The Brief

Doctors at Adventist Health White Memorial hospital in Boyle Heights told LAist that hospital administrators are allowing federal immigration agents to interfere in medical decisions and block doctors from properly treating detainees who need emergency care.

Administrators at White Memorial have told doctors not to call a detained patient’s family members, even to find out what type of medication they’re on or what conditions they have, doctors told LAist. Hospital leaders also have told doctors to allow immigration agents to remain by a detained patient’s side, even during consultations, inhibiting frank discussions between doctors and their patients and potentially violating patient privacy laws. Doctors say this is not typical protocol for any patients, including those brought in by local police or sheriff’s deputies.

These doctors are equally concerned about their inability to ensure follow-up care for patients released to the ICE processing facility known as B-18 in downtown L.A., where critics say some detainees have been held for days on end with no proper beds or medical care.

Why this matters

White Memorial is part of a network of private, nonprofit hospitals affiliated with the Seventh-day Adventist Church, with $7 billion in annual revenue. The hospital has been operating for more than 110 years. Its calling is to “help improve the lives of our friends and neighbors in East Los Angeles and Boyle Heights,” according to its website.

Five physicians at White Memorial shared the details with LAist about ICE’s presence at the hospital and hospital administrators’ response on the condition that they not be named for fear of retaliation from their employer or from immigration authorities. LAist reviewed internal emails supporting their claims.

“We have an ethical and moral duty to provide excellent medical care and to serve the patient’s interest,” one doctor at White Memorial told LAist. But the doctor said the frequent presence of masked, armed immigration agents in the hospital makes it “very difficult to do that.”

The physicians told LAist they believe the directives from their bosses conflict with the responsibilities all doctors have to their patients and with guidance from the California attorney general.

White Memorial did not respond to a request for an interview from LAist or to our emailed list of questions.

In a statement, a White Memorial spokesperson said the hospital’s staff “are passionately committed to providing the highest standard of medical care to all who come through our doors, regardless of their circumstances” and that the hospital has “protocols in place that are designed to help support the lawful respect of patient rights.”

“We are doing everything in our power to provide safe and compassionate care to our community during this time of unrest,” the statement reads. It also urged people not to "delay the medical care you need.”

Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, which includes ICE, did not respond to specific questions from LAist or agree to an interview.

In a statement, she wrote that “ICE is not denying any illegal alien access to proper medical care or medications.” McLaughlin said it was “longstanding practice to provide comprehensive medical care from the moment an alien enters ICE custody.”

She added that she hoped LAist “would consider NOT writing this garbage” in the wake of the recent shooting outside an ICE detention center in Texas, where one detainee was killed and two injured.

“These types of smears are contributing to our officers facing a 1000% increase in assaults against them,” she wrote.

An analysis of federal court filings for assault on a federal officer by Colorado Public Radio shows a sharp increase in charges in recent months. The data is far short of the scale suggested by officials.

The bigger picture

A version of the conflicts described at White Memorial is happening across the state and the country as hospitals are forced to contend with fallout from the Trump administration’s mass deportation program. Caught in the middle are doctors and other medical professionals who have a legal duty to provide medical care to patients and ethical concerns about policies they feel affect the traditional standards of care.

The five doctors who spoke with LAist say the conflicts are especially acute at White Memorial, a hospital whose patient and surrounding population is mostly Latino and where several doctors told LAist they’re seeing two to three detained patients per shift.

The situation also raises questions about medical privacy at a time when the federal government is seeking access to sensitive personal information, including medical information from both immigrants and U.S.-born citizens.

Lorenzo Antonio González is a physician who volunteers with Unión del Barrio, which patrols Boyle Heights and other neighborhoods to warn people about ICE raids. He does not work at White Memorial but is aware of the doctors’ concerns. He said he fears ICE’s frequent presence at the hospital will further the chilling effect already causing many Boyle Heights neighbors — where more than 80% of households speak Spanish and a quarter of residents are noncitizens — to forgo medical care and avoid leaving their homes. González called White Memorial’s alleged behavior “an  erosion of trust within this pillar of a community.”

Anti-ICE protestors march out of Mariachi Plaza during the 'Reclaim Our Streets" event in the Boyle Heights neighborhood on July 1, 2025.

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How we got here

As immigration raids ramped up in Los Angeles this year, some detainees have needed urgent medical care, either because they were injured while being detained, had a pre-existing illness, or because they became ill while being held at the downtown immigration facility.

