latimes--2020-03-19--Job losses from coronavirus are already devastating Southern California

In the working-class city of Pico Rivera , Melanie Santos , 26 , made ends meet as a substitute math teacher for $ 120 a day and had an occasional gig dishing food-truck chicken wings .
Thirty-seven miles away , in a leafy Pacific Palisades enclave , Louise Sandy , 52 , ran a one-woman business baking custom-designed cakes for birthdays and baby showers that sell for as much as $ 800 each .
Now the two women have something in common : Both have seen their work evaporate in the coronavirus tsunami that has engulfed California ’ s economy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Golden State ’ s labor market are feeling the pain .
Wealthy , poor and levels in between .
Young , old and middle-age .
Some are in free fall .
Others have safety nets .
But for all , the losses are sudden and staggering .
“ Honestly , none of us in this generation have ever been through anything like this , ” said Santos , who doesn ’ t know how long she can pay for her half of the condo mortgage she shares with her mom .
“ We @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can fall back on her husband ’ s marketing job but , nonetheless , laments the collapse of a hands-on business painstakingly built over seven years .
“ I ’ ve had six cancellations in two days , ” she said .
“ A complete loss of income .
It ’ s like in wartime .
No one wants to risk birthday parties .
Nobody is ordering cake.
” Economists are scrambling to make sense of the catastrophic effects of COVID-19 , and forecasters are putting out numbers while admitting they could easily @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Sachs outlook suggests the U.S. economy could contract by 1.25 % in the first half of this year .
That would imply more than 3 million lost jobs , Josh Bivens , director of research at the Economic Policy Institute , wrote in a paper this week , but “ we have no real idea how quickly the economy might recover.
” A Marist poll for NPR and PBS , conducted March 13 and 14 , found that 18 % of the adults surveyed had already been laid off or had their work @ @ @ @ @ @ @ than $ 50,000 a year , it was 25 % .
California is seeing skyrocketing claims for unemployment benefits .
Gov .
Gavin Newsom said Wednesday that the state averages 2,000 unemployment applications a day .
Although official figures haven ’ t been released yet , Newsom said the state received 80,000 applications on Tuesday .
At the beginning of the year , Golden State jobs were still expanding at a healthy rate , faster than in the nation as a whole .
California unemployment was a record-low 3.9 % .
But now @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and transpacific transportation industries , UCLA Anderson Forecast economists predict a recession slightly more severe than the nation ’ s .
California ’ s jobless rate will rise to 6.3 % by year ’ s end and will average 6.6 % in 2021 , they suggest .
More than 280,000 payroll jobs could be lost , with leisure , hospitality and transportation sectors accounting for more than one-third of those , they predict .
But they add , “ If the pandemic is much worse than assumed , this forecast will be too @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on Wednesday will presumably help , but it is too early to know how much .
The measure offers free coronavirus testing and expands sick leave for Americans .
But it excludes workers at companies with more than 500 employees from the paid-sick-leave mandate and allows exemptions for businesses with fewer than 50 workers .
Meanwhile , hundreds of thousands of jobs may already be gone .
An online survey of Los Angeles Times readers has drawn scores of responses , many of them anguished , from workers in a wide array of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lost all his clients when they canceled cruises and other trips .
The out-of-work Los Angeles audio engineer who lived “ paycheck to paycheck ” and now said , “ we have two rolls of toilet paper left.
” The Laemmle Theatres manager , a cancer survivor , who lost her $ 16.50-an-hour job and had no health insurance .
The minimum-wage-plus-tips bartender in Pleasanton who ’ s been left “ sweating the bills ” and switching to food delivery .
The NBCUniversal location manager who , after a canceled show , was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ halt or reduce payments.
” California ’ s $ 145-billion annual travel economy is staggering .
Rob Hermansen , 31 , had that most L.A. of jobs : standing with a microphone on the upper deck of a bus , touting attractions such as the La Brea Tar Pits and Paramount Studios to gaggles of tourists .
But last week , Big Bus Tours LA let him go from the $ 18.50-an-hour position , along with some 20 other guides .
Hermansen ’ s health insurance lasts only until the end of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can pay the $ 1,350 a month for his studio apartment for a couple of months .
He ’ ll look for a job , “ but now there is nothing hiring , I ’ d imagine , in the hospitality industry , ” he said .
Sporting and cultural events businesses have collapsed .
Scott Pearlman , 38 , was set to get a raise at his $ 18-an-hour sales job for Barry ’ s Ticket Service .
But on March 13 , the Calabasas company furloughed 29 of its 42 workers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hours for others .
“ We were about to go into the playoffs with the best Lakers team we ’ ve had in the seven years I ’ ve been with the company , ” he said .
“ We were poised to have a tremendous year .
Then this comes out from underneath us.
” Pearlman knows unemployment benefits won ’ t make him whole .
He is studying for a real estate license .
A friend who is adding a room to his tattoo parlor has offered some hours “ pounding @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is holding on to the hope he will eventually return to a job he loved .
“ They said I ’ ll be back whenever they get the boat rolling again , ” he said .
“ But who knows when that ’ s going to be.
” Across the economy , labor union members are by and large faring better than nonunion workers .
At the Los Angeles Unified School District , with 78,000 employees — the vast majority of them union members — teachers are supposed to provide “ distance learning @ @ @ @ @ @ @ workers will be paid , even those who aren ’ t on the job .
Unionized pilots for major airlines are being offered partial pay and medical benefits while on leave , and unionized flight attendants can take unpaid leave but still keep their health insurance .
At Marriott ’ s W Hotel in Westwood , Elmer Saravia , 39 , was afraid last week he would be laid off from his $ 22-an-hour housekeeping job .
“ I won ’ t be able to pay my rent or my water , power @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” he said .
But a few days later , when Marriott announced it would furlough “ tens of thousands ” of employees nationwide , Saravia learned that , with 18 years of seniority , “ due to my union — Unite Here Local 11 — I was able to get a full schedule with four days.
” Unite Here has secured health benefits through September at no cost for about 7,000 furloughed hotel workers in Southern California , said Kurt Petersen , co-president of Local 11 .
If a hotel closes because @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said , union contracts require that employees forced out of work must be rehired at their original salary when the hotel reopens .
But few of the millions of retail and restaurant workers are unionized , and many are working poor who can not afford to take unpaid time off .
“ You can ’ t tell the store cashier to work from home , ” said economist Jesse Rothstein , director of UC Berkeley ’ s Institute for Research on Labor and Employment .
“ You can ’ t tell the food @ @ @ @ @ @ @ They can ’ t live for a couple months without income.
” The most vulnerable workers are independent contractors .
They are not classified as employees under labor law and are thus not eligible for unemployment benefits , or even for the three days of paid sick leave that California requires businesses to offer .
That hole in the safety net came into stark relief after a 2018 California Supreme Court decision on worker misclassification , and it was addressed by a new law , Assembly Bill 5 , which took effect in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ requiring at least 1 million contractors to be reclassified as employees , is being challenged in court by the trucking industry , a coalition of freelance writers and photographers , and tech platforms such as Uber and Postmates .
Scott Brio , 37 , worked as audiovisual director for Halcyon nightclub in San Francisco , running the light show as DJs spun records and revelers danced .
He is now out of work , as bars and nightclubs have closed .
“ As an independent contractor , I don ’ t have healthcare @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in one of the world ’ s most expensive cities , ” he said .
“ I ’ m more afraid of [ losing ] my car and the room in my house than I am the virus at this point.
” Many self-employed workers are also on the ropes .
Bryan Cuan-Garcia , 31 , was all set to work lights and audio at the now-delayed Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival , among other jobs .
“ I went from having about 25 gigs a month for the next four months @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the calendar , ” he said .
The wave of event cancellations has meant a six-figure hit to his business , which brings on subcontractors as needed .
He doesn ’ t see the event industry rebounding anytime soon .
To save money , Cuan-Garcia is giving up his $ 2,000-a-month Hollywood apartment and moving to Florida , where he owns a condo with an $ 875 monthly mortgage .
If the layoffs are devastating to workers , they are also painful for their bosses .
Kari Hoole is a project management director @ @ @ @ @ @ @ design and events agency that organizes the Great Pacific Airshow and the Orange County Blossom Festival , as well as concerts , corporate meetings and trade shows .
All its jobs have been canceled through May .
With several million dollars in evaporated business , the company terminated nine of its 54 workers and furloughed 21 .
Friday , the day she had to break the bad news , “ I didn ’ t wear mascara , ” Hoole said .
“ I cried when I told each of my hardworking team members @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cried and tried to give us an inspiring speech about keeping on.
