Latest news with #CalState
Los Angeles Times
31-07-2025
- Business
- Los Angeles Times
How Trump could make it harder for you to see a doctor
The Trump administration's One Big Beautiful Bill Act puts so many people at risk of losing their health insurance and food assistance, it's hard to focus on other fires set by the new law. And yet — there's one crucial conflagration I hope the state of California will fight. The budget bill contains multiple changes in federal student loan programs that will make it harder for many students to even think about getting an undergraduate degree at the University of California or at Cal State. Eligibility for Pell Grants and other loans and grants, the way repayment works, and annual and lifetime limits on borrowing by students and their parents (via Parent PLUS loans) are all changing. But let me narrow my focus to students enrolling in law, medical, pharmacy or other professional schools, the segment of the student 'market' I'm most familiar with because of my career as a professor at UC Law San Francisco. When I started teaching, the citizens of California very generously supported professional training. I recall that tuition at UC Law (then UC Hastings) was — well, there was no tuition, just fees. But with dramatically reduced public support over the years, the costs have gone up and up. Tuition and required fees alone at UC Law SF are about $60,000 a year. At medical, dental or pharmacy school? In the $50,000 to $60,000 range as well. And that's without food, housing and other expenses of daily living. (For perspective, UC's tuition costs are still less expensive than private schools: At Stanford Law School tuition will set you back about $77,000 a year and at Stanford School of Medicine, $67,000.) Under the OBBBA, professional-school students will no longer be able to get more than $50,000 a year (up to $200,000 total for a degree) in federal student loans. That leaves a significant gap in annual tuition and fees, and offers no help on the additional costs — UC calculates the total cost for one year of dental school at $104,000. There are private loans available. But federal student loans have more flexibility, particularly in repayment plans, and students need neither a strong credit history nor a co-signer to get them. The students who would need to borrow the most are the least likely to have a strong credit history or a family member who would be an acceptable co-signer for a private loan. And private loan rates are almost always higher than the government's. So just as the tax provisions in this newly passed law make the rich richer, I fear the student loan provisions will be adequate for the better off but prevent many working-class young people from obtaining professional degrees. So much for policies that support the American dream. California could control this fire through its own student loan program, adding funding to fill the gap created by the new federal rules. One option: Create an additional program under the auspices of the California Student Aid Commission, whose current aid programs are limited in scope. It's true that the state budget is already stretched thin — but this is about loans, so the money will, for the most part, be returned with interest. Do we need to be helping future professionals get an education? Absolutely! As our population ages, the demands for health professionals are only increasing. Given the long trajectory of medical, nursing and pharmacy students' education, we can't wait for another administration to come into office and fix the loan situation. We should prevent a reduction in the numbers of practitioners graduated now. We already have shortages of health professionals: Have you tried recently to find a primary care physician or pediatrician who is taking new patients? And the nurse shortage is a major problem — UC San Francisco estimates the state is short 36,000 nurses. As for lawyers, if you doubt the need for more, consider 'the justice gap.' Facing eviction? Have problems with an employer? Unable to access public benefits? Suffering domestic violence? There are not nearly enough legal aid lawyers to help, leaving many at a great disadvantage. And the young people most likely to find the new federal loan rules a barrier to law school are also likely to best understand the need for more lawyers in public interest and public service jobs, and perhaps the most likely to aspire to such jobs. The state has had a loan repayment program for those who practice public interest law. In addition to bolstering federal student loans with state loans, California could reinvigorate and expand the repayment program to cover a greater variety of jobs and to repay more than the $11,000 limit. While the federal government is acting to burn things down, our state should intervene to build things up, including the talent pool we need for the decades ahead. Marsha Cohen, emerita professor of law at UC Law San Francisco, twice served as the school's dean of admissions, which included supervising its financial aid program.