Some of these incidents became headlines. In July, a Salvadoran woman was brought to Glendale Memorial Hospital with injuries suffered during a raid. In that case, camera crews descended on the hospital as activists protested the presence of ICE agents in the public lobby.

Meanwhile, White Memorial stayed out of the news. In June, a hospital leader sent an email to colleagues, flagging several incidents involving immigration detainees, including one in which agents remained in the room with a detained patient during the patient’s entire stay at the hospital. The email also noted that agents told doctors they could not call the patient’s family members when the patient couldn’t remember her medications, according to the email and doctors who spoke with LAist.

Doctors at White Memorial and other hospitals told LAist it’s not typical for law enforcement officers to remain in the room during patient care, even with criminal detainees, unless there’s a serious security risk. People in ICE custody are civil, not criminal detainees. Doctors also told LAist it’s common practice to call family members, with a patient’s permission, to inquire about their medical history and current medications.

So the doctors at White Memorial pressed hospital administrators for a clear policy and legal guidance on how to balance ICE agent demands with the hospital’s responsibilities for patient care.

The answer that came back from hospital administrators: defer to the agents.

Hospital leaders told doctors — both verbally, doctors say, and in writing in several emails reviewed by LAist — that immigration agents are allowed to be present at all times, even during discussions about a patient’s sensitive medical information. Doctors also were told they could not call a detained patient’s family member without an agent’s permission. In one email to subordinates, a hospital leader told White Memorial staff that doing so could be a “security risk.”

“That’s like encouraging medical negligence,” one White Memorial doctor told LAist in response to this guidance.

At least one doctor told LAist they are defying hospital leaders’ guidance, deferring instead to their medical duty to the patient and to follow medical privacy laws.

“There’s no way you can get me to not call a patient’s family if they’re hurt and need support,” the doctor said.

Why detainee care is under scrutiny

The concerns about White Memorial come at a time when the care of people in ICE custody is under scrutiny. In August, a man was severely injured while being detained at a car wash in Carson. Agents brought him to Harbor-UCLA medical center for treatment and remained by his bed, to which the man was cuffed, for over a month, according to a recent court ruling. He was never charged with violating any immigration laws, and in October, a federal judge ordered the agents monitoring him to leave the man’s hospital room and remove restrictions on the man’s “ability to make telephone calls to family and friends and to confer confidentially with counsel outside the presence of ICE agents.”

X'tiosu is located on the corner of Wabash and Forest avenues in Boyle Heights

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Concerns about the medical care of detainees also extends to formal ICE detention centers. In September, Ismael Ayala-Uribe, a Westminster man who was being held at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center, became the 17th person to die in ICE custody this year. Last year, 12 people died in ICE custody, according to agency statistics.

Ayala-Uribe, 39, was a former DACA recipient who supporters say had lived in the country since he was 4 years old. He was picked up in an ICE raid in Fountain Valley in August and sent to Adelanto. From there, a medical provider at the detention facility sent Ayala-Uribe to a nearby hospital, where he was evaluated for an abscess, scheduled for surgery and sent back to the facility. He died in custody the following day.

Earlier this year, as immigration raids ramped up, the advocacy group Disability Rights California interviewed 18 people detained at the Adelanto ICE facility. In a subsequent report, the group concluded that "due to the surging numbers of people at Adelanto, conditions appear to have quickly deteriorated.” The report claimed detainees faced "inadequate access to medical treatment, such as life-saving medication and wound care and exposure to widespread respiratory illnesses."

In response to LAist’s emailed questions about medical care for ICE detainees, McLaughlin, the ICE spokesperson, said detainees received “medical, dental and mental health intake screening within 12 hours of arriving at each detention facility, a full health assessment within 14 days of entering ICE custody or arrival at a facility and access to medical appointments and 24-hour emergency care. This is the best healthcare … many aliens have received in their entire lives," she wrote.

McLaughlin did not respond to LAist’s follow-up email asking her to specifically respond to questions about hospital care for detainees outside of detention centers or to questions about the availability of health care at the B-18 processing center, which unlike the Adelanto facility, is not an official detention center.

In a recent, ongoing lawsuit over the L.A. immigration raids, the ACLU and other groups called out alleged unsanitary conditions and a lack of medical care at B-18.

