Presidential Traditions

This evening, I dined in style.  Why, you ask?  Well, as a member of the senior class I got to have dinner with President Oxtoby.  Alone?  Um, no (that would be weird).  There were about thirty or so of us seniors there tonight along with President and Mrs. Oxtoby and three other administrative staff members.  So we all gathered in the President’s house to have ourselves a lovely time.

The food was quite delicious, I have to say—especially the fresh not-available-at-the-dining-hall fruit and the baklava—but what makes this pretty special is the fact that this dinner can happen at all.  We are lucky we go to a small enough school where the President can host seniors in small batches for dinner, and that a past president of the college even began the tradition.

And as you may know or recall, this is just one of the yearly social things the President hosts for students.  Freshman year we all had a picnic dinner of sorts on the lawn outside the house, which is very nice of the President and his wife to host but a bit crazy because everyone is there at once.  Sophomore year is the ice cream social, and now we get wined and dined (literally) as seniors.  I suppose the juniors get left out.

So, all in all, tonight was very nice—as well as a chance to pretend we’re all grown up and sophisticated.  Even though I don’t know President Oxtoby very well, at least he and his wife take the time to socialize with the students over the years.  Pomona is pretty special.