West Chester University is paying up for an AI-free graduation
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
/2025/05/07/1746637110241.gif?w=3840)
Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios
After student backlash, West Chester University is paying a premium to ensure its upcoming graduation is AI-free, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: The Chester County school was among the latest across the country to cause a stir on campus for using artificial intelligence at commencement. But the decision even caught the university administration off guard.
- A university leader acknowledged that WCU had no idea until earlier this year that the announcers for its graduates' big day weren't human, when Axios started asking questions about a student's petition.
Driving the news: Tassel, the company WCU contracted with to help run its graduations, tells Axios the university is opting for more expensive human voice recordings for its upcoming commencement ceremonies, which run Thursday to Sunday.
- Tassel told WCU it charges around $5,500 to have a human manually record the names of more than 3,600 graduates, per records obtained by Axios through a public records request.
- That's around 6.5 times more than AI-generated recordings.
- WCU officials didn't respond to Axios' requests for comment.
Catch up quick: The school, which enrolls about 17,000 students, signed a five-year contract with Tassel last year worth about $94,700 for graduation ticketing services, per the contract.
- AI recordings aren't part of the deal, and WCU paid separately for those services for the December 2024 ceremony, per invoices obtained by Axios.
- Jeffery Osgood Jr., the school's executive vice president and provost, told Axios earlier this year that WCU decided to use the technology at the December graduation after receiving complaints about mispronounced names at previous ceremonies.
Friction point: Osgood said the school believed a human, not AI, was creating the recordings. WCU's initial statement about the matter claimed it hadn't used AI at any of its graduation ceremonies.
- WCU president Laurie Bernotsky's chief of staff, Andrew Lehman, notified the school's trustees about the finding on Feb. 8 — a day after Axios' story about the student petition was published — saying the school was "grateful for our students prompting further investigation."
- "Our plan is to work with the Student Government Association and other student groups to identify our next steps," he wrote.
Zoom out: More schools are embracing pre-recorded graduation announcers to remove "the guessing game" of correctly pronouncing students' names, Tassel CEO Chase Rigby tells Axios.
- The company started in Philly about two decades ago and now works with a "long list of schools" in the region, he says.
- Tassel's website mentions it's "trusted by" the University of Pennsylvania and the Community College of Philadelphia.
What they're saying: Despite school officials' pledging to do outreach, graduating senior Elisa Magello tells Axios many students remain in the dark about whether the school will use AI for the upcoming ceremonies.
- Her lesson from the ordeal: "Use your voice."
- "If you feel so strongly about something, chances are other people do, too," says Magello, who plans to enroll in Immaculata University's nursing program after she graduates.