“Individuals with conditions that require consistent medications and treatment are not given any medical attention, even when that information is brought to the attention of the officers on duty,” reads the initial complaint, filed in July.

One doctor at White Memorial told LAist she had called ICE supervisors at the holding center on several occasions to inquire about follow-up care for patients and was told there were no doctors at the facility and there was no way to obtain medication.

What this all means for detainees — and doctors

Other groups have tried to bring attention to the problems associated with immigration agents in hospital settings. The Committee of Interns and Residents, which is is part of the Service Employees International Union, publicly denounced the presence of ICE agents at University of California hospitals in July, saying it creates “an unsafe environment that … directly contradicts our mission to provide safe, effective and quality healthcare to every member of our community.”

Mahima Iyengar, a doctor at L.A. General hospital and secretary-treasurer of the committee, told LAist that having a law enforcement officer present during doctor-patient conversations can compromise care.

“There's that level of trust that people have with their doctor that they don't necessarily have when somebody else is listening,” Iyengar told LAist. “Your doctor is then not getting as much information as they need, and that information … very well could be what helps them come up with a diagnosis or what helps them decide what treatment [the patient] is going to be on.”

Iyengar said doctors also are unlikely to feel comfortable asking a patient important non-medical questions when an ICE agent is present.

“A lot of what determines our patients' health are all of these social determinants, like where they're living, how they're getting to the hospital, if they have money, if they have kids that need childcare right now while they're hospitalized,” she said. “All of those questions are important questions to ask that I would not personally feel comfortable asking if an officer was standing right there.”

McLaughlin, the ICE spokesperson, did not respond to LAist’s specific questions about whether the agency recognizes detained patients’ privacy rights at hospitals.

What do legal experts say?

Last December, California Attorney General Rob Bonta issued “guidance and model policies” for health care facilities in responding to the anticipated increase in immigration enforcement. The guidance is not mandatory for private hospitals, like White Memorial, but all health care facilities were “encouraged to adopt” model policies. Doctors who spoke with LAist said they had read the guidance and felt beholden to it.

The document states that:

• State and federal medical privacy laws apply to all patients “regardless of immigration status.” 
• Health care facility staff “should identify circumstances in which granting immigration enforcement officers access to patients may interfere with physicians’ duty to provide competent medical care, to safeguard patient confidences and privacy, and to otherwise prioritize their obligations to their patients”; and
• Facilities “should educate patients about their privacy rights and reassure them that their healthcare information is protected by federal and state laws.”

A spokesperson for Bonta told LAist the attorney general could not comment on whether the office had received complaints about ICE privacy breaches in health care settings because they are confidential.

“We continue to monitor compliance with all state and federal laws,” the spokesperson said in an email.

LAist also asked two health care legal experts about White Memorial’s direction to staff to allow ICE agents to be present during patient exams and bar calls to detained patients’ family members. Both said the guidance could violate medical privacy laws and ethical standards.

“From a patient safety perspective, it certainly raises red flags,” said Paul Schmeltzer, an L.A.-based health care and data privacy lawyer, referring especially to the prohibition on calling a detained patient’s family member. Schmeltzer also said letting an ICE agent remain next to a patient throughout their hospital stay without the patient’s consent is likely illegal. Patient privacy is protected under the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, and California’s Confidentiality of Medical Information Act. Both generally prohibit doctors and hospitals from disclosing a patient’s medical information without their permission or a search warrant or other court order.

Schmeltzer said he saw “no permissible situation” under these laws for “disclosing” a detained patient’s hospital treatment to an ICE agent.

“The fact that an ICE agent is present in the room while this patient is receiving treatment, that's a disclosure,” he said.

Deven McGraw, chief regulatory and privacy officer for the company Citizen Health,  a patient data platform, agreed.

“ You're basically saying, ‘Yeah, patient, you don't have a choice but to disclose your medical information to this law enforcement official,'” she said.

McGraw was in charge of enforcing HIPAA at the federal Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights from 2015 to 2017. She said there are personal and public health reasons for shielding a patient’s medical information from law enforcement. For example, a patient might hide that they have a communicable disease out of fear they’ll be targeted or isolated.

“ We're supposed to treat people,” McGraw said. “The failure to treat them has potential consequences for their own health, plus the health of others.”