” In the meantime , she said , the laid-off workers can apply for unemployment benefits , and “ we are still paying for health insurance for those in our plan for as long as we are able to.
” In Berkeley , Peter Boutros Kamel , 71 , owner of Model Shoe , a retail and repair shop , said he had stopped paying six of his nine workers .
Sales are down 85 % , and small businesses all @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Thai noodle restaurant next door .
“ I ’ ve been 22 years in business and haven ’ t asked anyone for one dime , ” Kamel said , adding that he ’ s not expecting or even wanting government help .
“ The best option is for everybody to pray , ” he told a reporter .
“ This is a very bad situation , my friend .
We need to pray , and pray deeply.
” Times staff writers Hugo Martin and Russ Mitchell contributed to this report .

Melanie Santos, outside her apartment in Pico Rivera, has lost her work as a substitute teacher.
In the working-class city of Pico Rivera, Melanie Santos, 26, made ends meet as a substitute math teacher for $120 a day and had an occasional gig dishing food-truck chicken wings.
Thirty-seven miles away, in a leafy Pacific Palisades enclave, Louise Sandy, 52, ran a one-woman business baking custom-designed cakes for birthdays and baby showers that sell for as much as $800 each.
Now the two women have something in common: Both have seen their work evaporate in the coronavirus tsunami that has engulfed California’s economy.
Workers across vast swaths of the Golden State’s labor market are feeling the pain. Wealthy, poor and levels in between. Young, old and middle-age.
Some are in free fall. Others have safety nets. But for all, the losses are sudden and staggering.
“Honestly, none of us in this generation have ever been through anything like this,” said Santos, who doesn’t know how long she can pay for her half of the condo mortgage she shares with her mom. “We can’t process it.”
Sandy can fall back on her husband’s marketing job but, nonetheless, laments the collapse of a hands-on business painstakingly built over seven years.
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“I’ve had six cancellations in two days,” she said. “A complete loss of income. It’s like in wartime. No one wants to risk birthday parties. Nobody is ordering cake.”
Economists are scrambling to make sense of the catastrophic effects of COVID-19, and forecasters are putting out numbers while admitting they could easily be wrong.
A widely cited Goldman Sachs outlook suggests the U.S. economy could contract by 1.25% in the first half of this year. That would imply more than 3 million lost jobs, Josh Bivens, director of research at the Economic Policy Institute, wrote in a paper this week, but “we have no real idea how quickly the economy might recover.”
Custom-cake baker Louise Sandy, who has a 7-year-old business baking high-end cakes, says business has collapsed because of the coronavirus. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
A Marist poll for NPR and PBS, conducted March 13 and 14, found that 18% of the adults surveyed had already been laid off or had their work hours reduced. Among those earning less than $50,000 a year, it was 25%.
California is seeing skyrocketing claims for unemployment benefits. Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday that the state averages 2,000 unemployment applications a day. Although official figures haven’t been released yet, Newsom said the state received 80,000 applications on Tuesday.
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At the beginning of the year, Golden State jobs were still expanding at a healthy rate, faster than in the nation as a whole. California unemployment was a record-low 3.9%. But now, given California’s extensive tourist and transpacific transportation industries, UCLA Anderson Forecast economists predict a recession slightly more severe than the nation’s. California’s jobless rate will rise to 6.3% by year’s end and will average 6.6% in 2021, they suggest.
More than 280,000 payroll jobs could be lost, with leisure, hospitality and transportation sectors accounting for more than one-third of those, they predict. But they add, “If the pandemic is much worse than assumed, this forecast will be too optimistic.”
Legislation signed by President Trump on Wednesday will presumably help, but it is too early to know how much. The measure offers free coronavirus testing and expands sick leave for Americans. But it excludes workers at companies with more than 500 employees from the paid-sick-leave mandate and allows exemptions for businesses with fewer than 50 workers.
Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of jobs may already be gone.
An online survey of Los Angeles Times readers has drawn scores of responses, many of them anguished, from workers in a wide array of occupations.
The Burbank dog sitter who lost all his clients when they canceled cruises and other trips.
The out-of-work Los Angeles audio engineer who lived “paycheck to paycheck” and now said, “we have two rolls of toilet paper left.”
The Laemmle Theatres manager, a cancer survivor, who lost her $16.50-an-hour job and had no health insurance.
The minimum-wage-plus-tips bartender in Pleasanton who’s been left “sweating the bills” and switching to food delivery.
The NBCUniversal location manager who, after a canceled show, was “contacting my banks and lenders to halt or reduce payments.”
California’s $145-billion annual travel economy is staggering. Rob Hermansen, 31, had that most L.A. of jobs: standing with a microphone on the upper deck of a bus, touting attractions such as the La Brea Tar Pits and Paramount Studios to gaggles of tourists. But last week, Big Bus Tours LA let him go from the $18.50-an-hour position, along with some 20 other guides.
Hermansen’s health insurance lasts only until the end of the month. With his severance, he can pay the $1,350 a month for his studio apartment for a couple of months. He’ll look for a job, “but now there is nothing hiring, I’d imagine, in the hospitality industry,” he said.
Business Truckers, dockworkers suffer as coronavirus chokes L.A., Long Beach ports cargo The nation’s largest port is hurting. That may be a leading indicator of the pain that’s in store for Southern California and the U.S. economy as businesses hunker down to deal with the rapidly expanding new coronavirus.
Sporting and cultural events businesses have collapsed. Scott Pearlman, 38, was set to get a raise at his $18-an-hour sales job for Barry’s Ticket Service. But on March 13, the Calabasas company furloughed 29 of its 42 workers, including sales staff, and reduced hours for others.
“We were about to go into the playoffs with the best Lakers team we’ve had in the seven years I’ve been with the company,” he said. “We were poised to have a tremendous year. Then this comes out from underneath us.”
Pearlman knows unemployment benefits won’t make him whole. He is studying for a real estate license. A friend who is adding a room to his tattoo parlor has offered some hours “pounding nails or cleaning up.” And he is holding on to the hope he will eventually return to a job he loved.
“They said I’ll be back whenever they get the boat rolling again,” he said. “But who knows when that’s going to be.”
Across the economy, labor union members are by and large faring better than nonunion workers. At the Los Angeles Unified School District, with 78,000 employees — the vast majority of them union members — teachers are supposed to provide “distance learning” with campuses closed, but all workers will be paid, even those who aren’t on the job.
Unionized pilots for major airlines are being offered partial pay and medical benefits while on leave, and unionized flight attendants can take unpaid leave but still keep their health insurance.
At Marriott’s W Hotel in Westwood, Elmer Saravia, 39, was afraid last week he would be laid off from his $22-an-hour housekeeping job. “I won’t be able to pay my rent or my water, power, gas, phone, food,” he said.
But a few days later, when Marriott announced it would furlough “tens of thousands” of employees nationwide, Saravia learned that, with 18 years of seniority, “due to my union — Unite Here Local 11 — I was able to get a full schedule with four days.”
Unite Here has secured health benefits through September at no cost for about 7,000 furloughed hotel workers in Southern California, said Kurt Petersen, co-president of Local 11. If a hotel closes because of a bankruptcy or foreclosure, he said, union contracts require that employees forced out of work must be rehired at their original salary when the hotel reopens.
But few of the millions of retail and restaurant workers are unionized, and many are working poor who cannot afford to take unpaid time off.
“You can’t tell the store cashier to work from home,” said economist Jesse Rothstein, director of UC Berkeley’s Institute for Research on Labor and Employment. “You can’t tell the food service worker to work from home. They can’t live for a couple months without income.”
The most vulnerable workers are independent contractors. They are not classified as employees under labor law and are thus not eligible for unemployment benefits, or even for the three days of paid sick leave that California requires businesses to offer.
That hole in the safety net came into stark relief after a 2018 California Supreme Court decision on worker misclassification, and it was addressed by a new law, Assembly Bill 5, which took effect in January. The law, aimed at requiring at least 1 million contractors to be reclassified as employees, is being challenged in court by the trucking industry, a coalition of freelance writers and photographers, and tech platforms such as Uber and Postmates.
Scott Brio, 37, worked as audiovisual director for Halcyon nightclub in San Francisco, running the light show as DJs spun records and revelers danced. He is now out of work, as bars and nightclubs have closed. “As an independent contractor, I don’t have healthcare or unemployment benefits, and I live in one of the world’s most expensive cities,” he said. “I’m more afraid of [losing] my car and the room in my house than I am the virus at this point.”
Many self-employed workers are also on the ropes. Bryan Cuan-Garcia, 31, was all set to work lights and audio at the now-delayed Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, among other jobs. “I went from having about 25 gigs a month for the next four months to not having a single day on the calendar,” he said.
