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☆ What We Know About the Protests at Columbia University
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-22 | by ( Alan Blinder | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Columbia University is grappling with the fallout from its president’s promise to Congress that she would crack down on unsanctioned protests, and her decision to ask the police to clear an encampment on campus, resulting in the arrests of more than 100 students earlier this month. Protests on campus have endured and escalated, with demonstrators seizing Hamilton Hall early Tuesday. The university, which had already limited access to its campus in Upper Manhattan, said Tuesday that it would allow only students who live in one of seven dorms on campus or employees who provide essential services through its gates. A fraught round of protests has rocked the university for nearly two weeks, with demonstrators building (and rebuilding) an encampment, recriminations over the summoning of the police to campus on April 18, and accusations that Columbia has effectively allowed protesters, in some instances, to celebrate Hamas and target Jewish students for intimidation. Last week, the university started offering hybrid classes, an acknowledgment that the disputes at the center of campus tension were unlikely to be resolved before the end of the school year.

Organizations: Columbia University, Hamilton Hall Locations: Upper Manhattan, Columbia

☆ Live Updates: Yale Students Arrested as Campus Chaos Spreads
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-22 | by ( Alan Blinder | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +11 min

Some reportedly shouted at Jewish students and made antisemitic statements. Still, some Jewish students who are supporting the pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campus said they felt solidarity, not a sense of danger, even as they denounced the acts of antisemitism. Image Grant Miner, a Jewish graduate student at Columbia University, says he doesn’t feel unsafe on campus. Jewish students get harassed trying to leave @Columbia’s campus tonight. Image At the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” on the Columbia campus, tents were crowded together Sunday night.

Persons: Eric Adams, ” Andrew Bates, Nemat Shafik, Minouche, “ Al, Adams, Grant Miner, Bing Guan, New York Times “, “, U2Ii5GTuLm — David lederer, @Davidlederer6, ”, Eliana Goldin, Aryeh, . Goldin, Samantha Slater, Shafik, Mr, Miner, ” Makayla, Gubbay, —, “ There’s, ” Ms, Elie Buechler, Rabbi Buechler, Hillel, ” Brian Cohen, Noah Levine, “ I’m, Xavier Westergaard, Sharon Otterman Organizations: Columbia, Jewish, White, New, ”, Columbia University, Credit, New York Times, Palestinian, Israel, University, New York Police Department, Barnard College, Gaza Solidarity, New York Times Students, Ivy League, Campus, “, Hillel, Broadway, Jewish Voice, Peace Locations: Upper Manhattan, New York City, American, Israel, Columbia, Poland, @Columbia’s, Europe, Chabad, Gaza, Palestine, Amsterdam

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, New York University and Brown University have recently taken swift and decisive action against student protesters, including making arrests. And on Thursday, Columbia University hit its limit with student protesters who had set up dozens of tents on campus, sending in the New York Police Department to make arrests. Image At Columbia, officials cracked down on students who had erected tents on campus. Muncy for The New York TimesImage The New York Police Department arrested protesters at Columbia University. “But now we’re seeing that as an immediate response.”In her congressional testimony, Dr. Shafik revealed that 15 Columbia students have been suspended in recent weeks.

Persons: “, Santa J, Ono, ”, Nemat Shafik, Recalibrating, Rosy Fitzgerald, didn’t, Shafik, Nicole Hester, Donald J, Daniel Diermeier, Vanderbilt, “ They’re, Diermeier, —, Tracy Arwari, Ms, Arwari, Suzanne Nossel, Nossel, Amanda Andrade, Rhoades, Ezri Tyler, Tyler, Dan Korobkin, Colleen Mastony, Jacob Mchangama, Mr, Mchangama Organizations: University of, University of Michigan, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology , New York University, Brown University, Columbia University, New York Police Department, Columbia, Credit, The New York Times, Columbia University . Credit, The New York Times College, Republican, Institute for Middle, Vanderbilt, USA, Network Vanderbilt University, Pomona College, School, Pomona, PEN America, The New York Times Students, “, American Civil Liberties Union, ” Locations: Santa, Massachusetts Institute of Technology ,, Columbia, C.S, Muncy, Israel, Vietnam, Southern California, Pomona, “, Michigan, . Michigan

