk to,” Goodburn said. “We realized that that's an area that we don't communicate very well to our students, and so we've already talked with our advising leaders.”
Coulson said her team hopes students feel comfortable taking advantage of the resource.
“I think our hope is that, ultimately, students have a strong understanding of the resource, and we hope that they'll feel it's helpful,” Goodburn said. “But also, we just want them to be able to have a good understanding of how it works, so that way they can make the most informed choice of if it's a good tool for them to use and take advantage of or not.”
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