Opposition to AI inside universities is organized, public and more common than you think

Academics have put the refusal in writing

A July 2026 update to the Dutch letter says one university board had not replied after a year. Neither letter asks for a ban on AI in research. Both treat adoption as something a university can and should decline.

Faculty are fighting the campus contracts

Not every campus is opposed. Arizona State’s faculty senate president told Inside Higher Ed that “we have a new technology, but we haven’t seen any cuts to faculty engagement, salaries or hiring.” Cal State’s own survey found 59% of faculty regularly use AI in teaching and research.

Three in four faculty expect it to cheapen the degree

Elon University and the American Association of Colleges and Universities surveyed 1,057 faculty in late 2025. The sample is not scientific, and the authors say it cannot be generalized.

Wharton went all-in on AI. Yet one of its data engineers had told developers not to buy the hype.

In October 2023 Tim Allen, who introduced himself as “a principal engineer at Wharton Research Data Services,” gave a DjangoCon talk titled “Don’t Buy the ‘A.I.’ Hype.” Seven months later Wharton Magazine ran the dean’s AI plans under the headline “Going All-In on AI.” Wharton runs the data service most finance schools query through, so assume the same split exists on your own campus.

Asia is moving the other way

The same months look different in Asia. Japan’s financial regulator told firms not to hold back on AI, Chinese brokers put a new model into use within hours, and researchers in China, Japan and Korea publish their paper pipelines as how-to guides. A Taiwan-built pipeline that runs a paper from literature search to final draft has 51,081 GitHub stars. A Western finance researcher is competing with people who are being told to go faster.

Find out where your campus stands

1. Search for your university’s name with “AI” and “petition”, “open letter” or “resolution”. If faculty have organized against a campus AI deal, you need to know before you ask for one.
2. Read your library’s page on AI and licensed content. Many say flatly that contracts forbid it. The licensed data guide quotes two.
3. Ask who decides. A committee of people who signed a refusal will not approve your agent. Find the person with budget authority and ask them in writing.
4. Do not wait for consensus. A new model ships every 10 days. Work on public data with your own plan while the argument runs.
5. Sign your own name. The refusers are organized and you are not. One page from five finance faculty asking for agent access to licensed data is a counterweight a dean can point to.