Stop AI Initiatives at Lawrence University.
The Issue
On Wednesday, July 29, 2026, Lawrence students received an email on a website update coming the following week designed for "Prospective students, alumni, the broader community, and search and AI discovery,” with the goal of “helping Lawrence respond to evolving digital needs.” Upon further reading, this alluded to an AI Chat Bot.
Months earlier on Thursday, May 21, 2026, Lawrence students were notified that tuition would be increased 5% from the 2025-2026 academic school year to the 2026-2027 school year bringing tuition up to approximately $75,558 on the premise of being “recognized by U.S. News & World Report as one of the nation’s top value schools—currently among the top 50 in the country” according to the email. This encompasses “tuition, double room, default meal plan, the LUCC student activity fee and the LUCC environmental sustainability fee for Fall, Winter, and Spring terms.”
Lawrence prides itself on having a liberal arts education which exists on the premise of being well rounded in several subjects. In fact, every first year student has to take First Year Studies where they learn about the water cycle, read about the Death and Life of the Great Lakes, learn about flood narratives from Gilgamesh to the bible, listen and learn about Delta Blues music, read poetry about Hurricane Katrina, read from a man who was enslaved (Olaudah Equiano’s autobiography), and finally, about various places the sea and water is Rising in America. Within that selection of works, you get all aspects of liberal arts: the arts, humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and math. All of that learning and money seems highly wasted if it goes to generative AI.
As a prospective student, if I saw a college on my list using generative AI on their website, I would cross it off my list. I came to Lawrence because I wanted to talk with humans and help improve the world. First Year Studies teaches students to care for the environment and understand how America was formed and the problems within. If a website greets me with an AI bot, I’m going to assume the college doesn’t care much for sustainability, which can’t be true if students have to pay an environmental fee each and every year. It doesn’t matter if Lawrence has an 8:1 student to staff ratio if students are going to be shoved to a chat bot.
That being said, technology should still be invested in, as it’s an amazing tool. The Lawrence website is great because it’s easy to research, and even if you are struggling, there are research librarians and amazing staff here at Lawrence who will teach you and have an actual understanding of human emotions. I much rather my tuition go to paying them to help me understand a subject or find something I need rather than an AI chat bot who can give me answers that I could have found myself by talking to a human or spending 10 more seconds looking for the search bar. Lawrence is special because of its staff who go to extra lengths to help you learn and go that extra mile, but an AI chat bot isn’t personal and isn’t going to encourage anyone to enroll.
I could go on and mention all the negative environmental impacts of AI as well and mention the great storms, droughts, and other ecological and social impacts that generative AI causes, but at this point, it seems as if that factor was already ignored.
Luckily, the email sent this Wednesday mentioned that this initiative is a “midpoint, not a finish line” with the idea that the webteam would continue improving the Lawrence University websites based on “institutional priorities, audience needs, data, accessibility, compliance, and feedback.” As a Lawrentian, I believe our institution shouldn’t be supporting generative AI, and that’s my feedback. If we want to make things more accessible and improve the websites, there are many better ways to do that, such as digitizing more of the archives or perhaps making a library/resources tab on the top bar, so students don’t have to search for it, but perhaps that’s just me talking as a history student. We also could put the music conservatory tab back, as that's one of the biggest draws of Lawrence which I can attest to as someone double majoring in the con. I’m sure if you actually talked to any Lawrentian first in any major, they could give you even better ideas on how to improve the technology at Lawrence.
There are many better ways to improve a website without utilizing AI, and as Lawrentians, we say no to AI.
783
The Issue
On Wednesday, July 29, 2026, Lawrence students received an email on a website update coming the following week designed for "Prospective students, alumni, the broader community, and search and AI discovery,” with the goal of “helping Lawrence respond to evolving digital needs.” Upon further reading, this alluded to an AI Chat Bot.
Months earlier on Thursday, May 21, 2026, Lawrence students were notified that tuition would be increased 5% from the 2025-2026 academic school year to the 2026-2027 school year bringing tuition up to approximately $75,558 on the premise of being “recognized by U.S. News & World Report as one of the nation’s top value schools—currently among the top 50 in the country” according to the email. This encompasses “tuition, double room, default meal plan, the LUCC student activity fee and the LUCC environmental sustainability fee for Fall, Winter, and Spring terms.”
Lawrence prides itself on having a liberal arts education which exists on the premise of being well rounded in several subjects. In fact, every first year student has to take First Year Studies where they learn about the water cycle, read about the Death and Life of the Great Lakes, learn about flood narratives from Gilgamesh to the bible, listen and learn about Delta Blues music, read poetry about Hurricane Katrina, read from a man who was enslaved (Olaudah Equiano’s autobiography), and finally, about various places the sea and water is Rising in America. Within that selection of works, you get all aspects of liberal arts: the arts, humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and math. All of that learning and money seems highly wasted if it goes to generative AI.
As a prospective student, if I saw a college on my list using generative AI on their website, I would cross it off my list. I came to Lawrence because I wanted to talk with humans and help improve the world. First Year Studies teaches students to care for the environment and understand how America was formed and the problems within. If a website greets me with an AI bot, I’m going to assume the college doesn’t care much for sustainability, which can’t be true if students have to pay an environmental fee each and every year. It doesn’t matter if Lawrence has an 8:1 student to staff ratio if students are going to be shoved to a chat bot.
That being said, technology should still be invested in, as it’s an amazing tool. The Lawrence website is great because it’s easy to research, and even if you are struggling, there are research librarians and amazing staff here at Lawrence who will teach you and have an actual understanding of human emotions. I much rather my tuition go to paying them to help me understand a subject or find something I need rather than an AI chat bot who can give me answers that I could have found myself by talking to a human or spending 10 more seconds looking for the search bar. Lawrence is special because of its staff who go to extra lengths to help you learn and go that extra mile, but an AI chat bot isn’t personal and isn’t going to encourage anyone to enroll.
I could go on and mention all the negative environmental impacts of AI as well and mention the great storms, droughts, and other ecological and social impacts that generative AI causes, but at this point, it seems as if that factor was already ignored.
Luckily, the email sent this Wednesday mentioned that this initiative is a “midpoint, not a finish line” with the idea that the webteam would continue improving the Lawrence University websites based on “institutional priorities, audience needs, data, accessibility, compliance, and feedback.” As a Lawrentian, I believe our institution shouldn’t be supporting generative AI, and that’s my feedback. If we want to make things more accessible and improve the websites, there are many better ways to do that, such as digitizing more of the archives or perhaps making a library/resources tab on the top bar, so students don’t have to search for it, but perhaps that’s just me talking as a history student. We also could put the music conservatory tab back, as that's one of the biggest draws of Lawrence which I can attest to as someone double majoring in the con. I’m sure if you actually talked to any Lawrentian first in any major, they could give you even better ideas on how to improve the technology at Lawrence.
There are many better ways to improve a website without utilizing AI, and as Lawrentians, we say no to AI.
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Petition created on July 29, 2026