The wave of event cancellations has meant a six-figure hit to his business, which brings on subcontractors as needed. He doesn’t see the event industry rebounding anytime soon. To save money, Cuan-Garcia is giving up his $2,000-a-month Hollywood apartment and moving to Florida, where he owns a condo with an $875 monthly mortgage.
Bryan Cuan-Garcia’s small audio and visual production company has been slammed by event cancellations. (Jason Armond /Los Angeles Times)
If the layoffs are devastating to workers, they are also painful for their bosses.
Kari Hoole is a project management director for Code Four, a Huntington Beach design and events agency that organizes the Great Pacific Airshow and the Orange County Blossom Festival, as well as concerts, corporate meetings and trade shows. All its jobs have been canceled through May.
With several million dollars in evaporated business, the company terminated nine of its 54 workers and furloughed 21. Friday, the day she had to break the bad news, “I didn’t wear mascara,” Hoole said. “I cried when I told each of my hardworking team members they were on furlough. The owner cried and tried to give us an inspiring speech about keeping on.”
In the meantime, she said, the laid-off workers can apply for unemployment benefits, and “we are still paying for health insurance for those in our plan for as long as we are able to.”
In Berkeley, Peter Boutros Kamel, 71, owner of Model Shoe, a retail and repair shop, said he had stopped paying six of his nine workers. Sales are down 85%, and small businesses all around him are collapsing, including a Thai noodle restaurant next door.
“I’ve been 22 years in business and haven’t asked anyone for one dime,” Kamel said, adding that he’s not expecting or even wanting government help.
“The best option is for everybody to pray,” he told a reporter. “This is a very bad situation, my friend. We need to pray, and pray deeply.”
Times staff writers Hugo Martin and Russ Mitchell contributed to this report.


latimes--2020-03-19--SAT wars: Report bolsters idea of dropping SAT, ACT tests for UC admission

As University of California regents prepare to discuss Thursday whether to drop SAT and ACT test scores as an admission requirement , a new research paper is likely to deepen the sharp disagreement over the value of standardized tests in predicting college performance .
The new analysis strongly rejects a key conclusion of a highly anticipated report by a UC Academic Senate task force , which recommended continued use of the SAT and ACT tests for now despite growing legal and political pressure to drop them .
Opponents of the tests say they unfairly discriminate on the basis of race @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The task force ’ s preliminary findings concluded that the tests may actually help boost enrollment of disadvantaged students and better predict college performance than high school grades .
But such claims are “ spurious , ” based on a fundamental error of omitting student demographics in the prediction model , according to the new paper , released Wednesday by Saul Geiser , senior associate at the UC Berkeley Center for Studies in Higher Education .
When demographics such as family income and parent education level are included in the prediction model , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are actually shown to be more influential than the SAT or ACT , according to Geiser ’ s analysis , which was based on data presented in an appendix to the task force report .
Test scores are much more closely correlated with family income and education than high school grades , he said .
His conclusion parallels similar findings in numerous other studies and underscores the need , he said , to drop the tests because the cost to disadvantaged students outweighs any limited benefit in helping UC campuses decide who will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ force should go back to the drawing board , ” Geiser said , “ and provide the UC community with more realistic estimates ” of the value of the tests .
Geiser ’ s findings are likely to fuel the heated debate over whether the UC system should drop the tests — a decision that will reshape the national standardized testing landscape because of the size and global stature of the public research university system .
The UC ’ s nine undergraduate campuses are deluged with applications from more than 172,000 freshmen , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ submit SAT or ACT test scores .
The UC Board of Regents will discuss the issue Thursday but not vote on whether to keep or drop the tests until at least May .
Chair John A. Pèrez , Vice Chair Cecilia Estolano and Regent Eloy Ortiz Oakley have expressed deep skepticism about the tests .
UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ and UC Provost Michael Brown also have voiced support for dropping the tests .
But UC San Diego officials told the task force they oppose eliminating the tests because they help winnow 99,000 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ selecting a diverse class .
UCLA said dropping the tests would cause a greater reliance on grades — a challenge , officials said , because the campus receives 10,000 applications each year from students with 4.0 GPAs or higher .
The UC Academic Senate task force members stood by their work .
“ What can I say ?
Saul unfortunately is wrong , ” said Li Cai , a UCLA professor who directs the National Center for Research on Evaluation , Standards , and Student Testing .
Cai said the task force analyses @ @ @ @ @ @ @ demographic variables , through a more transparent means.
” He said task force members chose to use a different and simpler model than did Geiser so the public would more easily understand their findings .
He also said Geiser ’ s model did not reflect how admissions decisions are actually made at UC campuses .
Admissions officers compensate for the discriminatory impact of SAT and ACT scores by discounting their weight while increasing emphasis on grades in application reviews of underserved students , the report found .
Among students with SAT scores of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Latinos were admitted compared to less than one-third of whites , the task force found .
The report found similar advantages for students who are low-income and the first in their families to attend college .
Those findings , however , were challenged by another expert , Jesse Rothstein , a UC Berkeley professor of public policy and economics .
“ The task force report got a lot of things wrong about the SAT , ” Rothstein said .
“ In particular , it overstates the value of SAT scores for predicting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ no basis for its conclusion that UC admissions ‘ compensate ’ for test score gaps between groups.
” In any case , the fundamental issue — giving all students an equitable shot at UC admission so the state ’ s diversity is fully represented — won ’ t be settled by a “ horse race ” between SAT scores and high school grades , said Julian Betts , a UC San Diego economics professor and task force member .
That ’ s because the report found that three-fourths of the gap in UC @ @ @ @ @ @ @ high school preparation — namely , their lower rates of completing a prescribed sequence of college-prep courses required for UC admission , Betts said .
The remaining gap is tied more to differences in high school GPA than SAT scores , he said .
“ The upshot is that if UC overnight dropped the SAT requirement , it would do very little to improve diversity , ” Betts said .
“ But at the same time , within any student socioeconomic group , UC would be admitting students less well prepared to succeed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or the public well.
” In other findings , the task force recommended continued research into making the SAT and ACT optional , as more than 1,000 colleges and universities have done .
In the long run , the report recommended that UC develop its own admissions test but noted that process could take nine years .
Some task force members believe that time frame is too long and supported setting a sunset date for use of the standardized tests but narrowly lost a vote to do so .
The Academic Senate is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ — all tenured and tenure-track faculty — for review and plans to submit a final report to UC President Janet Napolitano next month .

The University of California is debating whether to continue using the SAT exam for admissions decisions.
As University of California regents prepare to discuss Thursday whether to drop SAT and ACT test scores as an admission requirement, a new research paper is likely to deepen the sharp disagreement over the value of standardized tests in predicting college performance.
The new analysis strongly rejects a key conclusion of a highly anticipated report by a UC Academic Senate task force, which recommended continued use of the SAT and ACT tests for now despite growing legal and political pressure to drop them.
Opponents of the tests say they unfairly discriminate on the basis of race, income and parent education levels.
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The task force’s preliminary findings concluded that the tests may actually help boost enrollment of disadvantaged students and better predict college performance than high school grades.
But such claims are “spurious,” based on a fundamental error of omitting student demographics in the prediction model, according to the new paper, released Wednesday by Saul Geiser, senior associate at the UC Berkeley Center for Studies in Higher Education.
When demographics such as family income and parent education level are included in the prediction model, the results reverse and high school grades are actually shown to be more influential than the SAT or ACT, according to Geiser’s analysis, which was based on data presented in an appendix to the task force report.
Test scores are much more closely correlated with family income and education than high school grades, he said.
His conclusion parallels similar findings in numerous other studies and underscores the need, he said, to drop the tests because the cost to disadvantaged students outweighs any limited benefit in helping UC campuses decide who will succeed if admitted.
“The task force should go back to the drawing board,” Geiser said, “and provide the UC community with more realistic estimates” of the value of the tests.
Advertisement
Geiser’s findings are likely to fuel the heated debate over whether the UC system should drop the tests — a decision that will reshape the national standardized testing landscape because of the size and global stature of the public research university system. The UC’s nine undergraduate campuses are deluged with applications from more than 172,000 freshmen, almost all of whom are required to submit SAT or ACT test scores.
The UC Board of Regents will discuss the issue Thursday but not vote on whether to keep or drop the tests until at least May. Chair John A. Pèrez, Vice Chair Cecilia Estolano and Regent Eloy Ortiz Oakley have expressed deep skepticism about the tests. UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ and UC Provost Michael Brown also have voiced support for dropping the tests.
