Inside CSU's ChatGPT Edu Rollout Across 22 Universities

Inside CSU's ChatGPT Edu Rollout Across 22 Universities

From Changing Higher Ed by Dr. Drumm McNaughton

June 9, 2026 · 32 min · Episode 315

About this episode

The episode discusses California State University's approach to implementing ChatGPT Edu across 22 universities, focusing on change management and survey findings related to AI adoption.

AI implementation in higher education is often framed as a technology question. California State University treated it as change management with technology as the catalyst, rolling out ChatGPT Edu to 22 universities in 18 months while running the largest AI survey ever conducted at a single university system. In this episode of the Changing Higher Ed® podcast , Dr. Drumm McNaughton speaks with Dr. Leslie Kennedy, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Academic Technology Services at the California State University Office of the Chancellor , about how the system designed and executed its generative AI implementation and what the Ahead of the Curve survey of 94,060 respondents reveals about AI adoption, faculty engagement, and student behavior. Drawing on her work co-leading the academic side of CSU's GenAI initiative, Kennedy explains the governance structure that made the rollout possible, the campus-level training infrastructure that scaled adoption across 22 universities, and the survey findings that pushed back on common assumptions about cheating, faculty resistance, and AI access gaps. This conversation is especially relevant for presidents, provosts, boards, and CIOs evaluating how…

People in this episode

Host: Dr. Drumm McNaughton

Guest: Dr. Leslie Kennedy

Topics covered

  • AI implementation
  • change management
  • higher education
  • generative AI
  • faculty engagement
  • student behavior

Keywords

  • ChatGPT Edu
  • AI survey
  • faculty resistance
  • AI access gaps
  • AI adoption
  • training infrastructure
  • governance structure

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: California State University, California State University Office of the Chancellor

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