☆ 4 Takeaways From the Hearing on Antisemitism at Columbia University
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-17 | by ( Alan Blinder | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Four Columbia University officials, including the university’s president and the leaders of its board, went before Congress on Wednesday to try to extinguish criticism that the campus in New York has become a hub of antisemitic behavior and thought. Here are the takeaways from the hearing on Capitol Hill. With three words, Columbia leaders neutralized the question that tripped up officials from other campuses. In December, questions about whether calling for the genocide of Jewish people violated university disciplinary policies led the presidents of Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Pennsylvania to offer caveat-laden, careful answers that ignited fierce criticism. The topic surfaced early in Wednesday’s hearing about Columbia, and the Columbia witnesses did not hesitate when they answered.

Organizations: Columbia University, Columbia, Harvard, University of Pennsylvania, Capitol, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Locations: New York, Columbia

Seventy-five years ago this past week, Sam Snead won the Masters Tournament and became the first champion to receive one of Augusta National Golf Club’s green jackets. Since the start of the month, Lottie Woad has captured the Augusta National Women’s Amateur. More than 30 past Masters winners gathered for dinner to honor Jon Rahm, last year’s champion, and Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Tom Watson hit tee shots to start this year’s tournament. On Sunday, someone — perhaps someone new, perhaps someone already admitted to the locker room reserved for past champions — will win the 88th Masters. But this past week, all of the possibilities seemed to be on greater display than usual.

Persons: Sam Snead, Lottie Woad, Jon Rahm, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Tom Watson, —, peered skyward, Ben Crenshaw, Nick Faldo, Woods Organizations: Augusta, Augusta National Locations: Augusta, men’s

☆ The Landline’s Not Dead (at Least at the Masters)
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-13 | by ( Alan Blinder | Doug Mills | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In Georgia, an old-fashioned custom keeps one of the country’s most beloved golf tournaments connected to its past. They call to offer up weather reports, food reviews, golf commentaries, celebrity sightings, souvenir spending confessions, legal advice and trips down memory lane. Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia has long forbidden cellphones for almost anyone inside its gates for the Masters Tournament, which is scheduled to conclude Sunday. “Dad, it’s Ali,” Ali Daschbach began this past week. She paused, a shared moment of anticipation stretching from a phone near the 17th green in east Georgia to Washington State.

Persons: ”, Dad, it’s Ali, ” Ali Daschbach Organizations: Augusta, Golf Club, Washington State Locations: Georgia, Augusta, Washington

An Augusta National Golf Club green jacket hangs on the wall, and 81 televisions show the theatrics and athletic brilliance unfolding on the emerald grounds that host the Masters Tournament. Entrance to this particular sanctum, christened Map & Flag in a nod to the Masters’s storied logo, runs $17,000 per person for the week of golf’s first major tournament. And Map & Flag is not even perched on the 18th green. It is across the street from Augusta National. The hope is that refined appeals to deep-pocketed fans will result in over-the-top spending, bigger profits and lasting loyalty.

Organizations: Augusta National Golf, Augusta National Locations: Paris, Southern, Augusta

☆ To Choose the Menu, Just Win the Masters
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-09 | by ( Alan Blinder | Doug Mills | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The winner of the Masters Tournament gets a green jacket, an elegantly engraved trophy and a lifetime invitation to play one of the most revered events in professional golf. He also has the chance to plan a dinner the next spring for other Masters winners (and to pick up the check for one of the most exclusive evenings in sports). “How rare is it to get everybody like that in a room where it’s just us?” Scottie Scheffler said hours before his dinner last year with 32 fellow Masters champions and Fred S. Ridley, the chairman of Augusta National Golf Club, the site of the tournament.

