{"id":243177,"date":"2026-03-30T09:24:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T09:24:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/243177\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T09:24:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T09:24:12","slug":"csu-chancellor-earns-87000-off-board-position-annually-while-the-same-company-partners-with-the-csu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/243177\/","title":{"rendered":"CSU Chancellor earns $87,000 off Board position annually, while the same company \u2018partners\u2019 with the CSU"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the early days of the fall 2025 semester, the California State University officially partnered with Educational Testing Services (ETS) and their program FutureNav Compass<\/a> \u2013 FutureNav Compass is an Artificial Intelligence tool that helps student workers get jobs and create career plans in their field of interest. However, they did not widely disclose that CSU Chancellor Mildred Garcia is actively a board member at ETS, where she makes up to $87,000 a year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The AI tool is available and being used at seven Southern California CSUs including at Cal State LA.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The other CSUs include Dominguez Hills, Long Beach, Fullerton, Cal Poly Pomona, Northridge and San Bernardino.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The FutureNav program details that were released to the public and the acknowledgment of Garcia\u2019s board position follows all Cal State conflict of interest policies. However, these regulations are all obscured on CSU websites and documents that are complicated to find.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The University Times first noted Garcia\u2019s board position in a blog post from the California Faculty Association (CFA), titled, \u201cOur Work Regarding AI,\u201d<\/a> where they said that the continued \u201cinfiltration\u201d of AI and \u201cprofit-seeking\u201d tech companies on CSU campuses is a \u201cgrave concern.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The CSU did not make the public aware of the relationship between the Chancellor and ETS in any public statements.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile these programs seem productive in some ways, we have grave concerns regarding a lack of faculty input on these initiatives, intellectual property rights, academic freedom, and privacy,\u201d the CFA said in the blog post. \u201cWe will be closely monitoring faculty and student experiences and respond accordingly.\u201d<\/p>\n

The CFA did not comment on additional questions sent by the UT about the union\u2019s stance on the partnership in time for publication.\u00a0<\/p>\n

ETS is a multibillion dollar educational non-profit<\/a> that is based out of New Jersey, with several global subsidiaries, multinational partnerships and contracts with school systems around the world. ETS has been tax exempt since 1949, according to the ProPublica database.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The company formerly administered the SAT test nationwide, and was behind the development of the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) \u2014 the GRE is a standard test that is commonly required for admissions to master\u2019s, PhD, and business programs across the world. It also was behind proctoring several other proficiency tests, in a variety of educational fields, including in skilled trades, the California Spanish Assessment and English language proficiency tests.\u00a0<\/p>\n

ETS did not respond to requests for comment on the initiative at the CSU, or questions about the relationship between the Chancellor and ETS.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, ETS no longer proctors or handles some of the aforementioned tests after the end of last year following mass layoffs, according to a report from Sacramento Business Journal<\/a> in November 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Measurement Inc<\/a>., also a school testing firm based out of North Carolina, now handles some of these testing services, according to the same report.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe CSU was approached by ETS about serving as a pilot for their new FutureNav platform and the offer was presented to the CSU executive leadership team, which includes the chancellor and presidents,\u201d CSU Spokeswoman Amy Bentley-Smith said. \u201cThe chancellor informed presidents that she was on the board of ETS and recused herself from discussions related to this offer. The pilot is being done at no costs to the participating universities.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The announcement of the ETS partnership was the third and final item at the end of a long and winding press release about a completely separate systemwide strategic plan<\/a> that was also launched in September of last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While working with the CSU and its staff and faculty, FutureNav Compass will \u201cdevelop dashboards and resources to assist them as they work one-on-one with students.\u201d It also builds career \u201cgoals\u201d and pathways that connect with their majors and work interests \u201cin real time,\u201d the CSU said in the press release about FutureNav Compass.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At Cal State LA, along with the other six SoCal CSU\u2019s, FutureNav Compass has been used by small cohorts of students since the program was first announced \u201cto co-build the product\u201d and test various features. Additional elements of the program, including a single sign-on, were activated. This was in addition to the \u201cskills plan and job recommendations features,\u201d that are being tested this spring, according to Cal State LA Spokesperson Erik Hollins.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A filing required by California law, Form 700<\/a>, necessary for any additional financial earnings beyond their CSU position, disclosed that Garcia earned between $10,000 and $100,000 with the company over the course of the 2023-2024 fiscal year. This was a year before ETS began their services with the Cal State system.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A University Times analysis of CSU Board of Trustees meeting agendas and documented contract approvals since early 2023 showed that there was no formalized Trustees vote or contract with ETS and the program FutureNav Compass.<\/p>\n