Schmeltzer and McGraw both said the administration at White Memorial might be making a calculated decision when weighing the hospital’s potential liability for violating the privacy rights of immigration detainees versus angering the Trump administration. Only the federal government and state attorneys general can prosecute a hospital for violating HIPAA, Schmeltzer and McGraw noted. 

Some of the behavior described by doctors could be prohibited under a new state law, enacted in September as an “urgency” measure. The law requires health care facilities to ban immigration agents from entering non-public areas without a valid warrant and to advise staff on how to respond to agents’ requests for entry.

Even before the law, groups like the Committee of Interns and Residents had begun to train colleagues on the privacy rights of detained patients and how to handle ICE agents. Iyengar said doctors at L.A. General, for example, distribute “Know Your Rights” cards to immigrant patients and hospital employees are instructed to immediately call hospital directors if immigration agents appear.

“ Even just if there is an ICE officer in the hospital, that will put people off from visiting a loved one, or if word gets out, the community finds out, and they don't want come to that hospital,” she said. “So, it's just an unsafe environment to have an ICE officer in a hospital, especially [a hospital] that's serving mostly immigrants.”

LAist’s Ted Rohrlich also contributed to this story.

Federal forecasters say this year the planet could see the strongest El Niño event on record. It's already being called "Super El Niño" and even "Godzilla El Niño." El Niño is a natural climate pattern that has far-reaching impacts across the planet, potentially affecting hundreds of millions of people.

Where those impacts happen can vary drastically from one El Niño to the next. Here are the basics of what this historic event could bring.

What is El Niño?

El Niño occurs every two to seven years. It develops when a vast amount of water in the eastern Pacific Ocean warms up around the equator. That water releases massive heat, redistributing warmth from the ocean to the atmosphere. That shifts weather patterns around the world.

The flip side of El Niño is a La Niña, which is marked by relatively cool water in the tropical Pacific around the equator. These events are responsible for some of the biggest weather variability the planet experiences.

El Niño is like dropping a rock in a pond, says Daniel Vimont, professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "Even though you're not where the rock hit, you still may feel the effects of those waves," he says. "El Niño is the same thing, except it's an enormous rock in our entire Earth's system, and we feel the response."

How strong is it?

Sure, "Godzilla El Niño" is catchy, but technically, NOAA forecasters say this year's El Niño will fall into the "very strong" category. It's measured by the temperature of the ocean in a particular region off South America. The warmer the water, the stronger the El Niño. When that water is more than 2 degrees Celsius warmer than average, it qualifies as a "very strong" El Niño.

The last strong events were in 2015-16, 1997-8 and 1982-83. El Niños typically peak in November and December, but already, this El Niño is the strongest ever measured for this time of year. NOAA forecasters expect it to last through early 2027.

What will the impacts be globally?

All that added heat in the atmosphere raises temperatures globally. El Niño years tend to be the hottest on record. Forecasters say this year may get close to taking the top spot, but it's very likely that temperature records could fall in 2027. The planet is already warmer due to climate change, because emissions from burning fossil fuels are trapping more heat in the atmosphere.

El Niño also shifts rainfall patterns globally, raising the chances for destructive flooding in some parts of the world. Other regions get drier, exacerbating droughts. Both impacts can be catastrophic to agriculture around the world. The United Nations World Food Programme estimates that El Niño could push at least 49 million more people into acute food insecurity by the end of 2027.

What will the impacts be in the U.S.?

In El Niño years, the southern U.S. tends to see more intense rainfall because the jet stream shifts to the south. That raises the risk of floods along rivers and in cities. Still, in the Southwest, more rain could alleviate drought and recharge underground aquifers.

"El Niño tends to juice up those storms so that you get more really strong rain events," says Martin Hoerling, meteorologist and adjunct lecturer at the University of Colorado Boulder. "So if you were running a deficit in your water supply, a big El Niño, especially like the one we're having, can really get you into recovery mode that otherwise might have taken you years."

The northern half of the country gets warmer and drier, something that could exacerbate the current drought in the Intermountain West. Some states experience mixed effects during El Niños, like California. The state saw historic flooding in the 1997-98 El Niño, but was drier than average during the 2015-16 one. Climate experts say the current El Niño is so strong, it's more likely California will experience extreme rain.