Persons: Scottie Scheffler, Fred S, Ridley Organizations: Augusta National Golf Club

☆ The broad movement in interest rates is what matters for the economy, says former Fed vice chair
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-06 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailThe broad movement in interest rates is what matters for the economy, says former Fed vice chairAlan Blinder, former Federal Reserve vice chairman and Princeton University professor, and CNBC's Steve Liesman join 'Squawk on the Street' to discuss Jerome Powell's testimony on Capitol Hill, how the Federal Reserve will know when it's time to cut rates, and more.

Persons: Alan Blinder, Steve Liesman, Jerome Powell's Organizations: Fed, Federal Reserve, Princeton University, Capitol

☆ Yale, Duke and Columbia Among Elite Schools to Settle in Price-Fixing Case
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-23 | by ( Alan Blinder | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For almost a quarter of a century, a coterie of the nation’s most elite universities had a legal shield: They would be exempt from federal antitrust laws when they shared formulas to measure prospective students’ financial needs. But the provision included a crucial requirement: that the cooperating universities’ admissions processes be “need-blind,” meaning they could not factor in whether a prospective student was wealthy enough to pay. But a court filing on Tuesday night revealed that five of those universities — Brown, Columbia, Duke, Emory and Yale — have collectively agreed to pay $104.5 million to settle a lawsuit accusing them of, in fact, weighing financial ability when they deliberated over the fates of some applicants. Although the universities did not admit wrongdoing and resisted accusations that their approach had hurt students, the settlements nevertheless call into question whether the schools, which spent years extolling the generosity of their financial aid, did as much as they could to lower tuition.

Persons: — Brown, Yale — Organizations: Duke, Emory, Yale Locations: Columbia

☆ 700 Paintings, 45 Galleries: A Guide to the Met’s New European Wing
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-24 | by ( Jason Farago | More About Jason Farago | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Five years after the Metropolitan Museum of Art set off on a major renovation of its galleries for European painting, the super-prime real estate at the top of its grand staircase is open again. Down in the galleries, the Met’s designers have widened the rooms, rearranged the sightlines, shellacked the walls purple and blue. The curators have reassembled the whole painting collection for the first time since 2018, shuffled across 45 new galleries and bathed in beautifully tempered light. (When it comes to light, this New Amsterdam institution definitely leans more Dutch than Italian.) Duccio’s break-the-bank Madonna and Child, painted in Tuscany around 1300, now shares a case with Ingres’s painting of the same subject from 1852.

Persons: Beyer Blinder Belle, Truman, Bacon, Beckmann, Kerry James Marshall, You’ll Organizations: Metropolitan Museum of Art, Met Locations: New Amsterdam, Italy, France, Spain, zigzags, Tuscany

☆ How a Pro-Palestinian Group Became a Leader of Campus Protests
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-17 | by ( Alan Blinder | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

And it was recently the target of thundering speeches on Capitol Hill and blistered during a Republican presidential debate. In the six weeks since Hamas attacked Israel, there may be no college group that has drawn more scrutiny than Students for Justice in Palestine, perhaps the most popular and divisive campus organization championing the Palestinian cause. But unlike many national campus groups — whether they are sororities, fraternities, religious or political — Students for Justice in Palestine is by design a loosely connected network of autonomous chapters. The group has never registered as a nonprofit, and it has never had to file tax documents. One of the people who founded it about 30 years ago, Hatem Bazian, has described the setup as “a symbolic franchise without a franchise fee.”