But UC San Diego officials told the task force they oppose eliminating the tests because they help winnow 99,000 applications annually and assist the campus in selecting a diverse class. UCLA said dropping the tests would cause a greater reliance on grades — a challenge, officials said, because the campus receives 10,000 applications each year from students with 4.0 GPAs or higher.
The UC Academic Senate task force members stood by their work.
“What can I say? Saul unfortunately is wrong,” said Li Cai, a UCLA professor who directs the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing.
Cai said the task force analyses “very much included the purportedly omitted demographic variables, through a more transparent means.” He said task force members chose to use a different and simpler model than did Geiser so the public would more easily understand their findings.
He also said Geiser’s model did not reflect how admissions decisions are actually made at UC campuses. Admissions officers compensate for the discriminatory impact of SAT and ACT scores by discounting their weight while increasing emphasis on grades in application reviews of underserved students, the report found.
Among students with SAT scores of 1,000 — the 40th percentile — half of Latinos were admitted compared to less than one-third of whites, the task force found. The report found similar advantages for students who are low-income and the first in their families to attend college.
Those findings, however, were challenged by another expert, Jesse Rothstein, a UC Berkeley professor of public policy and economics.
“The task force report got a lot of things wrong about the SAT,” Rothstein said.
“In particular, it overstates the value of SAT scores for predicting student success in college, and has no basis for its conclusion that UC admissions ‘compensate’ for test score gaps between groups.”
In any case, the fundamental issue — giving all students an equitable shot at UC admission so the state’s diversity is fully represented — won’t be settled by a “horse race” between SAT scores and high school grades, said Julian Betts, a UC San Diego economics professor and task force member.
That’s because the report found that three-fourths of the gap in UC enrollment of underrepresented students is rooted in high school preparation — namely, their lower rates of completing a prescribed sequence of college-prep courses required for UC admission, Betts said. The remaining gap is tied more to differences in high school GPA than SAT scores, he said.
“The upshot is that if UC overnight dropped the SAT requirement, it would do very little to improve diversity,” Betts said. “But at the same time, within any student socioeconomic group, UC would be admitting students less well prepared to succeed. This would not serve the students or the public well.”
In other findings, the task force recommended continued research into making the SAT and ACT optional, as more than 1,000 colleges and universities have done. In the long run, the report recommended that UC develop its own admissions test but noted that process could take nine years. Some task force members believe that time frame is too long and supported setting a sunset date for use of the standardized tests but narrowly lost a vote to do so.
The Academic Senate is circulating the preliminary report among its members — all tenured and tenure-track faculty — for review and plans to submit a final report to UC President Janet Napolitano next month.


latimes--2020-03-19--These coronavirus patients aren't being counted — or tested

C.A .
Lim woke Friday in her Venice apartment with a fever , dry cough , aching muscles , and a tightness in her chest like a corset she couldn ’ t take off .
At a Kaiser urgent care clinic , a physician and an infectious disease specialist told the 33-year-old nonprofit executive that she “ clearly ” had COVID-19 , but that they couldn ’ t spare a test to confirm the diagnosis because she was not elderly or otherwise a high-risk patient .
“ The doctor encouraged me to reach out to everyone I have been within @ @ @ @ @ @ @ days , and let them know I have COVID , ” Lim recounted in an email .
She and her husband immediately quarantined themselves and began calling , texting and emailing friends , colleagues and relatives , ultimately alerting some 60 to 70 people about the potential exposure .
Two co-workers she had crossed paths with at a training session in New York subsequently told her they also had come down with the coronavirus , she said .
Despite the illness of her associates and the strong opinion of her doctors , Lim @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of confirmed virus cases .
Her experience is troublingly common , according to healthcare workers and patients .
Due to a shortage of tests , many people identified by their doctors as probably or possibly stricken with COVID-19 are not being reported to authorities .
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reserved tests until recently for those who were severely ill and those with direct connections to afflicted regions or individuals , and the tests remain very difficult to obtain .
For months , younger and healthier people who had symptoms of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t qualify for a screening and sent home by medical professionals with varying advice about what precautions to take .
The failure to test and quarantine this group is believed to be a major factor in the rapid growth of cases nationwide that has prompted the closures of schools and businesses .
While people on ventilators and in intensive care units were tested and their contacts traced , local health agencies were not informed about those with milder symptoms and they were not subject to government monitoring aimed at stopping the spread @ @ @ @ @ @ @ allowed some countries like South Korea to contain the epidemic by identifying infected citizens , whether or not they had symptoms , and strictly quarantining them .
In L.A. County , which has a population of about 10 million , only about 1,100 people had been tested by Tuesday , though the number is expected to rise rapidly in the coming days as more labs come online , officials say .
At least 8,200 people had been tested in California , according to state public health figures released Tuesday .
“ This is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we desperately needed to be able to increase our lab capacity , ” county health department director Barbara Ferrer said Tuesday .
Not every dry cough or fever is COVID-19 .
The symptoms of the virus are similar to those of the flu and the outbreak began as the US flu season was peaking , making testing even more critical for physicians to identify coronavirus .
Dr. Natalie Marino , a family medicine doctor at a Los Angeles County urgent care , said she had seen many patients with symptoms of coronavirus over @ @ @ @ @ @ @ clinic did not have access to a single test until this week .
The tests simply weren ’ t available .
“ If we had tested more mild people in the community there would have at least been a chance for people to really take this seriously from the beginning , ” Marino said .
“ I think that would ’ ve been better than what we know is happening right now.
” She said she told people she suspected of having the virus to keep themselves at home for at least 14 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ way to enforce their behavior .
“ You are trusting the patient to keep themselves at home ... and at least six feet from elderly family members , ” she said .
Marcia Santini , an emergency room nurse at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center , echoed that assessment : “ It ’ s blind trust , honey , ” People who showed up at the UCLA ER with a dry cough and a fever in recent weeks were not tested unless they were so ill they needed to be hospitalized .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ , but if the results were negative , providers told them they might have the virus and sent them home with a four-page printout about proper hand-washing and how to manage household tasks while self-quarantining .
In Lim ’ s case , a Kaiser doctor recorded in her chart that while she did not meet the strict criteria for a test , “ this patient is high suspicion for local transmission based on presentation and symptoms.
” Kaiser spokesman Terry Kanakri said that unfortunately the health provider was unable to say how many @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the virus .
In a statement , Kaiser said while it only reported positive tests to the local public health officials , untested patients with COVID-19 symptoms are “ told to self-isolate at home , and they are monitored virtually.
” Health authorities seem to know little about these patients .
Asked if they are tracking cases where a medical professional believes an untested person had coronavirus , a spokesperson for the California Department of Public Health said in a statement that “ the department does not collect information on a provider ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to test a patient.
” Lim said she has not left her 500-square-foot studio apartment since receiving the diagnosis and stays on the other side of the room from her husband , who doctors said was probably positive but asymptomatic .
“ We just have to do this weird little dance where we trade places if we need to be in the other ’ s ‘ space , ’ ” she explained .
Her husband emerges only briefly to walk their toy poodles , wearing a mask and staying within 40 feet of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ level of isolation hasn ’ t been possible .
One L.A. mother , who spoke on the condition of anonymity , said her doctor told her March 3 that he suspected her high fever and pneumonia were coronavirus .
He told her to self-quarantine while waiting for the public health department to test her .
But despite making “ a million calls to a bunch of different people , ” she was never tested .
Last week , her doctor told her she didn ’ t qualify and there was nothing he could @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , she struggled to avoid family members whom she lives with , including her school-age child , and ultimately feared she might have passed the virus to her child ’ s classmates .
“ If there are more cases like mine , these are the reasons this is spreading so much , ” she said .

LOS ANGELES, CA - MARCH 17, 2020 Tents have been erected at the Saperstein Emergency Center entrance to the Ronald Regan UCLA Medical Center on the Westwood campus as hospitals are straining under coronavirus but the big wave hasn’t hit yet as of March 17, 2020. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
C.A. Lim woke Friday in her Venice apartment with a fever, dry cough, aching muscles, and a tightness in her chest like a corset she couldn’t take off.
At a Kaiser urgent care clinic, a physician and an infectious disease specialist told the 33-year-old nonprofit executive that she “clearly” had COVID-19, but that they couldn’t spare a test to confirm the diagnosis because she was not elderly or otherwise a high-risk patient.
“The doctor encouraged me to reach out to everyone I have been within six feet of within the past 10 days, and let them know I have COVID,” Lim recounted in an email. She and her husband immediately quarantined themselves and began calling, texting and emailing friends, colleagues and relatives, ultimately alerting some 60 to 70 people about the potential exposure.
