Critical Mass

College newspapers are all a-twitter following Tuesday's election.  Our own Daniel Gelernter has a piece on the Phi Beta Cons website in reaction to the Yale Daily News' response Wednesday; the same newspaper today lauds the number of Yale alumni who entered office this election, as well as mourns the losses of those who didn't.  The University of San Franciso's Foghorn questions four students about whether they voted and if it is important to do so; perhaps the best quote in response was from Zoey Jones, a senior Politics major, who said "Yes. It’s important. Most of the problems in our political system are rooted in the fact that people don’t participate and just complain. Even if you don’t agree with the structure or system, you should still vote."  Good call.  UCLA's Daily Bruin polled students who voted to compare their demographics against those of the state; not surprisingly, 55% of UCLA students consider themselves Democrats, compared to 42.48% of Californians as a whole, while only 11% consider themselves Republicans, compared to 34.33% of registered Californians.  Despite the 61% of UCLA students who voted for gubernatorial candidate Democrat Phil Angelides, Republican incumbent Arnold Schwarzenegger won "by a landslide."

And for those of you in need of a smile following Republicans' defeat in the election, there's this: one Columbia student blames strange growths on the campus's trees on President Bush, reports the Spectator.  

Theresa Swink, who works in the Columbia greenhouse, accounts for the growths' presence with an all-purpose explanation: "With George Bush as president, it comes as no surprise to me that our trees are cancerous."

Granted, tree experts who have inspected the trees say that the growths are disease free, but I doubt that really matters to Ms. Swink.