El Niños can also lead to fewer hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean, since it's more difficult for the storms to form. In the Pacific Ocean, hurricanes can get more frequent, fueled by warmer ocean water. Already this year, hurricanes have intensified rapidly in the Pacific, and Hawaii has had close calls with several hurricanes that brought destructive rain and wind.

Can we blame it all on El Niño?

Certain weather changes are common during El Niños, but there are no guarantees that extreme weather events this winter will match those predictions for every region.

"El Niño is like loading the dice," Vimont says. "While we're loading the dice for a certain type of response from El Niño, we still know that in any given year, there are still natural fluctuations that may mask that or cause the response to be slightly different than what we might expect."

In addition to that natural variability, weather events are also being affected by climate change. The most intense storms are already producing more rainfall in most of the U.S., since a warmer atmosphere can hold more water vapor. Heat waves and droughts are also getting more intense due to rising temperatures. Climate experts say El Niño and climate change impacts will both play out this winter, but while El Niño will fade, the effects of climate change will continue.
Copyright 2026 NPR

Fans of Hollywood Burbank Airport have a new way to rag on LAX-ers.

Burbank’s ambitious new terminal building has been completed on time and on budget. The long-awaited structure, known as the Elevate BUR project, is ready for prime time.

It’s slated to open to the public on Oct. 13, with a new entrance at Winona Avenue and Hollywood Way. On Monday, LAist got a look inside.

Why now?

The $1.3 billion terminal is a decade in the making. The project comes from Burbank’s Measure B, which voters passed in 2016.

Burbank Mayor Tamala Takahashi said the new building will replace the terminal that opened in 1930, which will eventually be demolished.

“ The old building is not to code, so it can’t be reused. It’s too close to the airstrip. That’s why we had to do this in the first place,” she said.

The new facility is more than 50% larger. Plus, it has a slate of improvements needed to meet FAA safety standards and state building requirements. That includes new seismic and accessibility features and more runaway space.

The new terminal will have the same 14 gates but with a lot more room.

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The entrance to TSA. Once you're in, you either go left or right to your gate number after screening.

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Takahashi said the new terminal will open up  capacity because all of the gates will be able to accommodate modern planes.

“What that means is that we’re going to have the same number of flights, the same number of planes, the same number of gates, but more people going through the airport every day,” she said.

There’s one thing travelers can count on to stay the same: You’ll still be able to board your plane on the tarmac.

The Hollywood touch

Tyron Hampton, president of the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority, which owns the airport, said it’s time everyone knows about L.A.’s best insider tip for flying.

“ This is no longer a secret,” he said. “We want people to come here. We want people to see this experience.”

Hampton said the new building has space for more amenities, which feature local retailers like Jones Coffee and Octavia’s Bookshelf.

The specs on the ceiling are supposed to mirror one of Marilyn Monroe's dresses.

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Art is also woven into the design. Brent Kelley, who worked on the architecture at Corgan, said one of their themes was classic Hollywood.

For example, small dots on the ceiling are meant to evoke Marilyn Monroe’s glimmering dress during her iconic “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” moment.

A “silver screen” canopy extends across the building outside, alongside an installation that honors the time the buildings were covered in camouflage during World War II.

California State University is betting that artificial intelligence will transform the workplace — and that its 470,000 students need to learn how to use it before they graduate.

Last year, CSU became the nation’s first public university system to pay for students’ access to ChatGPT Edu. It has awarded over $3 million in grants for faculty to experiment with how to use AI in classrooms. Several campuses now train students in how to responsibly use the technology.

Those measures are all pieces of CSU’s strategy to prepare students for a future labor market reshaped by AI. But the investment in AI has come under criticism from some CSU faculty, and some students remain skeptical of the value of knowing how to use AI even as most are concerned the developing technology will threaten their chances of landing a job and keeping it.

The success of CSU’s AI strategy will depend on the extent to which AI affects the workforce that today’s college students will soon enter.

Hiring is frozen in many sectors right now as employers wait to see the true extent artificial intelligence will change the labor market, said Eric Bettinger, a leading education economist with Stanford Graduate School of Education. But it’s not clear if the slowdown in the labor market can be attributed to AI.

As with previous emerging technologies, AI is forcing employers to decide whether they should replace workers with the technology, or hire more employees who can leverage AI to be more productive, Bettinger said.

New graduates are facing a difficult labor market, considering the unemployment rate for this population has steadily risen since 2022, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

“The reality is that the world outside of school isn’t slowing down, and we need to prepare our students for that reality,” James Frazee, San Diego State University’s vice president for information technology, told EdSource.