Associated Press
24-07-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
Cal State is still in the red despite tuition increase and spending cuts
California State University says it's short $2.3 billion, a staggering budget gap that's grown sharply since the system first revealed two years ago that it didn't have the money to properly educate its students. How the nation's largest public four-year university system will generate that revenue is anyone's guess, as annual tuition increases of 6% that kicked in last year and an influx of state taxpayer support have been insufficient to pay for Cal State's growing labor, energy and education expenses. The details of that cumulative gap were unveiled at the bimonthly Cal State Board of Trustees meeting this week. More state support is increasingly unlikely, as California budget experts forecast multi-billion-dollar budget shortfalls worsened by severe federal cuts to major public safety-net programs, like Medicaid, and possible cuts to financial aid. The funding shortfall, which doesn't include billions of dollars in building maintenance backlogs, is a large portion of the system's roughly $9 billion operating budget. 'This growing gap demonstrates why we need immediate action to achieve financial sustainability,' said Jeni Kitchell, an assistant vice chancellor for finance of Cal State. 'We cannot sustain our current level of funding, especially while operating from a position of underfunding.' The system fought off a $375 million proposed cut to its state allocation this year, instead receiving a $144 million cut — a 3% reduction in its state support. Lawmakers are offering Cal State a zero-interest loan to make up for that cut and promised to restore the money next year. Already Cal State has cut more than 1,200 staff positions across the system in the past two years, reduced student support staff by 7% and terminated 1,400 courses during a period of ongoing budget deficits. Without an infusion of cash, the system will have to shift money from some of its initiatives — including improving graduation rates — just to cover mandatory costs, such as health care, insurance, utilities, financial aid and agreed-upon union raises, Cal State leaders said. In such a scenario, system documents show, campuses may have to continue the cost-cutting they've implemented recently, which has included layoffs, reducing job categories, cutting courses and leaving job vacancies unfilled. This year's budget gap is $164 million. State promises of more funding 'violated' Some Cal State trustees said they are frustrated that Gov. Gavin Newsom delayed his promises of five years of increasing state support, which was supposed to total more than $1 billion. Only three years of that compact have been funded to date; the fourth, which was supposed to kick in this year, will instead be spread out between 2026 and 2028, lawmakers and Newsom decided in the most recent state budget deal. Lawmakers didn't signal a fifth year of compact funding, though they may in next year's budget deal. 'We were promised a five-year compact,' said Jack McGrory, a Cal State trustee. He argued that Cal State trustees approved 10% or more in salary increases for workers the past two years based on those promises. 'We did rely on the promise, and the promise was violated, and that's the story that we have to tell, and it's unfortunate, and it's going to put our relationships with the unions and our employees in a really bad situation,' McGrory added. If the compact money or the $144 million state spending cut aren't restored, Cal State won't be able to grow student enrollment at a time when more high school graduates are completing the courses needed to be eligible for Cal State admissions. The system currently enrolls 460,000 students. 'How do we enroll more students if we do not have the resources to hire more faculty, to provide more staff support,' add mental health counselors and more free-food programs for Cal State's largely low-income students, asked Patrick Lenz, the interim chief financial officer of Cal State. Cal State has been trying to slow its spending. The chancellor's office is cutting its budget by $18 million, or 8%, trustees learned at this week's meeting. Several campuses in the Bay Area are consolidating their administrative offices to lower expenses. And last fall the system approved the merging of two campuses to avoid millions of dollars in new spending. Unions say they're owed raises Meanwhile, thousands of employees are in a dispute with Cal State leadership over whether their union contracts guarantee them raises this year. The contracts say that if lawmakers fully fund the Cal State system, some of its workers get raises. Cal State's leadership says that because state lawmakers reduced the system's funding by $144 million, they can't give raises. Unions say because the state is allowing Cal State to borrow that money as a zero-interest loan, the system is fully funded. Cal State says borrowing money isn't the same as being fully funded by the state. System leaders also lack confidence that the state will restore the $144 million cut next year. If the money doesn't appear next year, Cal State would be stuck with a loan that adds to their budget crisis. At least two state lawmakers are siding with unions. 