Advertisement
Two co-workers she had crossed paths with at a training session in New York subsequently told her they also had come down with the coronavirus, she said.
Despite the illness of her associates and the strong opinion of her doctors, Lim is not included in the government tally of confirmed virus cases. Her experience is troublingly common, according to healthcare workers and patients. Due to a shortage of tests, many people identified by their doctors as probably or possibly stricken with COVID-19 are not being reported to authorities.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reserved tests until recently for those who were severely ill and those with direct connections to afflicted regions or individuals, and the tests remain very difficult to obtain. For months, younger and healthier people who had symptoms of the virus have been told they don’t qualify for a screening and sent home by medical professionals with varying advice about what precautions to take.
The failure to test and quarantine this group is believed to be a major factor in the rapid growth of cases nationwide that has prompted the closures of schools and businesses.
While people on ventilators and in intensive care units were tested and their contacts traced, local health agencies were not informed about those with milder symptoms and they were not subject to government monitoring aimed at stopping the spread of the virus.
Widespread testing has allowed some countries like South Korea to contain the epidemic by identifying infected citizens, whether or not they had symptoms, and strictly quarantining them.
In L.A. County, which has a population of about 10 million, only about 1,100 people had been tested by Tuesday, though the number is expected to rise rapidly in the coming days as more labs come online, officials say. At least 8,200 people had been tested in California, according to state public health figures released Tuesday.
“This is good news for all of us, we desperately needed to be able to increase our lab capacity,” county health department director Barbara Ferrer said Tuesday.
Not every dry cough or fever is COVID-19. The symptoms of the virus are similar to those of the flu and the outbreak began as the US flu season was peaking, making testing even more critical for physicians to identify coronavirus.
Advertisement
Dr. Natalie Marino, a family medicine doctor at a Los Angeles County urgent care, said she had seen many patients with symptoms of coronavirus over the last two months, but her clinic did not have access to a single test until this week. The tests simply weren’t available.
“If we had tested more mild people in the community there would have at least been a chance for people to really take this seriously from the beginning,” Marino said. “I think that would’ve been better than what we know is happening right now.”
She said she told people she suspected of having the virus to keep themselves at home for at least 14 days, but acknowledged there was no way to enforce their behavior.
“You are trusting the patient to keep themselves at home ... and at least six feet from elderly family members,” she said.
Marcia Santini, an emergency room nurse at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, echoed that assessment: “It’s blind trust, honey,”
People who showed up at the UCLA ER with a dry cough and a fever in recent weeks were not tested unless they were so ill they needed to be hospitalized. Patients could be screened for the flu, but if the results were negative, providers told them they might have the virus and sent them home with a four-page printout about proper hand-washing and how to manage household tasks while self-quarantining.
In Lim’s case, a Kaiser doctor recorded in her chart that while she did not meet the strict criteria for a test, “this patient is high suspicion for local transmission based on presentation and symptoms.”
Kaiser spokesman Terry Kanakri said that unfortunately the health provider was unable to say how many other untested patients were suspected of having the virus. In a statement, Kaiser said while it only reported positive tests to the local public health officials, untested patients with COVID-19 symptoms are “told to self-isolate at home, and they are monitored virtually.”
Health authorities seem to know little about these patients. Asked if they are tracking cases where a medical professional believes an untested person had coronavirus, a spokesperson for the California Department of Public Health said in a statement that “the department does not collect information on a provider’s clinical decision on whether or not to test a patient.”
Lim said she has not left her 500-square-foot studio apartment since receiving the diagnosis and stays on the other side of the room from her husband, who doctors said was probably positive but asymptomatic.
“We just have to do this weird little dance where we trade places if we need to be in the other’s ‘space,’” she explained.
Her husband emerges only briefly to walk their toy poodles, wearing a mask and staying within 40 feet of the apartment.
For others, that level of isolation hasn’t been possible. One L.A. mother, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said her doctor told her March 3 that he suspected her high fever and pneumonia were coronavirus.
He told her to self-quarantine while waiting for the public health department to test her. But despite making “a million calls to a bunch of different people,” she was never tested. Last week, her doctor told her she didn’t qualify and there was nothing he could do.
As the days drew on, she struggled to avoid family members whom she lives with, including her school-age child, and ultimately feared she might have passed the virus to her child’s classmates.
“If there are more cases like mine, these are the reasons this is spreading so much,” she said.
Times staff writer Emily Baumgaertner contributed to this report.


latimes--2020-03-19--Merry Norris, a founder of MOCA and patron of Los Angeles arts, is dead at 80

When Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley approached Merry Norris about joining the city ’ s Cultural Affairs Commission in 1984 , she later told an interviewer , “ I wasn ’ t sure what that was , but it sounded like a nice honor.
” It was an honor that Norris could have used to burnish her art patron credentials : attend a few meetings , rubber-stamp a rack of civic design projects around L.A. , then talk about all the good she was doing at cocktail parties and in fancy magazines .
Instead , when she became president of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ she reworked its purpose and gave the organization teeth .
As a Times story reported in 1992 : “ The commission , which has final design authority over all projects on or over city property , long had a reputation for passivity .
Norris transformed the group into an activist board that raised the standards for design.
” Norris , a well-dressed powerhouse in a petite frame — she was all of 5 feet 2 — was not the sort to be taken lightly when it came to the aesthetics of Los Angeles @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Water and Power for a series of new generating stations , she once told The Times : “ In the past the DWP often showed us buildings that were , quite frankly , hokey .
...
They were so dishonest in character — generating stations masquerading as country clubs , for instance — that we had to reject them out of hand.
” This did little for her profile among L.A. 's powerful real estate interests .
“ We ran into a lot of resistance from developers and the city , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The city thought we were holding up projects .
The mayor ’ s office put a lot of pressure on us.
” Pressures that left her unfazed — whether it was working on DWP infrastructure in the San Fernando Valley or an architectural extension for downtown ’ s Central Library .
“ We build this city building by building , ” she told The Times in 1988 .
“ Each building is important ... to our thrust to improve the quality of life.
” Norris , a public servant and art consultant who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Los Angeles in her role on the city ’ s Cultural Affairs Commission and was a key founder of the Museum of Contemporary Art , died Monday night at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center .
The cause was pneumonia unrelated to the coronavirus ( she tested negative for COVID-19 ) .
The death was confirmed by her eldest daughter , Jill Govan Bauman .
She was 80 years old .
“ Merry was one of the few people in Los Angeles who was really dedicated to supporting culture and the arts in all of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said architect Thom Mayne , a founder of the L.A. firm Morphosis .
“ She was in love with the arts and the people who created it .
She was devoted to supporting it in a difficult city.
” Mayne first met Norris in the mid 1980s , when they worked together on the Cedars-Sinai Comprehensive Cancer Center , completed in 1988 .
Morphosis did the architectural design ; Norris worked as the project ’ s art consultant — integrating pieces by artists such as Robert Irwin , John Baldessari and Jennifer Steinkamp @ @ @ @ @ @ @ working relationship that quickly became a close family friendship .
( Norris ’ younger daughter , Joni Martino , now serves as Morphosis ’ head of finance . )
Before the project was even over , Mayne invited Norris to sit on the board of the Southern California Institute of Architecture ( SCI-Arc ) , the experimental architectural school he had helped found in the early 1970s .
Mayne says that Norris was a vital , behind-the-scenes supporter of SCI-Arc , which has since become an internationally renowned architectural academy .
“ She @ @ @ @ @ @ @ talk or concept , ” he said .
“ She did what she said she was going to do ” — which included helping raise millions for the school .
“ Her generosity and passion for SCI-Arc and the arts was unparalleled , ” said current SCI-Arc director Hernán Díaz Alonso in a statement .
“ Over the years , her contributions have made her inseparable from what SCI-Arc is and will continue to be .
We will miss her deeply.
” It was her unsung involvement in the establishment of MOCA , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ into the ranks of contemporary arts centers .
She joined the effort in its infancy , in 1979 , through her then-husband , the late William Norris , a lawyer and appellate judge who was then serving as the museum ’ s first board president .
“ There are a lot of people involved when an institution like MOCA gets formed , ” said Richard Koshalek , who served as the museum ’ s director from 1980 to 1999 .
“ It involves a community , each making uncompromising commitments to this project @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of that.
” Norris , who took on the role of acting director of development while the museum ’ s Grand Avenue building was under construction in the early 1980s — at a point in which the museum had all of four works in its collection — was essential to raising the museum ’ s founding endowment .
“ She was extremely well connected and respected , ” Koshalek said .
“ That made a huge difference .
She believed that MOCA was important to the evolution of the arts in Los Angeles.