Persons: Hatem Bazian, ” Organizations: Hamas, Justice, Brandeis, George Washington University, Capitol, for Justice Locations: Israel, Palestine, Columbia

Rory McIlroy, the esteemed golfer who was among the most outspoken opponents of his sport’s swelling ties to Saudi Arabia, has resigned from the PGA Tour’s board. The tour confirmed his departure in a statement on Tuesday night. Mr. McIlroy, the men said, was “instrumental in helping shape the success of the tour, and his willingness to thoughtfully voice his opinions has been especially impactful.”Mr. McIlroy’s agent did not respond to a message seeking comment. The decision by Mr. McIlroy came about five months after the tour, following secret negotiations, struck an agreement with Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund to try to create a joint company that would end golf’s money-fueled war for supremacy. Most board members, including Mr. McIlroy, had no knowledge of the agreement or the talks that led to it until shortly before it was announced in June and upended the duel between the tour and LIV Golf, the league Saudi Arabia built with a blend of billions of dollars and marquee defections from the PGA Tour.

Persons: Rory McIlroy, “, Rory —, —, Jay Monahan, Edward D, Mr, McIlroy, ” Mr, LIV Golf Organizations: PGA, PGA Tour Locations: Saudi Arabia, Saudi

And all three universities formed task forces to address antisemitism on campus. “Let me reiterate what I and other Harvard leaders have said previously: Antisemitism has no place at Harvard,” Dr. In addition, many pro-Palestinian students point out that they have faced doxxing and harassment — and they are asking on social media for similar efforts against Islamophobia. The groups have been at the center of weeks of intense demonstrations that have sharply divided students and shaken Columbia’s Manhattan campus. The university’s decision will bar the group from holding events on campus or receiving university funding through the end of the fall semester.

Persons: ” Dr, Gay, Gerald Rosberg, ” Organizations: Harvard, Palestinian, Columbia, Justice, Jewish, Peace Locations: Gaza, Israel, Egypt, Palestine, Manhattan

Tens of thousands of demonstrators were expected to fill the streets of Washington and other cities across America on Saturday to protest the scope and scale of Israel’s retaliation in Gaza for last month’s terrorist assault by Hamas. Most Americans say that they sympathize with Israel, even as they dread the war’s fallout for their own country. But as Israel escalates attacks on Gaza and fatalities reported by Gazan authorities rise, U.S. support for Palestinian civilians has surged as well. Nonetheless, a 51 percent majority supported sending more military aid to Israel for their campaign against Hamas, and 71 percent supported humanitarian assistance for Palestinian civilians in Gaza. Washington was expected to be a hub of protest.

Persons: Saturday’s, Washington Organizations: Quinnipiac University, Hamas, White, Museum of, Palestinian People, Freedom Locations: Washington, America, Gaza, New York, Seattle, San Francisco, Orono , Maine, Israel, U.S, United States, Pennsylvania

Market analysts say an array of factors have combined to force up Treasury yields. As a result, higher Treasury rates may be needed to attract more buyers. That suggests that Treasury yields may stay unusually high even if the Fed keeps its own benchmark rate on hold. Many business and consumer loan rates might, in turn, also stay high, helping keep a lid on economic growth and inflation. Wall Street traders foresee a 98% probability that the Fed will leave interest rates unchanged Wednesday, according to the CME FedWatch Tool.

Persons: Jerome Powell, Powell, ” Powell, “, Goldman Sachs, reacceleration, ”, Alan Blinder, Blinder, ” Blinder Organizations: WASHINGTON, Federal, Fed, Treasury, Wall, Goldman, Princeton University, Associated Press, American Academy of Political, Social Science Locations: Wall, COVID, Washington

Renewed manufacturing growth will boost industrial energy consumption, especially for diesel, but with inventories still low, prices are set to escalate rapidly, rekindling concerns about inflation. SOFT LANDING? The mid-cycle slowdown or “soft landing” of 1989/90 and the cycle-ending “hard landing” of 1990/91 are usually considered as one episode. Blinder has argued the Federal Reserve would have achieved a soft landing if oil prices had not spiked for unrelated reasons. Related columns:- Global diesel shortage boosts prices (September 13, 2023)- Prolonged U.S. manufacturing slowdown barely dents energy use (September 5, 2023)- U.S. diesel prices surge anticipating a soft landing (August 11, 2023)- U.S. manufacturing slowdown fails to rebuild diesel stocks (August 2, 2023)John Kemp is a Reuters market analyst.

