Dean Vos
What role?
“Relatively minor role. I would say that the major role was played by Jerry Garris and a lesser extent Matt Bibbens.”
“If you are currently on one of our other Irvine grants, for some other initiative, we will not give you a new grant while you’re still receiving the money from the earlier grant.”
Minority brochures…wanting for a while?
“Not necessarily, in fact, I admit to being conflicted myself on the very subject of minority specific brochure, we’ve never had one. And I have talked with Jerry since this grant was given to us and we’re not sure if we’re going to have one. We might end up instead deciding to use that money to hire a photographer someone to take more good pictures of our student body.”
Show minority students interacting with white students in class.
Why the minority specific brochure bad?
“Well there in lies the problem. A school like Carlton for example, that has a minority specific brochure, will talk about its academic support services for minority students. And in the very fact that you talk about that in the minority brochure but you don’t talk about that in what I’ll call the main recruiting brochure that is sent to everybody, you’re implying that minority students are more likely to need this academic support than anybody else, and that’s a form of racism. That sends a signal to minority students that they’re not as strong academically in that we know you’ll need this help, but we’re telling you that we have it, so come over here to our college. I think that’s a huge mistake.”
“I think fortunately that CMC is too small and has always resisted that form of balkanization is what it boiled down to and we want to have everybody be part of CMC and part of the overall community. And you walk into the dining hall and you see lots of different people with different facial features and colors of skin sitting together. You don’t see a black table here, a Mexican American table here, like you see at big universities oftentimes in the dining hall.”
Specific questions from minority students?
(Nothing too interesting.)
“I don’t think so”
“In general, that it’s perhaps true that minority are more concerned with [campus diversity and tolerance] cause they’ve been in the minority so they’re more sensitive to that. But that’s why I think it would be better to have that message received by better photography in the main piece, not in some piece that’s only targeted to minority populations.”
Why minorities in fly in program?
“Because we want more.”
“Because we’re living in a very diverse culture. We don’t have very many minorities here and we think it would be beneficial for all of our students to learn from being around all different types of people.”
The money, will it augment or replace?
“I’d say both. We’ve already been doing this, but on a limited scale loaded by budget realities. This funding will not start a new program but this funding will allow us to continue a program that’s been successful so far in its first two years of operation and allow us to expand it to invite more students to campus.”
Importance of race?
“Hmmm, not very important. It’s a factor, as is geography and testing and transcripts and essays and fit and leadership and athletic activity, and so we look at a lot of things…and one thing we look at is race. But it’s not a very big deal, it’s not the most important factor, but it’s one of 15-20 factors that we look at.”
“We don’t have a point system.”
How long has race been a factor?
For a while…at least since 1957.
Racial quota system?
“No there’s not and I think there should not be. I don’t think there ever has been. I can speak with certainty for my 16 years here, having come here in 1987, that there’s not been.”
From the data, “It’s pretty clear that there’s never been a quota or even a numerical goal.”
What difference is quota vs. goal?
“The meaning. They have different meanings. Quota means that you stop at that number, you reach your q-u-o-t-a. Quota is often associated with the verb “to reach.” Goal is something you are shooting for and there are times when you reach it and times you don’t reach it but you always have it out there.”
“Extend the net more widely.”
“Funnel”
Asian Hispanic etc disparities?
“A lot of things explain that. Fit is a big thing. A very big thing for us especially because of CMC’s market niche. And again, this is a very, very, very dangerous generalization, but I would suggest it just might be true that Asian and Asian American students are sometimes more involved in solitary activities than Latino students or white students.”
“Violin or student government? Go to San Marino high school, there’s nothing wrong with violin it’s just not as valued by CMC as student government. So at San Marino high school look at the orchestra and a large portion of students in that orchestra are Asian students and they practice the violin by themselves and they do solitary things and they tend not sometimes, that’s why I said it was very, very, very dangerous, I’m not trying to sound racist here, but it’s more likely than an African American student did not play the violin but maybe got involved in a athletic team, got involved in debate, got involved in student government, did things that we in our value system at CMC perceive to be more CMCish fit kind of leadership, group oriented extracurricular activities that we feel are perhaps more inline with our mission. ”
Academic standards reduced for minority students?
“No, not at all.”
Hispanic anomaly?
“There’s no formula”
Mentors and role models?
“I don’t have a great deal of empirical evidence. I have a lot of anecdotal evidence.”
“It is sporadic, it doesn’t come up many many time a day…or week”
I hear about it “Maybe 25 times a year.”
Anything else in Admissions role in grant in general?
“I think that the overall student program, the part in student affairs, the part with the faculty, the whole package, will make CMC a better college, so I think it’s a good thing.”
“Admissions can only show people what we have, admissions cannot change what we have.”
“My job is improved if we are a better college.”….Mr. Vos does not want to mislead…
Narrative issues?
“Those were my ideas?”
See them changed?
No.
I don’t want to change [intentional political balance.] I think it makes us A. a better college that we have a very, very even balance of political points of view and I think it gives students a better academic experience that we have this balance in point of view. I also think it helps us differentiate ourselves from most other national liberal arts colleges because we have this balanced point of view. I used to work at Cornell. Cornell is Pitzer’s politics and Pomona’s academic rigor combined. I was really, really mad one time when I was there when we had some freshmen come from New Jersey. He started a young republicans club on campus and he was harassed so badly by the intolerant liberals that he transferred to Rutgers his sophomore year. I happen to have a more liberal than conservative personal political philosophy, but I try not to let that get in the way of my profession. And my profession is to have a better college, a better student body more diversity and that includes political diversity as well. And I’m really happy that we’re one of the few national liberal arts colleges that has this as part of its reputation that attracts the Apollo Morgan’s and the Jason Lippenberger’s and also the whoever your equivalent is in the liberal side of the house.
…I like to think I don’t have an equivalent…Apollo’s insight
“Generally, not always true, but generally African Americans more so than Latinos, African Americans tend to come from a more liberal perspective and so they are sometimes worried that this place is only ‘a place where conservative students are happy.’”
Need to sharpen thinking skills since you will need to defend your views.
Critical mass?
Hard to pick up a quote…but there should be enough for dating opportunities.
“More than two.”
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