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ strong-arming or intimidation , but through an easygoing charisma that has been widely celebrated on social media in the days since her death .
“ She was the life of the party , ” said Carlo Caccavale , executive director of the Los Angeles chapter of the American Institute of Architects , which made Norris an honorary member in 1990 .
“ She was a tiny lady , but you could always see where she was by the amount of people clustered around her .
She was always at the center.
” And @ @ @ @ @ @ @ events around Los Angeles for her fashionable ensembles and the shock of white hair she kept in a chic , asymmetrical bob .
Bauman , her daughter , describes a woman who played piano , loved to dance and knew how to throw a great cocktail party — “ the coolest , hippest person you knew.
” But who was also in possession of a steely determination that she skillfully deployed in rooms that were often filled with powerful men .
“ Her advice to me in all of this was , ‘ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ’ ” Bauman recalled .
“ She told me , ‘ Go be the head .
Be in charge.
” Norris was born Merry Wright on Feb. 26 , 1940 , in Rochester , N.Y .
Her father was a Canadian entrepreneur who helped launch an early radio manufacturer in Canada , while her mother came from a well-to-do Rochester family that had been connected , early on , with the Eastman Kodak Company .
The family relocated to California when Merry was a teenager , settling in the Pasadena area .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the Bay Area to study at UC Berkeley .
There , she met Gerald Govan , a student at Stanford University .
The pair married in 1960 and Norris left school to start a family , giving birth to Jill .
This brought her back to Los Angeles .
But the marriage was short-lived , ending two years later .
In 1964 , she remarried , to businessman John Wiester , with whom she had two more children : her son , James Wiester , and her youngest daughter , Joni .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the Santa Barbara area .
And it was there that Norris began to hone her interest in art and design , serving as a patron and docent at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art .
It was also during that period that she began to collect — often supporting artists just as they were beginning to emerge .
“ She had phenomenal taste , ” Bauman said .
A 2017 profile of Norris in Curbed Los Angeles describes a home filled with works by artists such as Ed Ruscha , Mark Bradford @ @ @ @ @ @ @ prototype chairs by architect Frank Gehry .
By the early 1970s , her marriage to Wiester had come to an end .
But she soon became involved with William “ Bill ” Norris , who was then running for state attorney general in California ( a race he lost ) .
They married in 1974 , relocating to Los Angeles the following year , and both fueled each other ’ s interests in art and politics .
Bauman describes the family home in Hancock Park as “ a center ” of politics .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ brainstorms , ” she says .
“ Pat Brown and Jerry Brown and Tom Bradley , they were all there.
” And of course , there was also art — which they collected and supported in myriad ways .
When Bill took the role of president of the nascent MOCA ’ s board , Merry joined in to help raise funds for the endowment .
And her commitment didn ’ t end there .
Bennett Simpson , a longtime MOCA curator , describes a patron who was always engaged — not just with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ itself .
“ She would turn up at routine curator walk-throughs of the permanent collection on a Thursday night , ” he says .
“ She was there because she loved art and wanted to see what was happening in this place that was important to her.
” Her marriage to Bill ( who died in 2017 ) ended after about a decade , but her interest in L.A. 's cultural life didn ’ t wane with the split .
She remained active on the Cultural Affairs Commission for half a dozen years @ @ @ @ @ @ @ she helped shape was the expansion of Bertram Goodhue ’ s 1920s Central Library , located in downtown Los Angeles .
The expansion proposal , created by New York architect Norman Pfeiffer , originally included a tall , peaked atrium .
The commission argued that the scale of Pfeiffer ’ s design would overshadow Goodhue ’ s graceful Art Deco building .
After a political struggle that lasted for months , Pfeiffer came back with a flatter atrium structure that shaved off 12 feet of height .
“ The point of it is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ landmark , ” Norris told the Times in 1988 .
“ Now I think it ’ s truly supportive to the original building without mimicking it.
” In addition to her various board positions , Norris was part of the Task Force on the Arts that helped establish a “ percent for art ” program in Los Angeles .
And she remained active , throughout her life , as an art consultant , helping shape private and public projects around the city .
This included the Gateway LAX project , which transformed the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an installation of 32-foot letters reading “ LAX , ” as well as a sprawling artwork by Paul Tzanetopoulos that staggered nearly a dozen 100-foot pylons of light that change colors after dark .
Norris didn ’ t commission that work .
( That responsibility fell to someone else . )
But Tzanetopoulos said that Norris , who worked with the neighborhood ’ s business improvement district , was “ the one making sure the project stayed on track politically and in the community.
” And she was “ helpful in reminding people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not a random light show , ” he added .
“ She kept the public art component of the LAX project at the forefront.
” When Norris died at Cedars-Sinai , it was in a room overlooking the cancer wing she had a role in shaping — one that aimed to create a humane environment for patients going through debilitating cancer treatment .
“ That ’ s what Merry was about , ” Bauman said .
“ The intersection of art and architecture.
” Norris is survived by her three children and six @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Jonatha Dorman , who lives in London , and her half-sister Barbara Crane , who is based in New Jersey .
Because of the pandemic , a memorial will be announced at a later date .
In the interim , the family is suggesting donations to the Merry Norris Scholarship Fund at SCI-Arc or the Merry Norris Creativity Fund at ImagineLA , a nonprofit that helps families on the verge of homelessness .

Merry Norris was a founder of MOCA and helped shape the Cultural Affairs Commission as its president in the 1980s.
When Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley approached Merry Norris about joining the city’s Cultural Affairs Commission in 1984, she later told an interviewer, “I wasn’t sure what that was, but it sounded like a nice honor.”
It was an honor that Norris could have used to burnish her art patron credentials: attend a few meetings, rubber-stamp a rack of civic design projects around L.A., then talk about all the good she was doing at cocktail parties and in fancy magazines.
Instead, when she became president of the commission, two years later, she reworked its purpose and gave the organization teeth. As a Times story reported in 1992: “The commission, which has final design authority over all projects on or over city property, long had a reputation for passivity. Norris transformed the group into an activist board that raised the standards for design.”
Advertisement
Norris, a well-dressed powerhouse in a petite frame — she was all of 5 feet 2 — was not the sort to be taken lightly when it came to the aesthetics of Los Angeles.
Of designs issued by the Department of Water and Power for a series of new generating stations, she once told The Times: “In the past the DWP often showed us buildings that were, quite frankly, hokey. ... They were so dishonest in character — generating stations masquerading as country clubs, for instance — that we had to reject them out of hand.”
This did little for her profile among L.A.’s powerful real estate interests.
“We ran into a lot of resistance from developers and the city,” Norris once told The Times. “The city thought we were holding up projects. The mayor’s office put a lot of pressure on us.”
Pressures that left her unfazed — whether it was working on DWP infrastructure in the San Fernando Valley or an architectural extension for downtown’s Central Library.
“We build this city building by building,” she told The Times in 1988. “Each building is important ... to our thrust to improve the quality of life.”
Norris, a public servant and art consultant who helped reshape the artistic and architectural landscape of Los Angeles in her role on the city’s Cultural Affairs Commission and was a key founder of the Museum of Contemporary Art, died Monday night at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. The cause was pneumonia unrelated to the coronavirus (she tested negative for COVID-19). The death was confirmed by her eldest daughter, Jill Govan Bauman.
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She was 80 years old.
Merry Norris attends a preview for “William Leavitt: Theater Objects” at MOCA in 2011. (Stefanie Keenan / WireImage)
“Merry was one of the few people in Los Angeles who was really dedicated to supporting culture and the arts in all of its forms — including architecture,” said architect Thom Mayne, a founder of the L.A. firm Morphosis. “She was in love with the arts and the people who created it. She was devoted to supporting it in a difficult city.”
Mayne first met Norris in the mid 1980s, when they worked together on the Cedars-Sinai Comprehensive Cancer Center, completed in 1988. Morphosis did the architectural design; Norris worked as the project’s art consultant — integrating pieces by artists such as Robert Irwin, John Baldessari and Jennifer Steinkamp into the design.
It was a working relationship that quickly became a close family friendship. (Norris’ younger daughter, Joni Martino, now serves as Morphosis’ head of finance.) Before the project was even over, Mayne invited Norris to sit on the board of the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), the experimental architectural school he had helped found in the early 1970s.
Mayne says that Norris was a vital, behind-the-scenes supporter of SCI-Arc, which has since become an internationally renowned architectural academy. “She was not a person who was all talk or concept,” he said. “She did what she said she was going to do” — which included helping raise millions for the school.