Persons: Bing Guan, Alan Blinder, Blinder, Saddam Hussein’s, ”, Saddam Hussein, Alan Greenspan, John Kemp, Alexander Smith Organizations: Angeles Refinery, California Air Resources Board, Institute, Supply, Federal Reserve, Reserve, Global, U.S, Thomson, Reuters Locations: Angeles, California, Carson , California, U.S, Kuwait, Blinder, United States, Europe, China

☆ With a New Formula, U.S. News Rankings Boost Some State Universities
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-18 | by ( Alan Blinder | More About Alan Blinder | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The reworked formula assigned greater emphasis to graduation rates for students who received need-based Pell grants and retention. It also introduced metrics tied to first-generation college students and to whether recent graduates were earning more than people who had completed only high school. Occupying the ranking’s middle rungs meant that shifts in methodology, like the removal of alumni giving as a criterion, could easily fuel dramatic rises and falls. Schools have said that the rankings have an outsize influence on students and parents, who use them as a proxy for prestige. 29, among liberal arts colleges.

Persons: Pell, Song Richardson, haven’t, ”, Richardson Organizations: . News, Schools, Colorado College

☆ Law and Medical Schools Quit U.S. News Rankings. Why Did Few Colleges Follow?
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-16 | by ( Alan Blinder | More About Alan Blinder | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Yale Law School started the exodus last November: Dozens of law and medical schools, many among America’s most elite, vowed not to cooperate with the U.S. News & World Report rankings juggernaut. Critics of the rankings dared to hope that undergraduate programs at the same universities would defect, too. Yale, Harvard and dozens of other universities continued to submit data for U.S. News’s annual undergraduate rankings, the 2024 edition of which will be released on Monday. That the rebellion went only so far, for now, has underscored the psychic hold that the rankings have on American higher education, even for the country’s most renowned schools. The rankings remain a front door, an easy way to reach and enchant possible applicants.

Persons: “ It’s, ”, Eric J, Gertler Organizations: Yale Law School, U.S . News, Yale, Harvard

☆ Full impact of Fed hikes still to be seen in real economy, ex-vice chair Blinder says
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-01 | by ( Lisa Pauline Mattackal | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The Fed has cumulatively raised its target rate by 525 basis points to 5.25%-5.50% over the last 17 months. "I think there's a lot more to be seen," Alan Blinder, Fed vice chairman between 1994 and 1996, told the Reuters Global Markets Forum (GMF). So against that, if it's three months or four months faster, that's not a big deal, and suggests there's still plenty to come," Blinder added. Blinder also said core inflation tends to react to monetary policy action at a slower pace than headline inflation, and that coupled with the transmission lags means the Fed should consider pausing rates for some time from here. Reuters Graphics Reuters GraphicsThe 'last mile' of bringing inflation down may prove difficult for the Fed, Blinder said, adding that the central bank won't be "stubborn" if inflation settles somewhat above its stated 2% goal.

Persons: Alan Blinder, there's, Blinder, Lisa Mattackal, Divya Chowdhury, Savio Shetty, Andrea Ricci Organizations: U.S, Reuters Global Markets, Reuters Graphics Reuters, Fed, Thomson Locations: U.S . Federal, Bangalore, Mumbai

Ian killed 75 people in Lee County, nearly half of the statewide death toll of 149, officials said. At that point, the National Hurricane Center flagged the possibility of a storm surge covering much of Cape Coral and Fort Myers. Parts of Fort Myers Beach had a 40 percent chance of a six-foot-high storm surge, according to the surge forecasts. In Lee County officials said they were waiting to make an assessment the next morning. Officials expanded their evacuation order later in the morning, and by the middle of the afternoon, Lee County officials were more urgent in their recommendation.

