CSU OpenAI contract protest: SDSU students’ demand
On October 20, 2026, a few dozen students at San Diego State University marched to the student union on campus. They called on the California State University (CSU) system to end its agreement with OpenAI, according to KPBS. The students were protesting a deal that gives people across CSU access to ChatGPT Edu, a version of ChatGPT made for education.
Why students were upset
According to KPBS, the protesters were worried about several things. These included AI possibly taking away jobs, money used to support political causes, AI being used by immigration enforcement agencies and the Israeli military, and the harm that data centers could cause to the environment. Their concern about political money involved an OpenAI co-founder who supported President Donald Trump's interests.
The students were concerned about both the cost of CSU's agreement and how AI might affect people and society. Their main demand was for CSU to end its deal with OpenAI. But KPBS reported that their signs and comments also criticized other problems they believed were connected to AI technology.
What CSU agreed to pay OpenAI
According to KPBS, CSU signed a $17 million contract with OpenAI in 2025 without asking other companies to compete for the deal. The agreement gave students, teachers and other university employees access to an educational version of ChatGPT. CSU later renewed the agreement for another three years, reportedly costing $39 million in total. NPR described the renewed deal as costing $13 million each year for three years.
The agreement pays for CSU to provide ChatGPT Edu to people at its universities. This is different from students using ChatGPT in other ways, such as through its free version. CSU's survey results showed that this difference mattered.
What the 2025 survey showed
More than 94,000 CSU students, teachers and staff members answered a survey in 2025, according to NPR. Among those who answered, about 65% of students and 59% of teachers had doubts about whether AI was good for education overall.
About 84% of the students who answered said they used ChatGPT. Among those students who used it, about one in four said they used the version provided by CSU. Most used the free version instead. This means that even though many students in the survey used ChatGPT, far fewer used the access paid for by CSU. NPR also reported that 80% of the students who answered felt uncomfortable turning in work made by AI and pretending they had done it themselves.
David Goldberg, an associate professor at San Diego State University who helped write the survey, said the results only showed what the people who answered thought. The survey could not tell researchers what people who did not answer thought.
Why CSU leaders wanted to keep the agreement
CSU spokesperson Amy Bentley-Smith said the university system respected students' right to share their opinions. She also defended giving students AI tools and training. She said these resources could help prepare students for a job market where AI is becoming more important.
CSU's chief information officer, Ed Clark, told NPR that a group of students, teachers and staff members who advised CSU about generative AI had all agreed that the OpenAI deal should be renewed. Generative AI is technology that can create things such as text and images. The group's recommendation was one of the reasons CSU reportedly gave for continuing the program. CSU also said it wanted graduates to be ready to use AI in their future jobs.