Mirror - Vol. 16, No. 12 - December 12, 1991

              The
FairfieldMRRORV Volume 16, No. 12 Thursday, December 12,1991 Seasons Greetings
University Remembers
Aileen Thomann
Emily Okenquist
News Editor
"Dedicated, friendly, de-pendable."
These are among the
words friends used to describe
Aileen Thomann, '94, who passed
away in the early morning hours of
November 21, 1991 from health
problems resulting from Turner's
Syndrome, an illness characterized
by a missing chromosome.
With blond hair, blue eyes,
and a height ofonly 4 feet, 8 inches,
friends called Aileen the "Irish po-tato"
because of her proud Irish
heritage and love of French fries.
"We laughed because she
always ordered French fries in the
cafeteria," said Maria Montilla,
'94, one of Aileen's close friends.
Because of her small stature,
Aileen, a sophomore from Com-mack,
NY, often received good-natured
teasing from her friends,
but responded to them with quick,
sarcastic comebacks.
"Aileen loved sarcasm and
had a great sense of humor," said
VandelinaZubrzycki, '94, another
one of her close friends.
Those who knew Aileen best
- her floormates on Jogues II, the
people she spent time with in the
Loyola Singers, the Manor, and
the Fairfield Dramatics Society,
(FAIDRA), and her closest friends
- remember her as a competent
worker and an indispensable part
of each activity with which she
was involved.
"She was always there and
helped out a lot," said Misono
Endo, '94, a friend and floormate
of Aileen's who worked with her
on the Costume and Makeup
Committee for "Light Up The
Sky," a recent FAIDRA produc-tion.
"I always had a very good
time with her."
Aileen's love of music led
her to join the Loyola Singers, a
choral group which performs each
Sunday at the 7 p.m. Mass.
"Aileen was a nice addition
to our group and felt very comfort-able
with us," said Katie Kaspar,
'92, co-leader of the Loyola Sing-ers.
"She didn't stand out as a
leader, but was a quiet supporter."
As a freshman, Aileen also
became a member of the Manor
staff. "She was so dependable,"
said Fr. Jim Hayes, S.J., Assistant
University Chaplin and a Resident
Jesuit in Jogues Hall. "Everyone
really appreciated all the work she
did in FAIDRA and the yearbook."
Despite her illness, Aileen
never complained about it, not
wanting to bother her friends with
her problems or make them worry.
"She didn't want any special atten-tion
or sympathy," said Fr. Hayes.
For Aileen, dedication came
not only in the form of her many
activities, but also in the love for
her residence hall, Jogues II.
Christine Looby, '92, her Resident
Advisor, remembers Aileen as
being one who "always looked you
in the eyes and was always con-cerned
about others."
"She really enjoyed being
here," said Looby. "Aileen defi-nitely
seemed to find a niche in the
floor."
This sense of floor unity was
shown each Thursday evening as
she and the other girls gathered in
Looby's room to watch Aileen's
favorite television show, "Beverly
Hills, 90201." She also enjoyed
spending time with her friends in
Kostka Hall.
The morning of Aileen's
death, the Resident Advisors, Jesu-its,
and residents of Jogues Hall
gathered in the dorm to pray for
Aileen and console each other, as
other students and members of the
Security Department performed
CPR in attempts to revive her.
A Memorial Mass for Aileen
was celebrated that afternoon, and
numerous other masses, including
a special one in Jogues, occurred in
the days following her death, in
remembrance of a student who
brought so much to the University
community.
Said Fr. Hayes, "Aileen was
happy here and had many friends.
She really had a life at Fairfield."
Cultural Awareness Week
Promotes Ethnic Diversity
Debra De Shong
Assistant News Editor
"The mono-cultural ap-proach
to education is wrong, just
wrong," said Larri Mazon, direc-tor
of Minority Relations and Stu-dent
Academic Support Services.
Mazon and several student
groups continue to foster diversity
on campus through events such as
the recent Cultural Awareness
Week, with exhibits of food and
crafts from different ethnic groups
on campus. Those participating in-cluded
The Asian Students Asso-ciation,
the International Students
Club, the Spanish American and
Latino Student Association
(SALSA), and UMOJA, the Afri-can
American group.
Camille Banks, president of
UMOJA, said the activities were
designed to create awareness about
these cultures through different
food, clothing, and cultural dem-onstrations.
"Costumes, clothing, dance,
and song are things that are com-mon
to all cultures," said Mazon,
feeling that even ordinary things
can break down barriers. "Even
something as simple as eating; taste
is a commonality."
Each groups had one day to
set up their displays in the Campus
Center Lobby during lunchtime.
Events included a demon-stration
of Origami by the Asian
students, while UMOJA quizzed
students with their Black Trivia
Game and presented an African
Art display.