“Her generosity and passion for SCI-Arc and the arts was unparalleled,” said current SCI-Arc director Hernán Díaz Alonso in a statement. “Over the years, her contributions have made her inseparable from what SCI-Arc is and will continue to be. We will miss her deeply.”
Merry Norris, left, with architect Eric Owen Moss, who served as director of SCI-Arc from 2002-2015, in an undated photo. Norris served on the board of SCI-Arc from 1987 until her death on Monday, March 16, 2020. (Stefanie Keenan / SCI-Arc )
It was her unsung involvement in the establishment of MOCA, however, that helped catapult Los Angeles into the ranks of contemporary arts centers.
She joined the effort in its infancy, in 1979, through her then-husband, the late William Norris, a lawyer and appellate judge who was then serving as the museum’s first board president.
“There are a lot of people involved when an institution like MOCA gets formed,” said Richard Koshalek, who served as the museum’s director from 1980 to 1999. “It involves a community, each making uncompromising commitments to this project. And she was an important part of that.”
Norris, who took on the role of acting director of development while the museum’s Grand Avenue building was under construction in the early 1980s — at a point in which the museum had all of four works in its collection — was essential to raising the museum’s founding endowment.
“She was extremely well connected and respected,” Koshalek said. “That made a huge difference. She believed that MOCA was important to the evolution of the arts in Los Angeles.”
Merry Norris helped raise the initial endowment for the Museum of Contemporary Art on Grand Avenue, which was designed by Arata Isozaki. (Hisao Suzuki)
And she did it not through strong-arming or intimidation, but through an easygoing charisma that has been widely celebrated on social media in the days since her death.
“She was the life of the party,” said Carlo Caccavale, executive director of the Los Angeles chapter of the American Institute of Architects, which made Norris an honorary member in 1990. “She was a tiny lady, but you could always see where she was by the amount of people clustered around her. She was always at the center.”
And she was always instantly identifiable in arts events around Los Angeles for her fashionable ensembles and the shock of white hair she kept in a chic, asymmetrical bob.
Bauman, her daughter, describes a woman who played piano, loved to dance and knew how to throw a great cocktail party — “the coolest, hippest person you knew.” But who was also in possession of a steely determination that she skillfully deployed in rooms that were often filled with powerful men.
“Her advice to me in all of this was, ‘Don’t learn how to type,’” Bauman recalled. “She told me, ‘Go be the head. Be in charge.”
Merry Norris in 2017, at SCI-Arc’s “Main Event” party, where she was honored for her contributions to the school and L.A. architecture. (SCI-Arc)
Norris was born Merry Wright on Feb. 26, 1940, in Rochester, N.Y. Her father was a Canadian entrepreneur who helped launch an early radio manufacturer in Canada, while her mother came from a well-to-do Rochester family that had been connected, early on, with the Eastman Kodak Company. The family relocated to California when Merry was a teenager, settling in the Pasadena area.
For her undergraduate studies, Norris moved to the Bay Area to study at UC Berkeley. There, she met Gerald Govan, a student at Stanford University. The pair married in 1960 and Norris left school to start a family, giving birth to Jill. This brought her back to Los Angeles. But the marriage was short-lived, ending two years later.
In 1964, she remarried, to businessman John Wiester, with whom she had two more children: her son, James Wiester, and her youngest daughter, Joni. During this time, the family relocated to the Santa Barbara area.
And it was there that Norris began to hone her interest in art and design, serving as a patron and docent at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. It was also during that period that she began to collect — often supporting artists just as they were beginning to emerge.
“She had phenomenal taste,” Bauman said. A 2017 profile of Norris in Curbed Los Angeles describes a home filled with works by artists such as Ed Ruscha, Mark Bradford and Jenny Holzer, as well as prototype chairs by architect Frank Gehry.
By the early 1970s, her marriage to Wiester had come to an end. But she soon became involved with William “Bill” Norris, who was then running for state attorney general in California (a race he lost). They married in 1974, relocating to Los Angeles the following year, and both fueled each other’s interests in art and politics.
Bauman describes the family home in Hancock Park as “a center” of politics. “There were dinners and hangouts and brainstorms,” she says. “Pat Brown and Jerry Brown and Tom Bradley, they were all there.”
And of course, there was also art — which they collected and supported in myriad ways. When Bill took the role of president of the nascent MOCA’s board, Merry joined in to help raise funds for the endowment. And her commitment didn’t end there.
Bennett Simpson, a longtime MOCA curator, describes a patron who was always engaged — not just with the high-profile events but with the art itself.
“She would turn up at routine curator walk-throughs of the permanent collection on a Thursday night,” he says. “She was there because she loved art and wanted to see what was happening in this place that was important to her.”
Her marriage to Bill (who died in 2017) ended after about a decade, but her interest in L.A.’s cultural life didn’t wane with the split.
She remained active on the Cultural Affairs Commission for half a dozen years until 1990. Among the important projects she helped shape was the expansion of Bertram Goodhue’s 1920s Central Library, located in downtown Los Angeles.
The expansion proposal, created by New York architect Norman Pfeiffer, originally included a tall, peaked atrium. The commission argued that the scale of Pfeiffer’s design would overshadow Goodhue’s graceful Art Deco building. After a political struggle that lasted for months, Pfeiffer came back with a flatter atrium structure that shaved off 12 feet of height.
“The point of it is, it started with a vital urban landmark,” Norris told the Times in 1988. “Now I think it’s truly supportive to the original building without mimicking it.”
In addition to her various board positions, Norris was part of the Task Force on the Arts that helped establish a “percent for art” program in Los Angeles. And she remained active, throughout her life, as an art consultant, helping shape private and public projects around the city. This included the Gateway LAX project, which transformed the previously dour entrance to the airport with an installation of 32-foot letters reading “LAX,” as well as a sprawling artwork by Paul Tzanetopoulos that staggered nearly a dozen 100-foot pylons of light that change colors after dark.
Norris didn’t commission that work. (That responsibility fell to someone else.) But Tzanetopoulos said that Norris, who worked with the neighborhood’s business improvement district, was “the one making sure the project stayed on track politically and in the community.”
And she was “helpful in reminding people that this was an art commission — not a random light show,” he added. “She kept the public art component of the LAX project at the forefront.”
The untitled kinetic light installation by Paul Tzanetopoulos at the entrance to LAX. (Paul Morse / Los Angeles Times)
When Norris died at Cedars-Sinai, it was in a room overlooking the cancer wing she had a role in shaping — one that aimed to create a humane environment for patients going through debilitating cancer treatment.
“That’s what Merry was about,” Bauman said. “The intersection of art and architecture.”
Norris is survived by her three children and six grandchildren, as well as her sister Jonatha Dorman, who lives in London, and her half-sister Barbara Crane, who is based in New Jersey.
Because of the pandemic, a memorial will be announced at a later date. In the interim, the family is suggesting donations to the Merry Norris Scholarship Fund at SCI-Arc or the Merry Norris Creativity Fund at ImagineLA, a nonprofit that helps families on the verge of homelessness.


latimes--2020-03-19--Schools are closed, but learning must go on. How is this working for the neediest students?

In a webcast to more than 7,500 school district officials and educators across California on Wednesday , the message was clear : Campuses are closed in response to the coronavirus pandemic , but school — and learning — are still in session .
“ While we are in very unique circumstances at this time , we are still providing education to our students , ” State Supt .
of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond said .
“ School is not out , but we are finding a different way to deliver it.
” Nearly all schools across the state have shut @ @ @ @ @ @ @ weeks-long closures .
But Gov .
Gavin Newsom on Tuesday evening said schools are likely to remain closed even longer — perhaps for the remainder of the academic school year , a disruption to the education of 6.1 million students .
Newsom stuck to that position in a Wednesday update , although state and local school officials stressed that no official directive has been issued .
But the quick-moving developments have sent volunteers and educators scrambling to establish online coursework , student meals and other support services for their many students in need @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : Homework packets , online videos , laptops and tablets have gone home .
Private donors and businesses have stepped up to provide broadband access and equipment for students .
Parents are scrambling to set up makeshift study areas in their homes .
Many teachers are going live online for instruction .
Newsom penned an executive order Wednesday that canceled this year ’ s statewide standardized testing to relieve some of the stress weighing on students and educators — as well as the matter of how the tests could be given .
A @ @ @ @ @ @ @ More than 60 % of students in California qualify for free or reduced-price meals because they are members of low-income households .
In Los Angeles Unified , the nation ’ s second largest school district , officials spent days training volunteers and prepping a “ grab-and-go ” meal pick-up program for the more than half a million children affected by the shutdown — most of whom rely on school for their weekday breakfast and lunch , sometimes even dinner .
