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The Yale campus. Photo: Robert Judges/Shutterstock Since 1983, U.S. News & World Report ’s annual ranking of colleges and universities has been a driving force in American higher education . But recently, the ground behind the rankings has begun to shift. In November, Yale and Harvard jolted the academic world when they announced that they would yank their law schools from the list altogether — a decision that has had a domino effect on other prestigious law and medical programs. Yale’s decision came on the heels of persistent criticism about how U.S. News & World Report calculates its rankings, and whether its results present a distorted picture of what schools really offer their students. (The magazine has adjusted its formula for law schools to address some of these concerns.) Among the most prominent critics over the years has been Colin Diver. A former University of Pennsylvania law-school dean and president of Reed College — which stopped participating … [Read more...] about Why the College Rankings Are Getting Less and Less Relevant

Endowments have long been viewed as the bedrock upon which the long-term financial health of arts organizations is built — money that was painstakingly accumulated and protected over decades to finance the future. They are not rainy day funds, or pots of gold to be casually raided to cover some unforeseen expense. A manager who dipped into theirs excessively, taking out more than the widely embraced standard of 5 percent, could put themselves at risk of being cast as shortsighted, or worse, a spendthrift. But the coronavirus pandemic has challenged that orthodoxy because so many largely dormant museums, orchestras and ballet troupes are facing unmatched financial problems. So elite organizations like the Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Los Angeles Philharmonic — institutions with veteran leadership and a track record of solid financial management — now feel they have to blow past the stop signs. The Lyric plans to spend $23 million from its $173 million endowment this … [Read more...] about The Sacrosanct Endowment? Not Anymore for Some Arts Groups

BEIJING — A remarkable assortment of foreign organizations set up shop in China in the decades after its emergence from isolation under Mao Zedong, offering good will, money and expertise that helped link the nation more closely to the rest of the world and turn it into the global powerhouse it is today. But sweeping new legislation introduced by the government of President Xi Jinping is forcing many of these groups — including international trade associations and philanthropic foundations — to consider scaling back their activities in China or pulling out of the country entirely. The proposed law, which began circulating in draft form last month and is expected to be enacted later this year, would put foreign nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations under the supervision of the Chinese security apparatus, reflecting both the more restrictive approach toward civil society endorsed by Mr. Xi and the ruling Communist Party’s longstanding fear that external forces are conspiring … [Read more...] about Foreign Groups Fear China Oversight Plan

BEIJING — First, the police took away the think tank’s former graphic designer, then the young man who organized seminars, and eventually its founder. Another employee fled China ’s capital, fearing he would be forced to testify against his colleagues in rigged trials. “The anxiety is overwhelming, not knowing if they are coming for you,” said the employee, Yang Zili, a researcher at the Transition Institute of Social and Economic Research in Beijing, who has been in hiding since November. “It’s frightening because as they disappear, one friend after another, the police are not following any law. They just do as they please.” These are perilous days for independent civic groups in China, especially those that take on politically contentious causes like workers’ rights, legal advocacy and discrimination against people with AIDS. Such groups have long struggled to survive inside China’s ill-defined, shifting margins of official tolerance, but they have served as havens for socially … [Read more...] about In China, Civic Groups’ Freedom, and Followers, Are Vanishing

MEMPHIS — Five Memphis police officers were charged on Thursday with second-degree murder for the death of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, after a traffic stop that escalated into what the authorities have described as a display of staggering brutality. The city has been bracing for more than a week for the release of video footage that officials say depicts in agonizing detail how a stop this month for suspicion of reckless driving ended with Mr. Nichols being hospitalized in critical condition on Jan. 7 and dying three days later. Civic leaders and others in Memphis have raised concerns about the reaction the footage could provoke among residents who are already anguished and outraged about Mr. Nichols’s death. A grand jury returned indictments on Thursday against the five officers — Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills Jr. and Justin Smith — with charges that include kidnapping, official misconduct and official oppression, in addition to … [Read more...] about Five Officers Charged With Murder in Memphis Police Killing

WASHINGTON — The embattled small business lending program at the center of the Trump administration’s economic rescue is running into a new set of challenges, one that threatens to saddle borrowers with huge debt loads, as banks begin the tricky task of proving the loans they extended actually met the government’s strict and shifting terms . With thousands of businesses preparing to ask for their eight-week loans to be forgiven, banks and borrowers are just now beginning to realize how complicated the program may turn out to be. Along with lawmakers, they are pushing the Treasury Department, which is overseeing the loan fund, to make forgiveness requirements easier to meet. It is the latest complication for a program that has come under fire for allowing big companies to borrow funds from a finite pool of money aimed at keeping small businesses afloat. More than $500 billion in loans have been approved since the beginning of April, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin … [Read more...] about Small Businesses Counting on Loan Forgiveness Could Be Stuck With Debt