Mark Hay acknowledges the unparalleled brilliance of his peers, yet he cannot help but wonder what value a moon-faced, upstart college kid (especially some half-baked 2012 religion/political science major from CC) jabbering about politics and society really has on the marketplace of ideas. He believes his views from the ivory tower would hardly fetch a ha’penny. But strange things are afoot in the ivory tower. Every day on the Columbia campus offers some new sight, some strange tale, to give us pause. But with a shrug, a sigh, and an “oh, Columbia,” we all too often leave the oddities of campus life unexamined. Mark, though, is an inquisitive child with an obsessive personality. He tries with all his might to understand the campus’s offering of “weird.” His column will attempt to share his understandings and explain Columbia’s insular and unique oddities in terms of the worth beyond our gates. He hopes you enjoy this column as much as he enjoys giving it to you, especially as it may be the only gift he ever gives to most of you.