'Damn it, we are here to send a clear message. Do you hear us? Because guess what, if they don't get what they deserve, we're going to shut the s— down,' said Assemblymember Mike Gipson, a Democrat from Gardena, at a press conference outside the system's headquarters Tuesday morning. He was addressing Cal State's chancellor and other leaders who were assembled yards away for their meeting. 'With everything going on with ICE, we don't need to add additional pressure on not only the students but the faculty here. They're already traumatized. Our state is already traumatized,' Gipson added. Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi, a Democrat from Torrance, said he stands in 'solidarity' with union workers to 'to call on the chancellor and the trustees to keep your promise.' The California State University Employees Union, with 35,000 clerical, custodial and student assistant members, says that the raises they think they're owed are worth $30 million more than what Cal State plans to give them. Erin Foote, a vice president for organizing for the union, said in an interview that Cal State leaders should partner with the union in pushing for legislation or a ballot measure to ensure Cal State and University of California have guaranteed funding. 'It costs millions of dollars to run a revenue measure, and we would need the CSU to be our partner,' Foote said. Cal State's cash reserves are at $760 million — enough to operate the system for a month. How Cal State's budget shortfall grew How did Cal State's cumulative funding gap grow from $1.5 billion to $2.3 billion since 2023? Chancellor's office staff point to these latest budget realities: In that same time, Cal State's revenue grew, but not by enough to cover the increase in costs. State funding that goes to the system's operating budget — the corpus of money to pay for its education mission — grew from $4.5 billion to $4.87 billion last year. State support is Cal State's largest source of funding for its operations. And the system's tuition revenue jumped from $3.24 billion to $3.53 billion. Combined, those are increases of almost $700 million, according to the system's financial transparency portal. Next year is projected to be more of the same fiscal hurt. Cal State budget officials say that the system will incur $365 million in new, mandatory costs in 2026-27, including $63 million in increased staff health care premiums and about $160 million in wage increases. That amount doesn't include growing enrollment by the 3,500 students that the compact requires, which would cost $56 million. For Cal State to afford the new, mandatory expenses, the state would need to return the 3% cut and a portion of the compact funding the system was supposed to get this year. None of that is a sure bet. The funding they can rely on is new tuition revenue: students will be charged another 6% increase next fall. ___ This story was originally published by CalMatters and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.
Forbes
07-07-2025
- Health
- Forbes
In The AI Revolution, Medical Schools Are Falling Behind U.S. Colleges
Instead of learning to use the tools that will define tomorrow's care, med school students still ... More memorize biochemistry pathways and obscure facts they'll never use in clinical practice. getty At Duke University, every matriculating student now has access to a custom AI assistant. At Cal State, more than 460,000 students across 23 campuses are equipped with a 24/7 ChatGPT toolkit upon enrollment. These aren't pilot programs. They're part of a full-scale transformation in the way higher education is preparing students for their future careers. Meanwhile, most U.S. medical schools remain stuck in the last century. Instead of learning to use the tools that will define tomorrow's care, students still memorize biochemistry pathways and are tested on obscure facts they'll never use in clinical practice. Following the release of OpenAI's ChatGPT in 2022, college deans and department chairs responded with caution. They worried about plagiarism, declining writing skills and an overreliance on artificial intelligence. Since, most have since shifted from risk avoidance to opportunity. Today, universities are integrating generative AI into tutoring, test prep, research, advising and more. Many now expect faculty to teach AI fluency across each of their disciplines. Medical education hasn't kept pace. A recent Educause study found that only 14% of medical schools have developed a formal GenAI curriculum compared with 60% of undergraduate programs. Most medical school leaders continue to view large language models as administrative tools rather than clinical ones. That's a mistake. By the time today's students become physicians, they'll carry in their pockets a tool more powerful and important to clinical practice than the stethoscope ever was. In seconds, GenAI can surface every relevant medical study, guideline and precedent. And soon, it will allow patients to accurately evaluate symptoms and understand treatment options before they ever set foot in a clinic. Used wisely, generative AI will help prevent the 400,000 deaths each year from diagnostic errors, the 250,000 from preventable medical mistakes and the 500,000 from poorly controlled chronic diseases. Despite GenAI's potential to transform healthcare, most medical schools still