{"id":502797,"date":"2026-10-21T00:58:16","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T00:58:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/502797\/"},"modified":"2026-10-21T00:58:16","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T00:58:16","slug":"sdsu-students-call-on-university-system-to-cancel-contract-with-openai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/502797\/","title":{"rendered":"SDSU students call on university system to cancel contract with OpenAI"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few dozen San Diego State University students marched to the campus’s student union on Tuesday. They called for the California State University system to end its contract with OpenAI.<\/p>\n

CSU first entered into a no-bid, $17 million contract with OpenAI in 2025. It gave students, faculty and staff access to an educational version of ChatGPT.<\/p>\n

The previous school year, campuses across the university system cut jobs<\/a> to offset an ongoing budget crisis.<\/p>\n

CSU later renewed the OpenAI contract for another three years<\/a> for $39 million.<\/p>\n

The students\u2019 signs reflected wide-reaching concerns beyond job loss: OpenAI\u2019s co-founder funding President Donald Trump\u2019s interests; the use of artificial intelligence by immigration enforcement and the Israeli military; the environmental harm caused by data centers.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The signs reflected wide-reaching concerns with artificial intelligence at the protest at the SDSU union on Oct. 20, 2026.<\/p>\n

Claudia Gonzalez questioned whether AI is even good for them.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of students nowadays don’t know how to write sentences. They don’t know how to write paragraphs, even basic emails. So, it’s really not good for us at all,\u201d Gonzalez said, who interns for the student-led activist organization Students for Quality Education.<\/p>\n

A 2025 CSU survey<\/a> found widespread use but mixed feelings<\/a> about AI among staff and students. The majority were skeptical that it was benefiting education overall.<\/p>\n

And while most students said they used ChatGPT, the vast majority said they used the free version \u2014 not the version paid for and provided by CSU.<\/p>\n

University system leaders, meanwhile, claim the contract as a win.<\/p>\n

CSU Chancellor Mildred Garc\u00eda wrote in a 2025 systemwide email that CSU was establishing itself \u201cas the nation\u2019s first and largest AI-powered public university system.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The signs reflected a wide-reaching concern with artificial intelligence at the SDSU union protest on, Oct. 20, 2026.<\/p>\n

“No other university system in the U.S. or internationally is doing anything like this, not at this scale,” she said at a press conference announcing the partnership with OpenAI.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe CSU respects the rights of our students to voice their opinions on matters important to them,\u201d said CSU spokesperson Amy Bentley-Smith by email Tuesday. \u201cAI is fundamentally changing how people learn and work across nearly every industry. Higher education cannot ignore this shift and must approach it thoughtfully and responsibly. By providing resources and training for students, the CSU is working toward ensuring graduates are prepared for a rapidly evolving economy where AI fluency is increasingly essential.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gonzalez warned that AI\u2019s harm would eventually impact everyone.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people may think that it\u2019s not affecting them, but it\u2019s coming,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A few dozen San Diego State University students marched to the campus’s student union on Tuesday. They called…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":502798,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[74,76,75],"class_list":["post-502797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502797","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=502797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/502798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=502797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=502797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=502797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}