Across the state , school districts from to and figured out their own @ @ @ @ @ @ @ even more complicated questions surfaced among parents and advocates this week : How are schools going to teach English learners and students with disabilities ?
What about students of color already on the low end of the achievement gap ?
Officials from the state department of education , in the web meeting Wednesday , told frustrated school leaders they are working on answering the many questions sent about special education services .
“ We hear from our teachers and our administrators that you need guidance on how to ensure equity for all of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ disabilities at a time when ... we ’ re not likely able to physically provide those supports and services that we ’ re all so used to , to the same degree that we have previously , ” said Kristin Wright , director of CDE ’ s special education division .
“ So the first sentiment I want to reinforce is — do what you can .
This is about equity , access and innovation.
” Elisha Smith Arrillaga , executive director of Education Trust–West , a research and advocacy organization in Oakland @ @ @ @ @ @ @ double down on making sure we can help the students who are most vulnerable and who were already behind before this crisis occurred.
” “ Low-income students , students of color and English learners across the state : Those were the students who already had less access to high-quality instructional materials and the things that they really need , ” she said .
Planning for these students must first meet immediate needs such as computers and broadband access at home , she said .
“ We were not doing a great job as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Smith Arrillaga said .
“ We were unprepared to go virtual for students who have no disabilities .
So we are even less prepared to go virtual for students with disabilities and English learners.
” Advocacy groups will be tracking schools to ensure districts are giving all students access to a quality education during this extended period of distance learning .
They are also trying to keep track of which districts are providing necessary support , such as meals and mental health services , said Victor Leung , deputy litigation director for ACLU @ @ @ @ @ @ @ president of the state ’ s board of education , said on the webcast that the safety and well-being of children and staff has to be the number one concern during this crisis .
“ It is nothing to be taken lightly and it ’ s a huge challenge that we can use to catapult to more equity , ” she said .
“ One of the things that crises like this do is they highlight the inequalities in society — in ways that bring things to the fore that otherwise people are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bracing for long weeks and possibly months ahead .
The state education department plans to update guidance to school districts every Friday going forward , “ to continue the conversation.
” For Los Angeles school board member George McKenna , both hope and frustration weighed on him Wednesday as he stood outside Dorsey High School with volunteers handing out meals .
The past few days have been a whirlwind of swift changes , but he ’ s not quite accepted the governor ’ s comments that traditional schooling on campus may be done @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that we need to keep our children safe , but we can go overboard , and you can see the community going overboard with hoarding and wiping out what ’ s in the markets and all of that , ” he said .
“ But I think some stability will come in a couple of days.
” McKenna said the school board and senior leadership would reassess the situation Monday as they plan the next necessary steps .
The district is doing what it can to provide academic support to students , he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ were dealing with inadequate resources .
“ It ’ s a tough thing and parents have to leave the home to go to work — those who can go to work .
So what happens to the children ?
There ’ s a question we ’ re not answering now .
We ’ re just saying : ‘ Do the best you can and we ’ re with you and we love you , ’ ” he said .
“ But it feels sometimes like we ’ re flying the plane and repairing @ @ @ @ @ @ @

Jonathan Mitchell, 12, left, and Jason Garcia, 11, sixth-graders at Camino Nuevo Charter Academy in Los Angeles, eat corn dogs after receiving free box lunches at the Dream Center in Los Angeles. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
Students leave John C. Fremont High School in Los Angeles at the end of the school day on Friday. The campus closed the following Monday. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times )
Students hug as they are let out of school at Hamilton High School in Los Angeles. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)
Blake Anderson, left, a freshman, walks with his father, Oree Anderson, as school is let out at Hamilton High School in Los Angeles just before campuses closed down. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)
Courtney Johnson, left, Benjula Prasad and Cindy King prepare the to-go meals to be handed out at the Dorsey High food distribution center. (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times)
Gloria Murrietta, who works in LAUSD food services, delivers food that will be distributed to drivers in vehicles at Dorsey High School in Los Angeles. (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times)
Alake Ilegbameh, with his three school-age children, gets to-go meals at Dorsey High on Wednesday from LAUSD employee Benjula Prasad. “May God continue to bless you,” he said. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
In a webcast to more than 7,500 school district officials and educators across California on Wednesday, the message was clear: Campuses are closed in response to the coronavirus pandemic, but school — and learning — are still in session.
“While we are in very unique circumstances at this time, we are still providing education to our students,” State Supt. of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond said. “School is not out, but we are finding a different way to deliver it.”
Nearly all schools across the state have shut down and many school districts had announced weeks-long closures. But Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday evening said schools are likely to remain closed even longer — perhaps for the remainder of the academic school year, a disruption to the education of 6.1 million students.
Newsom stuck to that position in a Wednesday update, although state and local school officials stressed that no official directive has been issued.
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But the quick-moving developments have sent volunteers and educators scrambling to establish online coursework, student meals and other support services for their many students in need.
Swift actions have already been taken: Homework packets, online videos, laptops and tablets have gone home. Private donors and businesses have stepped up to provide broadband access and equipment for students. Parents are scrambling to set up makeshift study areas in their homes. Many teachers are going live online for instruction.
Newsom penned an executive order Wednesday that canceled this year’s statewide standardized testing to relieve some of the stress weighing on students and educators — as well as the matter of how the tests could be given.
A top priority has been feeding children. More than 60% of students in California qualify for free or reduced-price meals because they are members of low-income households.
In Los Angeles Unified, the nation’s second largest school district, officials spent days training volunteers and prepping a “grab-and-go” meal pick-up program for the more than half a million children affected by the shutdown — most of whom rely on school for their weekday breakfast and lunch, sometimes even dinner. Across the state, school districts from San Francisco to Fresno and San Diego figured out their own ways to do the same.
But even more complicated questions surfaced among parents and advocates this week: How are schools going to teach English learners and students with disabilities? What about students of color already on the low end of the achievement gap?
Officials from the state department of education, in the web meeting Wednesday, told frustrated school leaders they are working on answering the many questions sent about special education services.
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“We hear from our teachers and our administrators that you need guidance on how to ensure equity for all of your students, including your students with disabilities at a time when ... we’re not likely able to physically provide those supports and services that we’re all so used to, to the same degree that we have previously,” said Kristin Wright, director of CDE’s special education division.
“So the first sentiment I want to reinforce is — do what you can. This is about equity, access and innovation.”
Elisha Smith Arrillaga, executive director of Education Trust–West, a research and advocacy organization in Oakland, emphasized the educators must “really double down on making sure we can help the students who are most vulnerable and who were already behind before this crisis occurred.”
“Low-income students, students of color and English learners across the state: Those were the students who already had less access to high-quality instructional materials and the things that they really need,” she said. Planning for these students must first meet immediate needs such as computers and broadband access at home, she said.
“We were not doing a great job as a state before this happened,” Smith Arrillaga said. “We were unprepared to go virtual for students who have no disabilities. So we are even less prepared to go virtual for students with disabilities and English learners.”
Advocacy groups will be tracking schools to ensure districts are giving all students access to a quality education during this extended period of distance learning. They are also trying to keep track of which districts are providing necessary support, such as meals and mental health services, said Victor Leung, deputy litigation director for ACLU of Southern California.
Linda Darling-Hammond, president of the state’s board of education, said on the webcast that the safety and well-being of children and staff has to be the number one concern during this crisis.
“It is nothing to be taken lightly and it’s a huge challenge that we can use to catapult to more equity,” she said. “One of the things that crises like this do is they highlight the inequalities in society — in ways that bring things to the fore that otherwise people are not dealing with.”
School leaders are bracing for long weeks and possibly months ahead. The state education department plans to update guidance to school districts every Friday going forward, “to continue the conversation.”
For Los Angeles school board member George McKenna, both hope and frustration weighed on him Wednesday as he stood outside Dorsey High School with volunteers handing out meals. The past few days have been a whirlwind of swift changes, but he’s not quite accepted the governor’s comments that traditional schooling on campus may be done for the year.
“I know that we need to keep our children safe, but we can go overboard, and you can see the community going overboard with hoarding and wiping out what’s in the markets and all of that,” he said. “But I think some stability will come in a couple of days.”
McKenna said the school board and senior leadership would reassess the situation Monday as they plan the next necessary steps. The district is doing what it can to provide academic support to students, he said. But L.A. Unified students already were dealing with inadequate resources.
“It’s a tough thing and parents have to leave the home to go to work — those who can go to work. So what happens to the children? There’s a question we’re not answering now. We’re just saying: ‘Do the best you can and we’re with you and we love you,’” he said. “But it feels sometimes like we’re flying the plane and repairing it at the same time.”