train students for the medicine of the past. They prioritize memorization over critical thinking and practical application. They reward students for recalling facts rather than for effectively accessing and applying knowledge with tools like ChatGPT or Claude. Historically, physicians were judged by how well they told patients what to do. In the future, success will be measured by medical outcomes. Specifically, how well clinicians and AI-empowered patients work together to prevent disease, manage symptoms and save lives. The outdated approach to medical education persists beyond university classrooms. Internship and residency programs still prioritize applicants for their memorization-based test scores. Attending physicians routinely quiz trainees on arcane facts instead of engaging in practical problem-solving. This practice, known as 'pimping,' is a relic of 20th-century training. Few industries outside of medicine would tolerate it. How To Modernize Medical Training Generative AI is advancing at breakneck speed, with capabilities doubling roughly every year. In five years, medical students will enter clinical practice with GenAI tools 32 times more powerful than today's models — yet few will have received formal training on how to use them effectively. Modernizing medical education must begin with faculty. Most students entering medical school in 2025 will already be comfortable using generative AI, having leaned on it during college and while preparing for the MCAT exam. But most professors will be playing catch-up. To close this gap, medical schools should implement a faculty education program before the new academic year. Instructors unfamiliar with GenAI would learn how to write effective prompts, evaluate the reliability of answers and ask clarifying questions to refine outputs. Once all faculty have a foundational understanding of the new applications, the real work begins. They need to create a curriculum for the coming semester. Here are two examples of what that might look like for third-year students on a clinical rotation: Exercise 1: Differential diagnosis with GenAI as a co-physician In a small-group session, students would receive a clinical vignette: A 43-year-old woman presents with fatigue, joint pain and a facial rash that worsens with sun exposure. Students would begin by first drafting their own differential diagnosis. Then, they would prompt a generative AI tool to generate its own list of potential diagnoses. Next, participants would engage the AI in a back-and-forth dialogue, questioning its reasoning, testing assumptions and challenging conclusions. To reinforce clinical reasoning in collaboration with GenAI, each student would also submit written responses to these questions: Is lupus or dermatomyositis the more likely diagnosis, and why? What additional data would help rule out Lyme disease? Cite three high-quality studies that support your diagnostic ranking. The goal of this type of exercise isn't to identify a 'right' answer but to strengthen analytical thinking, expose cognitive biases and teach students how to use GenAI to broaden diagnostic reasoning (not limit it). By the end of the exercise, students should be more confident using AI tools to support — but not replace — their own clinical judgment. Exercise 2: Managing chronic disease with GenAI support In this scenario, students imagine seeing a 45-year-old man during a routine checkup. The patient has no prior medical problems but, on physical exam, his blood pressure measures 140/100. Students begin by walking through the clinical reasoning process: What questions would they ask during the patient history? Which physical findings would be most concerning? What laboratory tests would they order? What initial treatment and follow-up plan would they recommend? Then, students enter the same case into a generative AI tool and evaluate its recommendations. Where do the AI's suggestions align with their own? Where do they differ (and why)? Finally, students are tasked with designing a patient-centered care plan that incorporates medical therapy, lifestyle changes and as many GenAI-powered applications as possible. These might include analyzing data from at-home blood pressure monitors, customizing educational guidance or enabling patients to actively manage their chronic diseases between visits. Training Physicians To Lead, Not Follow Colleges understand that preparing students for tomorrow's careers means teaching them how to apply generative AI in their chosen fields. Medicine must do the same. Soon, physicians will carry in their pocket the entirety of medical knowledge, instantly accessible and continuously updated. They'll consult AI agents trained on the latest research and clinical guidelines. And their patients, empowered by GenAI, will arrive not with random Google results, but with a working understanding of their symptoms, potential diagnoses and evidence-based treatment options. If medical schools don't prepare students to lead clinical application of these tools, for-profit companies and private equity firms will focus solely on ways to lower costs, even when these approaches compromise medical care. As medical school deans prepare to welcome the class of 2029, they must ask themselves: Are we training students to practice yesterday's medicine or to lead tomorrow's?