Persons: Ian, Lee County, Ron DeSantis, Lee, Fort Myers, ” Organizations: National Hurricane Service, National Hurricane Center, Fort Myers, Facebook Locations: Florida, Tampa, Fort Myers, Lee County, Fort Myers Beach, Sanibel, State, Coral, Fort, Cape Coral, Neighboring Pinellas, Hillsborough, Manatee, Charlotte, Sarasota County, Lee

☆ Even as Golf Evolves, Trump Remains on the Outs
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-10 | by ( Alan Blinder | More About Alan Blinder | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Walking toward a tee box in Virginia in May, former President Donald J. Trump offered an awfully accurate assessment of the way many golf executives viewed him. Even in an era of gaudy wealth and shifting alliances in golf, Trump remains, for now, a measure too much for many. The consequences have been conspicuous for a figure who had expected to host a men’s golf major tournament in 2022. Now, his ties to the sport’s elite ranks often appear limited to LIV events and periodic rounds with past and present professionals. Jack Nicklaus, the 18-time major champion, caused a stir in April when he publicly stopped short of again endorsing a Trump bid for the White House.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, ”, LIV, Jack Nicklaus Organizations: White Locations: Virginia, Saudi

Infuriated after being blindsided by the PGA Tour’s pact with Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, a band of leading golfers has won a series of concessions from the beleaguered circuit’s commissioner — including the elevation of Tiger Woods to the tour’s board — in a star-driven rebuke of the tour. The tour announced the changes on Tuesday, one day after dozens of top players wrote to Jay Monahan, the tour’s commissioner, and insisted on significant overhauls. The demands detailed in the Monday letter amounted to a dramatic effort to reclaim power over a circuit that got its modern start after a player rebellion in the late 1960s. The addition of Woods to the board, one of several changes agreed to by Monahan with a signed acknowledgment, would allow the players to outnumber six to five the independent board members, who come from the worlds of business and law. In addition, the players want to change the board’s rules to avoid a repeat of the negotiations with the Saudis, in which a handful of independent board members acted without the backing of players on the board.

Persons: Tiger Woods, Jay Monahan, Woods, Patrick Cantlay, Rickie Fowler, Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Scottie Scheffler, Monahan Organizations: PGA Locations: Saudi

☆ Wales Has a Prince, But It Has Never Hosted a British Open
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-23 | by ( Alan Blinder | More About Alan Blinder | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Still near enough to peek through, though, was the Welsh coast, a handful of long tee shots across the estuary. The British Open, scheduled to conclude on Sunday, may never come closer to Wales. First played when Queen Victoria was on the throne, the Open is a national rite that has encompassed only so much of the nation: Unlike England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, Wales has not hosted it. With sites through 2026 already selected and Wales still left out, the drought will last at least as long as the first 154 Opens. By then, Northern Ireland, which did not welcome a modern Open until 2019, will have had another.

Persons: Queen Victoria, ”, Ken Organizations: Royal Liverpool Golf, British, Wales, Welsh Parliament Locations: Welsh, Wales, England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Britain

☆ Names Old and New Top British Open Leaderboard
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-20 | by ( Alan Blinder | More About Alan Blinder | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

It worked well enough for Stewart Cink on Thursday at the British Open. “When the gun goes off and you start in the tournament, you’ve got that adrenaline, and adrenaline does wonders for your jet lag,” Cink, 50, said. It also seemed to do plenty good for his scorecard, which reported a three-under-par 68 that positioned him high on the first-round leaderboard at northwest England’s Royal Liverpool Golf Club. There was Cink, who won the 2009 Open at Turnberry in Scotland by outlasting Tom Watson, then 59, in a playoff. But Christo Lamprecht, an amateur who plays for Georgia Tech, finished his five-under round with the lead.

Persons: Stewart Cink, you’ve, Cink, lurked, outlasting Tom Watson, Christo Lamprecht, Tommy Fleetwood, Emiliano Grillo, Lamprecht, Brian Harman, Adrián Otaegui, Antoine Rozner Organizations: Liverpool Golf, Royal Liverpool, Georgia Tech Locations: England’s, Royal, Turnberry, Scotland

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