description:
December 13,1961 THE SKYSCRAPER Page Five Visit to Vets Hospital Discloses Unique Utopia by Gail Grundman As I stood with 20 other girls lis tening to the Director of Recrea tional Activities, I wondered what on earth I had been thinking when I signed up for this party at the veterans' hospital. It had sounded like a good idea helping enter tain some patients especially since my class schedule was light that week. The patients belonged to the psy chiatric ward and were to be re leased soon. The parties were planned to give the men opportuni ties to readjust themselves to social situations. AS THE DIRECTOR continued reading two mimeographed instruc tion sheets, I began to panic. Charity was fine, but I wasn't pre pared for this. We were not sup posed to talk about anything con troversial, especially religion or politics. We were asked to encour age the patients to dance the slow dances if they preferred the fast, and the fast if they preferred the slow. Since many patients would feel unsure of themselves, we were to ask the patients to dance, and told not to be distressed if they refused us, since many had come only to watch. If we lent matches, we had to re claim them they were not per- Contest Opens For Bookworms Seniors who have personal librar ies of 35 books or more are eligible for a 1,000 prize in a national con test while all students may enter a local contest for a 10 certificate to the bookstore for each class. Sister Mary Clara, B.V.M., local chairman, announced that the sen ior who wins the local contest will be nominated for the Amy Loveman National Award. Nominees must present an anno tated list of a minimum of 35 books now in their personal libraries (freshmen may submit less). In ad dition the nominee wll be asked to indicate her avocations, why she started her library, her ideal of a complete home library and the next ten books she plans to add to her collection. Entries must be submitted at the library by Jan. 23, 6 p.m. The Amy Loveman National Award was established by the Women's National Book Associa tion in cooperation with the Book- of-the-Month Club and the Satur day Review. It is intended to honor the memory of Amy Loveman who was associate editor of the Satur day Review, a Book-of-the-Month Club judge, a member of the Wom en's National Book Association and winner of its Constance Lindsay Skinner Award. Aid Shook Seniors To soothe those shook seniors who are panicking over compre hensives in February, the English department has diagnosed a tran quilizer composed of a variety of weekly one-hour lectures. The talks, including outside reading material covered through out the English majors' four years of study, are intended to be a help ful guideline for the test. The subject matter covers topics from Piers Plowman Restoration Comedy. mitted in the closed wards. And finally, although the men had been addressed earlier and would proba bly be perfect gentlemen, if we had any problems we felt incapable of handling, we could signal one of the white-jacketed attendants posted near the door. This final instruc tion convinced me that I wanted to go home. There were other ways to be charitable. I would try something else anything else. HOWEVER there was no easy way out of the situation, so with the other girls I walked to the party room. On the way we met several nurses. They gave us some additional hints on conversation and told us how they really enjoyed these dances. By then I had decided to make the best of the situation, so I grate fully accepted the suggestions. But their comment had seemed strange, because up till then I had not con sidered having a good time myself. Now, two years later, I can say I never enjoyed myself more at any party or mixer. Because of the limited topics of conversation, I spoke only of the World Series games to the first ten men I met that night. Later con versation was easier and I found a larger number of non-controversial topics. One thing that struck me imme diately was that these men seemed completely normal. The ages ranged from 20 to 60, and they talked of everything from music and opera to science and architec ture. They were all quite pleased when we complimented them on the beautiful grounds or the good or chestra. SOMETHING ELSE impressed me far more; in fact I wish more normal people could act like these men. There was no racial prejudice among them and those who were handicapped were accepted as equals. These two facts made it tremendously easy to mix and to have a good time. To anyone who has ever attended a large mixer and has run into a type of so-you're-here-so-what atti tude, one other thing would be quite impressive. It was the way every one did everything possible to make sure you were having a good time. One incident illustrates my point. I was dancing with a young blind boy and when I learned that this was the first of these dances he had attended, I asked how he liked it. I was a little surprised when he told me he felt uncomfortable and wanted to go back to his room. I told him I