The International Students
Club entertained spectators with
Greek and Irish dancing, and
SALSA offered students the op-portunity
to have their picture taken
in a Mexican costume. These were
just a few of the many activities
comprising Cultural Awareness
Week, which ran from November
18-23.
By recognizing small dif-ferences,
people can enhance the
understanding that different is not
necessarily bad, but different and
good as opposed to different and
bad, said Mazon.
He feels that higher educa-tion
should be the forum for the
expression of these differences.
Students should take advantage of
(continued on p. 4)
Members of the Teleconference panel joined together to
discuss issues of racial and ethnic diversity on American
college campuses. photo: Jody Mcmullen
Christmastime:
Not Just Eggnogg
and Evergreens
Christina Hennessy
Editor-in-Chief
If one was to provide a
definition of Christmas from
merely watching the customs of
the modern culture, the idea of
Christmas would incorporate shop-ping,
the Claus clan, and eating.
Now shopping isn't nec-essarily
bad and the Clauses and
theirbandofmerry elves can proba-bly
really cut the rug when they
want to and no one can eat just one
Christmas cookie. But ever since
Christmas became more ofan event
than a celebration, the modern yule-tide
season has become farremoved
from the Christmases of yore.
December, after all, has
always been a time of festival, as
ancient peoples often celebrated
the winter solstice that signaled
the rebirth of the sun, signaling the
days would soon be warmer
The Romans, before
Christianity, used this time to cele-brate
peace and goodwill. Rome-was
the first to celebrate the birth
of Christ, beginning in the
middle oThe Roman
Saturnalia, which
also falls near De-cember
25, is a fes-tival
celebrated for
seven days, in
which all conven-tion
was thrown to
the wind and
people wanted to
bestow gifts upon
one another.
Granted, f
the Roman locals
didn't go down to the
local mall to pick up that
to-die-for new outfit to wrap
and stick a bow on it, but the mes-sage
behind this giving was that at
this time the negative qualities of
humans were siderailed by a more
generous nature.
Adefinition ofChristmas,
which includes shopping, then,
may not be that much off the mark.
This practice of shopping, though
heavily commercialized, continues
the sentiments of charity, peace
and goodwill to all creatures, fur-ther
tying in with the pre-Christian
and early Christian love and glori-fication
of nature.
Now, to find the origins
of that fellow who manages to get
down everybody's chimney in one
night, one must begin the search in
German traditions, in which Fa-ther
Christmas went around, albeit
not as merrily as Santa in his sleigh,
to hand out the toys. And accord-ing
to "A Book of Christmas," by
William Sansom, there is a "Prot-estant
angel figure ...Christkindl"
that is the gift-bearer.
In German traditions,
Father Christmas could be accom-panied
by an attendant who would
be responsible to punish the bad
boys and girls.
Santa is partly fabricated
from a real personnamed St. Nicho-las,
who was a bishop of Myra in
Asia in the fourth century. He has
been attributed as saving three boys
who were murdered by a butcher
and then cut up. He was able to
bring the boys back to life and thus
became known as a guardian and
protector of children.
The German Christ Child,
who was the gift-bringer, was
called the Christkindl in the United
States and thus Kriss Kringle was
born to American tradition, as the
name became verbally slurred.
There are other mystical
gift-bearers around the world, in-cluding
Kolyada, a girl who deliv-ered
gifts to the Russians in pre-revolutionary
days and the Father
Christmas ofSweden, Jultomten, a
gnomish character.
The popularization ofthis
figure, apparently occurred after
Thomas Nast, in Harper's Illus-trated
Weekly, drew a figure based
a poem about St. Nicholas.
This conception of
jolly ole' St. Nick, ac-cording
to Sansom,
was that "he is clad
from neck to toe in
what looks like a
combination suit
made of woolish
fur. He had a short
round hat...and he
is a smallish elfin
or gnome figure,
rotund, read-faced
and grotesque."
That is a far
call from the Santa that
stares at us from cards. This
Santa is a ripe, jolly, ole' soul
who apparently eats quite well.
And why does he have so
much to eat? Christmas not only is
the season of giving, but it is the
season of eating - and eating lots.
The Christmas feast is
from centuries offeasting, in which
food and drink flowed freely.
Christmas pudding is very
entrenched in ritual as it has its
origins way back in the Saturnalia
celebration. The wassail bowl had
a hot beer mulled with apples. This
drink was passed around in home
celebrations to incorporate the
feeling of good cheer.
While roasted pig was a
main course in old feasts, Christ-mas
dinner still tends to hit the
grand scale as families rely on a
bounteous spread to welcome
family and friends alike during the
holiday season.
Christmas, then, while
highly commercialized and rather
rushed, due to our fast paced envi-ronment,
has as its backdrop a very
deep and rich tradition that places
the elements of charity, goodwill
and peace to a darkened world.
Happy Holidays