Los Angeles Times
19-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
What to do if you see a shark in the ocean
Duhhhh-nuh. Duhh-nuh. ... Friday marks 50 years since the 1975 film 'Jaws' from Steven Spielberg introduced audiences to that infamous John Williams movie score — and the fear that they should clearly feel over the great white shark lurking just beneath their feet, waiting to chomp down on their dangling legs as they enjoy a day at the beach. Except, over the past six decades, marine biologists like Chris Lowe at the Shark Lab at Cal State Long Beach have found that great white sharks and their selachian counterparts not only don't want to eat humans but also would like to avoid us if at all possible. 'Believe it or not, a lot of the times they're big babies. They're big scaredy-cats,' Lowe told me. As part of the series I've completed over the last year in The Wild, exploring how to react should you see a potentially dangerous animal on the trail, I spoke to Lowe, who has studied sharks for the past 35 years, about how you should react if you see a great white shark in the wild. Lowe said that unlike 50 years ago when 'Jaws' was filmed — where sharks' populations were so low that even the 'Jaws' filmmakers could barely find a shark in the ocean to record — the great white shark population has bounced back thanks to conservation efforts. 'Sharks are probably swimming by people way more often than they would ever imagine — they just don't know they're there,' Lowe said. 'I think your chances of seeing a shark, any shark — a white shark, a leopard shark, a bull shark, a tiger shark, no matter where you go — is actually getting much better.' Please note that my conversation with Lowe focused on how a beachgoer should react if they see a great white shark off the coast of a Southern California beach, and I primarily asked him for tips for folks swimming or snorkeling. The Shark Lab has a great short guide for surfers, and there is other guidance available for spearfishers. All right, no need for a bigger boat. Let's dive in. You're swimming in the ocean, perhaps snorkeling, and you see a great white shark swimming about 20 feet from you. First, 'take a deep breath and go, 'Wow, that's so cool,'' Lowe said. Next, observe what the shark is doing. Is it relaxed? Has it spotted you yet? Lowe said that oftentimes, you will see a shark because the animal wanted you to or allowed you to see it. The majority of human-shark encounters in Southern California occur without the human ever knowing it happened. 'We see it all the time from our drones — they'll come up behind people, and in fact get what I would consider uncomfortably close to people, and then it's almost like [they think,] 'OK, that's not what I thought it was,' and then they just turn and take off,' he said. I asked what uncomfortably close means, thinking 15 feet, 10 feet. 'Three feet,' Lowe told me. 'Let the shark know you see it,' Lowe said. 'As the shark is swimming around you, you should pivot to always face the shark. That is part of this body communication that all animals use. If you're ever threatened, do you ever turn your back on the threat?' (No.) Move calmly and naturally as you float in the water. Do not throw anything at the shark or jerk around. Most often, this is where the encounter ends, Lowe said. If the shark doesn't feel threatened, you'll observe the shark until it leaves the vicinity, and then you can alert a lifeguard of what you saw. You might have (even accidentally) startled the shark by moving too quickly. When Lowe and his students go out into the ocean to tag sharks, they will pull up next to a shark and start recording it with a camera and taking other measurements. But if they startle it or if the shark feels threatened, the shark almost always loops around and tries to get behind the boat. It'll do the same if you scare it. People mistake this as the shark stalking them. 'Actually, no,' Lowe said. 'That's how it's investigating you safely. People forget these animals are just as much worried about their safety as we are [worried about ours].' If a shark feels threatened, it will arch its back and drop its fins and start an exaggerated slow-motion swimming behavior, Lowe said. 'They will open their mouths, they'll bear their teeth,' similar to an angry cat, he said. You should, if you haven't already, start to back away slowly from the shark, maintaining eye contact. Unlike the movies when people thrash out of the water, you want to backpedal at a normal speed. Remember, this animal is likely scared too. Do not move toward the shark. 'If you chase that shark, if you pursue it, it will break out of that behavior, and it will rush in and bite. And then it will take off,' Lowe said. 'That's a defensive response.' Hopefully your encounter has ended by now, as this next tip is for exceedingly rare instances when a shark is getting in your space. If you've been backing away from the shark, and it keeps coming toward you, getting within arm's length, give it a 'good pop to the nose,' Lowe said. 'The animal has to know you'll defend yourself,' he said. How hard should you strike its nose? 'It's not a little flick, it's not a hand wave,' Lowe said. 'You want the animal to know you will defend yourself because, in many cases, they are just as afraid of getting hurt as you are. A little bop on the nose quite often is enough to stop that from happening, and of course, you keep backing up. That's the best you can do in those circumstances.' If the shark bites you, you should punch it in the nostrils, eyes and gills. 