Core values

Just to make one thing clear: contrary to the experience of my daughter, who was an expert on Columbia by eighth grade, and my dire warnings to applicants that they better be able to explain the Core, I did not have any real understanding of what was in front of me when I entered the College in the fall of 1977. I simply went to Columbia because my mother would not take no for an answer, having lost her own opportunity to attend Teachers College because of a nasty post-Depression financial situation. So the disgusting rainy day in April when I first visited Morningside Heights, combined with the strange elf that conducted my tour, Son of Sam, a bankrupt city, and my hate of all New York sports teams, was not going to divert me from my mother’s date with destiny.

I had no interest in philosophy, the great works of western civilization, opera, etc. I was fascinated by politics, having grown up with a politician father, and I was a voracious reader of history, having spent every summer on some Civil War or Revolutionary War battlefield. That was it. Nothing else academic interested me.

I wasn’t too convinced when I first sat in CC and met one student who claimed to be the grandson of Nietzsche and therefore thought he was entitled to the respect of his peers. Nor was I convinced when I encountered another who spoke so often in class that one day I was moved to count the number of times that he spoke (87). Gradually, the opportunity to debate issues and analyses on a subject matter in which I had (or at least thought I had) no interest grew on me. Gradually, the natural contrarian in me found Columbia to be a fertile environment. I soon grew to love challenging the theories of the brightest students and world famous professors in a variety of diverse subjects.

The academics weren’t all that required adjustment. Unlike today, when I attended Columbia we did not enjoy the support of a caring and dedicated administration that viewed the College as the focus of the University. Quite the contrary—we were treated almost as a necessary evil, a source of cash or whatever else. The efforts of President George Rupp, and later, President Lee Bollinger, Vice President Nicholas Dirks, and most of all, Dean Austin Quigley, have completely altered this dynamic and, of course, Columbia College now holds its rightful place within the University.

However, in some ways, getting thrown into a complicated situation with little support prepared me for jumping into a classic sweatshop New York law firm as a first-year associate. Today’s students cannot imagine what it was like to deal with the Bursar or the Registrar—we would sleep out all night to secure suitable course registrations—or how difficult it was to figure out a career direction without any support from the formal College or University structure. However, working on my own and finding wonderful people like Professor James Shenton and Professor Henry Graff to guide me was very much what I did that first year as a lawyer when I persevered and forced myself into the care and guidance of one young skillful partner with a very interesting securities and entertainment practice. This allowed me to avoid the damage that others suffered due to the absolute lack of a first-year training program or any knowledge of ethics in the partnership as a whole. Furthermore, the massive amount of reading and frequent “gear changing” that managing the Core and one or more majors required developed my capacity to handle multiple complicated matters. This was especially useful when I began practicing law and subsequently when I began managing several diverse companies for a private equity group.

Most importantly, what Columbia and the Core did for me was to make me a balanced and (I think) interesting person. A love of art, music, history and a deep interest in other cultures has given me a richer life and made me a better father. Respect for and friendship with people of different backgrounds and political persuasions are things I try to pass on. Every summer for most of the past decade, I have taken my family abroad to ensure that they are exposed to other great cities and cultures.

Although the kids in the Class of 2012 certainly do not face the same practical challenges as we did, they too will benefit from the shared experience of the Core and the incredible multicultural experience that is Columbia.