Last week, the Athenaeum hosted CMC’s former Vice President of Admissions & Financial Aid, Dick Vos. Vos resigned in
the spring after admitting he had received one too many of Pamela Gann’s discouraging looks. He was recently replaced by Dean Jeff Huang, who now holds the titles of Dean, Vice President, Janitor, Professor, Trustee, and super-cool Asian here on CMC’s campus.
Dean Vos was very friendly with students before the talk, discussing classes and midterms with many. He was also very impressed with the cheese plates during the pre-dinner Ath reception. He was overheard saying, “Wow, I swear these Gouda slices are bigger than last year!”
His talk was simply entitled “Inflation”, a very unhelpful title that seems to have never been checked by other employees at the college before being put out into the public eye. Naturally, the audience was packed full of Economics majors who thought that Dick Vos’ talk would be on “inflation” in the monetary sense, like the current situation in Europe, Greece, and Spain.
Instead, Dean Vos’ talk was much more inspiring. He spoke broadly about the process of things becoming larger, something of which he is a staunch proponent.
“Inflation – the process of things getting bigger for no real reason – appears everywhere around us,” he said. “Just look out the window! Did you notice how the new fountain takes up more space than the old one did? It is amazing,” he remarked in awe. “When I heard the north mall construction would generally just make things bigger – like more concrete, more urine-looking water, etc. – I got choked up. It is a beautiful process.”
But Vos did not simply stick to inflation on a smaller scale. He also spoke to how sometimes things look normal individually, but then when looked at as a whole, they are sometimes bigger.
“Take the rice Krispy’s from tea right here at the Ath”, Vos said. “They are all nice, hefty squares, but say you grab a smaller one by accident. Although you have a smaller one, the average of all the rice Krispy’s on that plate is bigger than yours.” He said that while you may be disappointed in your rice Krispy individually, it is the size of the groups that really matter. “When a tour group comes through tea, the prospective students get to see the entire plate of rice Krispy’s, and their first impression is just how big they are. That is what really matters, because this makes them want to apply to CMC!” Vos said.
He spent most of his talk discussing other processes of inflation we experience in our day to day lives. He struck a humorous – yet some said inappropriate – chord when he referenced this process in relation to his first name.
Vos attempted humor at another point during his talk, making light of the SAT scandal from the spring. He joked, “Maybe the Admissions Office should move to The Cube. Then there would be some transparency!” No one laughed.
All in all, Dick Vos’ talk was intriguing and inspiring. At the end of his talk, he complimented Chef Dave on his entrée for the evening. “Dave, that pufferfish was amazing! There is just something about it that I really, really liked.”
– David Leathers ’15 CMC
KILLING IT DAVVVVIDDDDDDD
I laughed at Vos’ joke!