'There are pretty good eyewitness accounts of people fighting back, and that making a difference and then getting the shark to release. And in some cases, they don't even see the shark after that,' Lowe said. Most sharks bite once and leave. Like other apex predators in California, sharks have in rare instances attacked and, in even rarer instances, killed people. In the past 75 years, there have been about 223 shark incidents in California, with 'incident' defined as a documented encounter where a shark touched a person or their surfboard, paddleboard, kayak, etc., according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Of that, at least 195 of the incidents involved white sharks. None of the 16 fatal shark incidents in California occurred in L.A. County. These numbers feel even lower when you consider that millions of people visit California's beaches every year. Even with the large number of white sharks present along Southern California beaches, swimming and recreating along the coastline remains a largely safe activity, Lowe said. (In terms of risks, you're much more likely to step on a stingray.) I hope you will never need these tips and instead have great experiences this summer on our beautiful beaches. I have to admit that, as someone who grew up in the landlocked state of Oklahoma, I came into this conversation with a lot of fear. It doesn't help that my wife watches the Discovery Channel's Shark Week every year. But after talking to Lowe, I feel about sharks like I do about bears and mountain lions. They live here too, and when we visit their homes, we could see them. More often than not, they mean us no harm and want to be left alone to live their lives — just like we do ours. 'People need to stop thinking of these animals as nothing more than these mindless animals,' Lowe said. 'They are more like us than [people] think. If somebody was invading your personal spaces, you should defend yourself. You will defend yourself, whether you do it innately or not. The animals will do the same. If they feel threatened, they will protect themselves.' Note: Out of concern for the safety of community members who could be targeted in ICE raids, multiple outdoors events have been postponed this week. Please check before heading out to make sure the activity you're attending is still happening. 1. Hike on the longest day of the year in ChatsworthThe Chatsworth Nature Preserve will host a summer solstice event from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday featuring guided hikes, storytelling, live animal exhibits and more. Guests should wear hats and comfy shoes and they should bring refillable water bottles and sunscreen. Dogs are not allowed. Visitors should enter through the Valley Circle Boulevard gate, west of Plummer Street. Learn more at 2. Tend to trees near MalibuThe Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains needs volunteers from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday to care for newly planted oak trees in Nicholas Flat in Leo Carrillo State Park. Participants will water, weed and mulch around newly planted trees and possibly plant acorns to replace trees that died. Volunteers will also collect data for a reforestation project. Volunteers should wear comfortable clothing and durable shoes. Register at 3. Celebrate inclusivity and nature in San DimasL.A. County Parks and Recreation will host Pride Outside at 5 p.m. Friday at the San Dimas Canyon Nature Center (1628 N. Sycamore Canyon Road in San Dimas). The event will include a hike alongside representatives from Pomona Valley Pride, which is partnering with the county for the event. Learn more at the park's Instagram page. The Chuckwalla National Monument, a 624,000-acre desert landscape next to Joshua Tree National Park, faces an increased threat of losing its federal monument status after a recent ruling from the Department of Justice. Times staff writer Lila Seidman reports that a May 27 legal opinion by President Trump's DOJ overturns a more than 80-year-old Justice Department determination that presidents can't revoke national monuments created by their predecessors under the Antiquities Act. This opens a wide window for Trump to dismantle Chuckwalla and the Sáttítla Highlands near the Oregon border, which President Biden established as national monuments shortly before leaving office. 'Whether presidents have the authority to alter monuments is hotly contested,' Seidman wrote. 'Litigation challenging Trump's previous monument reductions was still pending when Biden reversed them and the matter was never settled.' We'll keep you posted on what happens next. Happy adventuring, The Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority, which manages more than 75,000 acres of public land around L.A. County, announced this week that it is reopening multiple hiking areas closed in response to the Palisades fire. This includes the popular Escondido Canyon Park & Falls, which I'm eager to see, and San Vicente Mountain Park. A few Wilders, who recently emailed me regarding trail closures, will be happy to hear Westridge-Canyonback Wilderness Park and Mandeville Canyon are reopening too. You can read more about other recent trail reopenings here. For more insider tips on Southern California's beaches, trails and parks, check out past editions of The Wild. And to view this newsletter in your browser, click here.