Students worry AI is taking their future jobs

Ismaeel Malik, a San Jose State University justice studies student, said he worries about AI taking over jobs in his desired field.

“Entry-level jobs are work that people don’t want to do,” Malik, who will graduate next spring, told EdSource. Malik said he doesn’t think AI proficiency will make it easier to win a position out of college.

Other San Jose State students who spoke with EdSource say they think some majors will be more affected than others. San Jose State prenursing student Jade Goodewin said the “hands-on” part of her preferred future career seems fairly AI-proof. But second-year student Vien Tang, who is studying advertising, said that AI could replace some of the work of entry-level jobs in the advertising industry.

“It’s definitely a possibility, because I think a lot of companies try to cut costs,” Tang said. “There’s a likelihood of that happening.”

Given SJSU’s proximity to Silicon Valley and many companies whose technologies are reshaping the workforce, the university hopes to be a leader in AI adoption, said Sandra Hirsh, special assistant to the university’s provost for AI initiatives.

“We need to be preparing students with whatever the latest opportunities are, but also prepare students for the fact that change and evolution are going to continue to happen,” she said.

Hirsh said companies want graduates to have a basic understanding of AI and how to use it in their work. Despite the nebulous changes happening in the job market, companies that hire SJSU graduates have told university leaders that students also need skills in leadership, inventiveness and ethics.

The CSU system is paying $13 million a year to provide ChatGPT Edu to all 470,000 CSU students.

Artur Gafurov, president of the California State Student Association and a fourth-year student at San Jose State, said many students appreciate access to AI tools like ChatGPT Edu, but don’t necessarily know how to use them responsibly and effectively.

“I know a lot of students who are taking it upon themselves to learn a bit more about the tool and restrict themselves with how they use it,” Gafurov said.

Some question the value of AI initiatives 

Other private and public universities have signed agreements with companies such as OpenAI to give students access to large language models, including ChatGPT Edu. Large public university systems, such as State University of New York, have also developed systemwide AI policies, and some colleges, such as Northwestern University, have launched AI majors.

But not everyone at CSU has embraced the growing use of AI on campuses. Some professors pushed back on the OpenAI deal after CSU signed it in early 2025. Martha Lincoln, an anthropology professor at San Francisco State University, said CSU administrators did not clearly explain how AI would be used on campuses and in classrooms by students.

“What will students be doing with AI that’s so valuable? If it’s so valuable to them professionally, educationally, where is that value and what does it look like?” Lincoln said.

Martha Kenney, a professor in the SFSU Department of Women and Gender Studies, said CSU’s claims that AI is helping prepare students for the changing labor market are dubious because the university has not clearly identified skills young people should develop for their future careers.

“It’s possible it has no use for our students in this way,” Kenney said.

According to an OpenAI spokesperson, ChatGPT Edu provides students with access to the company’s latest large language model, and includes plug-ins that students and faculty can use to personalize their accounts for teaching and learning.

University officials say providing access to tools like ChatGPT is essential to prevent a digital divide for CSU students who may not be able to afford subscriptions to these technologies.

“We believe we’re doing the right thing to serve our mission to prepare our students for the future workforce,” said Ed Clark, CSU’s chief information officer.

The future workforce

Erika McEntarfer, the former commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics and a policy fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, said some experts in recent years have forecast that AI would wipe out white-collar workers’ jobs. There’s little evidence that has happened, she said.

It’s difficult for universities to predict which skills will be in demand in the future, she said, but colleges should prepare their students for disruptions to their careers. She noted that roughly 60% of today’s jobs didn’t exist in 1940.

Universities need to prepare students for a tough labor market, and not just because of AI, McEntarfer said. The recent rise in the unemployment rate among new graduates started before ChatGPT was introduced in 2022, she said.

McEntarfer’s advice to recent or soon-to-be graduates is to develop skills that make you a good “human” worker, such as small talk, showing up to work on time and meeting the needs of company leaders.

“With AI you need to make sure you’re using it as a personal trainer, not a human forklift,” McEntarfer advised future college graduates. “Hopefully that’s what colleges are doing.”

Mariana Sanchez is a fourth-year journalism major at San Jose State University and a member of the EdSource California Student Journalism Corps.

This story was originally published by EdSource.