The second installment of our continuing series, Senior Wisdom. 

Name, School: Josh Lipsky, CC 

Claim to fame: Prez of Dems/Founder of Roosevelt/Daily Show intern 

Post-grad plans: The presidential campaign trail 

Preferred swim test stroke? We’ll find out the day before graduation 

What are three things you learned at Columbia?   

  1. You can take any class you want. Seriously, just keeping showing up ‘til they let you in.
  2. Correlation is NOT causation. Because I was confused about that coming in.
  3. ‘SIP’ is not really large enough to count as a bar. 

Justify your existence in 30 words or less. 

I occasionally tried to clean my suite because my friends are lazy. I also sought to help reinvigorate activism at Columbia. I had a similar success rate for both.  



What was your favorite controversy in your time at Columbia? 

Let’s see – between ‘Hunger Strike,’ ‘MEALAC’, ‘Minutemen’ and ‘Ahmadinejad,’ I would have to go with the Iranian President. On a personal level, I got to take on an annoying Fox News anchor (see YouTube) and on a community level there were 10,000 students engaged in a political debate like it was a homecoming game. That’s Columbia at its best. 

What Columbia memory best exemplifies your college experience? 

Having a bow-tied professor walk in to a class on the first day and say, “Hello, I invented exit polling in America. Sorry I screwed up in 2000, sorry I screwed up in 2004, now let’s get it right for 2008.” 

And that’s when you realize you’re not in high school anymore. 

 

Which prof. do you think would be the best kisser? 

Certainly not the first time I’ve though about this question. A lot of people have their money on Alan Brinkley and I think that’s a wise choice. He’s studied 50 years of American kissing habits and certainly learned something in the process.  

What percentage of seniors do you think are virgins? 

Do you separate SEAS/CC in that? Based on varying levels of desperation I’ve seen at West End and 1020, I’ll put the overall average at 10% and leave it to greater minds to figure out the SEAS/CC breakdown.  

Would you rather permanently give up oral sex or cheese? 

CHEESE.

And so ruins a once promising future in politics.  

Days on Campus memory? I wasn’t here, so I’ll make one up.  

I walked on to beautiful campus in springtime and daydreamed of spending my free hours running outside on the lawns and playing catch with friends. 

Then I came here and found out it’s cold as hell for seven months a year.  

Regrets?

Not taking a class with Eric Foner. A friend made me feel really bad about that last week. Also, only getting flex off campus with four weeks left. What a tease. I suppose the typical answer is ‘not seeing the city enough’ or whatever that means. New York is always here and my personal opinion is that this school is great in and of itself.