We Made It!

Nov. 4, 2008      We Made It! Finally by Terence Samuel Whatever the outcome tonight, we are a different country.

How to Watch the Returns by Michael C. Dawson We’re going to be bombarded with information as the votes come in. Here’s what to look for. No We Can’t, Black Folks by The Root Staff Five things black people shouldn’t do if Obama wins. No We Can’t, White Folks by Christopher Beam and Chris Wilson Five things white people shouldn’t do if Obama wins. Swing State Dispatches by The Root Contributors Notes from the battlegrounds.

GOTTA HAND IT TO GALS

GOTTA HAND IT TO GALS

By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, AP

November 4, 2008 –

WASHINGTON – Wash your hands, folks.

Especially you, ladies.

A study has found that women carry a greater variety of bacteria on their hands than men do – and that we all have more types of bacteria on our hands than expected.

“The sheer number of bacteria species detected on the hands of the study participants was a big surprise, as was the greater diversity of bacteria we found on the hands of women,” said lead researcher Noah Fierer, an assistant professor at the University Colorado’s department of ecology and evolutionary biology.

The researchers aren’t sure why women hold a wider scope of bacteria than men. Fierer and study co-author Rob Knight, a Colorado biochemistry professor, think it may have to do with men generally having more acidic skin than women.

But they cited as other possibilities the difference in sweat- and oil-gland production, the frequency of moisturizer or cosmetics applications, skin thickness, and hormone production.

Women also may have more bacteria living under the skin’s surface, where they’re not accessible to washing, Knight added.

The researchers took samples from the palms of 51 college students and tested them with a new, highly detailed system for detecting bacteria DNA.

They identified 4,742 species of bacteria, only five of which were found on every hand, they reported on yesterday’s online edition of The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The average hand had 150 species of bacteria.

Asked whether guys should worry about holding hands with girls, Knight quipped, “I guess it depends on which girl.”

But he noted that “the vast majority of the bacteria we have on our bodies are either harmless or beneficial.”

And while the researchers stressed the importance of regular hand washing, they warned that soap and water alone don’t eliminate bacteria.

“Either the bacterial colonies rapidly reestablish or washing does not remove the majority of bacteria found on the skin surface,” they wrote.

[NYP]

CUNY GROWING INTO CLASS ACT

CUNY GROWING INTO CLASS ACT

By YOAV GONEN, Education Reporter

November 4, 2008 –

They’re moving on up.

Enrollment at the City University of New York has reached its highest point since the college began charging tuition in 1976, new statistics shows.

The university system – which includes 23 campuses citywide for community, four-year and graduate colleges – has seen enrollment jump by nearly 25 percent since 1999, to 242,898 this year.

That includes an increase of 10,000 students since last year – a 4.3 percent gain that included a significant bump in students who excelled in high school.

Since 1999, the number of high school graduates with 85 or better averages attending CUNY has more than doubled to 5,122.

The school also has made significant strides in attracting students who scored above 1,200 on their SATs – a 166 percent jump since 1999 to 1,487 students this year – and who attended top-tier city public high schools.

Those familiar with CUNY credit much of its upswing over the years to the school’s controversial decision to raise admission standards in 1999, and to the addition of the Honors College two years later.

“I think it shows that students . . . are attracted to high standards – not put off by them,” said Heather McDonald, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute who served on former Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s CUNY task force in the 1990s.

She said she expects the current financial environment to push even more students toward CUNY, which charges $4,000 for undergraduate tuition.

“It’s going to make CUNY even more attractive as private tuition becomes more outrageous,” she said.

Former New York Congressman Herman Badillo, who once served as chairman of the Board of Trustees of CUNY, said the university had been known as the “Harvard of the poor” when he graduated from City College in 1951.

But after the system began to nose-dive in the late 1960s – and particularly after it instituted an open enrollment policy in 1970 – things got so bad that it became known by many unflattering nicknames, including “Tutor U.”

The decision to raise standards in the late 1990s was controversial because many people feared it would limit the opportunities for minority students, according to Badillo.

But the latest CUNY data show that the percentage of black, Hispanic and Asian students enrolled since 1999 has risen at an even faster rate than it has for white students.

“I think that CUNY has had extraordinary leadership and the leadership has been very committed to standards and access and opportunity,” said state Board of Regents Vice Chancellor Merryl Tisch.

She singled out CUNY Chancellor Matthew Goldstein, who was appointed in 1999, for much of the system’s turnaround.

“I think he’s been an extraordinary leader,” she said.

yoav.gonen@nypost.com

Charter School Chief Keeps an Eye on Politics

Charter School Chief Keeps a Hand in Politics

By ELISSA GOOTMAN

A recent 14-hour day in the life of Eva S. Moskowitz — former city councilwoman, someday mayoral aspirant, current chief of a fast-growing chain of Harlem charter schools — began with a metal bowl of nectarines. “Is it possible,” Ms. Moskowitz asked a cafeteria worker in the urgent tone familiar from her City Hall hearings, “to get the fruit on something lower?”

After ensuring that the smallest children could see one of their healthier breakfast options, Ms. Moskowitz, 44, moved on to weightier issues: advising a novice principal on how to approach a testy parent, figuring out who should replace a first-grade teacher who quit, arguing about the city’s methods for doling out space to charter schools. She zipped from school to school to cocktail party, all in four-inch patent-leather heels and juggling a latte, cellphone and the BlackBerry on which she routinely shoots pointed notes to city officials.CLICK HERE FOR FULL ARTICLE [NYT]