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
FCC Commissioner Labels Trump Push to Chill Speech an ‘Administration-Wide Effort'
Although much of the recent focus regarding the press being under siege has been on President Trump's Federal Communications Commission, FCC commissioner Anna M. Gomez cited 'an administration-wide effort' involving multiple agencies intended 'to chill speech' and stifle dissenting voices. Gomez, who will soon be the only Democrat on the commission, made those remarks during a Free Speech forum at Cal State Los Angeles on Wednesday, presented as a 'First Amendment tour' by Gomez designed to shine a light on the issue and discuss means and methods to combat those policies. The event was sponsored by the advocacy group Free Press, whose co-CEO, Jessica J. González, described Trump's 'attacks' on free expression and the press as 'A clear effort to quash dissent.' She cited the event's goal as beginning to organize on behalf of protecting speech and 'raising our voices together.' With the FCC under Trump's handpicked chairman Brendan Carr, Gomez has few avenues to formally push back against the Republican majority. Because of that, she said, it's incumbent upon her to publicly push back against what she called a 'campaign of censorship and control' carried out in part through 'sham investigations against broadcasters because of their editorial decisions.' Noting that Trump had previously fired Democratic members of the Federal Trade Commission, Gomez conceded that she doesn't know why she's still in her position, before adding that any attempt to remove her before her term expires would be illegal. Explaining her goal, she said, 'If I get fired, it isn't because I didn't do my job, it's because I insisted on doing it.' Gomez referenced Trump's lawsuit against '60 Minutes,' and the pressure brought to bear against its corporate parent Paramount Global, as an example of the work being done against journalists to 'tone down their criticisms' of the administration. 'Freedom of the press requires journalists that are able to do their jobs without inference from their corporate parents,' she said. Carr has stated that the review process of the Paramount-Skydance merger is unrelated to Trump's lawsuit, but critics maintain that the commission is transparently acting on his behalf, creating leverage to prompt Paramount to seek to settle a case that experts have called frivolous. The panel also included Dr. Safiya U. Noble, MacArthur Fellow and UCLA professor, who pointed to more subtle effects of the FCC's attempts to punish companies for pursuing diversity, equity and inclusion policies 'directly suppressing' the work of women of color. 'I think the new threats are old threats,' Noble said, comparing current government actions to the Vietnam era, while calling the 'coordinated effort' to undermine public institutions 'a cornerstone of this administration.' 'Journalists must realize that this situation is not normal, and doing nothing is not an option,' said Gabriel Lerner, editor emeritus of La Opinión, who maintained that the 'bed of lies' upon which Trump operates is 'not compatible' with press freedom. In terms of practical impact, Alejandra Santamaria, president and CEO of Southern California Public Radio (a.k.a. LAst), also addressed the administration's assault on public broadcasting and the uncertainty that has created in terms of funding and planning going forward, saying her station has already been forced to make 'tough decisions' in terms of staffing. After a listening session with those who attended, which included journalists and an employee of Voice of America, Gomez closed by saying the administration is motivated in part by fear of criticism, which makes protecting the independent press even more vital. Congressman Raul Ruiz said the free press is currently engaged in a fight for its survival, and applauded Gomez for 'her courage in taking this First Amendment tour,' citing the frequency of threats made against public officials. The event marked Gomez's first outside of Washington. In addition to those who attended in person, the forum was also live streamed. The post FCC Commissioner Labels Trump Push to Chill Speech an 'Administration-Wide Effort' appeared first on TheWrap.