Separately, in an analysis of CSU\u2019s bidding portal through at least 2020, no formal bidding process for any other companies to provide similar services before ETS was chosen to provide the AI career program at the CSU was found.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The relationship between the CSU and the FutureNav program is a \u201cpartnership\u201d and not one that involves any financial transactions, Bentley-Smith said. The partnership without any money involved keeps ETS and FutureNav Compass out of any formal contracting procedures, or bidding.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, in the future, FutureNav Compass is set to be available systemwide, according to a press release in September 2025 from PR Newswire<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But Bentley-Smith said it was \u201cpremature to speculate about future pricing or any potential systemwide expansion,\u201d of the platform at this time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Additionally, \u201cany decisions beyond the pilot would be considered later through standard institutional review processes,\u201d Bentley-Smith added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a filing from the ProPublica Nonprofit 990 tax form database<\/a>, Chancellor Garcia made $86,701 in the same fiscal year from her Board of Trustees position at ETS. These tax forms are required for organizations that are recognized as tax-exempt by the IRS, each year, according to ProPublica<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, a Senior Management Outside Employment Disclosure Report from the 2023 calendar year, as required by California and CSU laws, shows that Garcia was paid $79,000 for 32 hours or four days of work as a member of ETS\u2019 Board of Trustees, according to a document published by the CSU<\/a>. The same amount was allegedly paid out to Garcia in the 2024 calendar year, according to the same outside employer disclosure documents<\/a> provided at the November 2025 CSU Board of Trustees meeting.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the fiscal year before Garcia\u2019s tenure began as CSU Chancellor, she earned $107,000, as a ETS board member according to the 2022-2023 fiscal year 990 filing from ProPublica<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Garcia has been a member of the ETS board since Oct. 1, 2017, and was promoted to the position of Vice Chair of the ETS Board in April 2023, according to the CSU disclosure document.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Garcia still holds the position of Vice Chair of the ETS Board at the time of this article\u2019s publication, according to the ETS Board website<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

ETS is the only company that Garcia is shown working with in addition to her position as head of the CSU system, which began on Oct. 1, 2023<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This additional income is on top of the $1.1 million Garcia made in her second year as the Chancellor of the CSU. The $1.1 million includes a housing stipend, other benefits and a car allowance, according to Transparent California<\/a>, a public pay and pension database for the state.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While it does not appear that Garcia is in violation of the CSU Conflict of Interest Policy, the role the chancellor played in the fruition of the ETS deal is unclear, and was not publicized through CSU Board of Trustees meeting agendas or formal contract procurement processes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The CSU was the first public university system in the U.S. to contract with ETS.<\/p>\n

In early February of this year, Georgia State University and the University of Memphis began a partnership with ETS \u201cto reimagine how AI is used in higher education\u201d through a $4 million Department of Education grant<\/a>, according to a press release.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Beyond the investment into ETS and FutureNav Compass, the CSU also invested nearly $17 million into a February 2025 contract with OpenAI for systemwide access to ChatGPT Edu. The school system is in the process of renewing the contract with OpenAI for at least another year, before the first contract expires at the end of June 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The contract with OpenAI for ChatGPT Edu has faced criticism from faculty and students, and accusations<\/a> that the CSU entered into the 18 month contract without \u201cfaculty consent.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Both known AI contracts with the CSU system have faced backlash and drawn the ire of students, faculty and staff as concern lingers when it comes to transparency of deals, and how money is spent at the university system.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the early days of the fall 2025 semester, the California State University officially partnered with Educational Testing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243178,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-243177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}