was sorry he wasn't enjoying himself because I was having a good time. Instantly, his whole manner changed. He apolo gized and told me he would try to have fun so I could enjoy myself. This was something I could never imagine happening at any other party. LATER that night on the bus ride home all of us were enthusias tic. We had received far more than we had given. By being placed in situations that were often strange to us, we had to bring out a facet of our personality that we didn't even know we possessed. There was only one regret, and that was with the world outside of the hospital. It had not yet real ized the Utopia those men had at tained when they left their preju dices and personal interests outside the gates and concentrated on help ing each other. FRENCH MAJORS PROMOTE German film??? Sister Mary St. Irene, head of the foreign film series, utilizes her French students to advertise Question 7. From (I. to r.) are Mary Ann Hart, Carol Rembis, Mary Fran Hoffman and Carol DeCoster. German Movie Provides Holiday Entertainment by Mary Lu Franzman ter, will be shown every two hours, Sunday through Thursday from 10 a.m.-lO p.m. and Friday and Satur day from 9 a.m.-ll p.m. In a society where the very cli mate of life is hostile to Christian values, Peter, the son of a Lutheran minister, is torn between the god less pressures of the propaganda state and the teachings of his per secuted church. The result of this division is a daily duel of conscience vs. Com munism which is climaxed when a seven-item Communist question naire designed to separate the po litical sheep from the goats, is given to the boy. The picture achieves its highest excellence here through its exposi tion of character weakness and the temptation of a compromise of con victions which may impel the boy to act contrary to his basic beliefs and conform to the will of the majority. The movie, produced by Louis De Rochemant Associates, was commissioned and financed by the Lutheran Churches of North America and has earned the high praise of other denominations and faiths. Among the supporters are the Adult Education Centers, the Kiwanis and Lions International Clubs and the Catholic School Board. During the Christmas holidays, thinking Chicagoans will have an opportunity to witness a new kind of motion picture, the documen tary feature, when Question 7, a truthful reflection of the struggle between Communism and Christi anity in East Germany is featured at the Loop Theater. A highly dramatic story was dis covered in Germany symbolic of the conditions in any country where people of faith are subjected to the pressures of a totalitarian, atheistic society. Case histories of those who had come to West Berlin and interviews with those in East Berlin provided the factual background for the script, while the story portion was vitalized in the person of a young German Christian. To encourage the broad attend ance of Mundelein students, A Committee for Question 7 is now being organized by Sister Mary St. Irene, sponsor of the foreign 'film forum. Co-chairmen are Carol Rembis and Judy Grevan who will be assisted by Marianne Hare and Sharon Cody. These girls will handle advance- sale tickets that will allow a sav ings in admission. The picture, starting Dec. 25 at the loop thea- More About Who's Who or graduate school in economics. ADRIENNE LUBANSKI, junior class secretary, is a chemistry ma jor. Styling herself as the class fanatic Adrienne has served for two years on the Academic Matters Committee and plans chemical re search or college teaching. MARY JO MURRAY is an Eng lish major who spends much of her time as feature editor of the Sky scraper. She plans to teach in high school after graduate school prepa ration. Mary Jo is a member of the Big Sisters and the Press Club. VIRGINIA ZVONKOVICH is an honor student in the physics de partment. A member of the Rus sian Club, Virginia plans graduate work in science. The students recognized by this organization each year are nomi nated from approximately 750 col leges and universities. The mem bers are awarded a certificate of recognition and their membership entitles them to use of a placement or reference service to assist them in seeking employment or scholar ships. Mundelein's candidates were ini tially decided by a vote of their classmates. Those on the ballot all maintained a B average. A special student-faculty com- mittte commissioned to select the final candidates from the balloting seconded those who had received the most votes on the initial ballot. The names were then forwarded to the National Committee which ac cepted all of the school's candi dates. Although the directory has been published since 1934, this is the first time Mundelein has partici pated in this annual selection. Students Load Santa's Sleigh Clubs spread good will during holiday season through helping the needy. Contribution For their annual Christmas proj ect, the sodalists will contribute money which will be sent to Ann Moran, last year's prefect, who is now working as a Papal Volunteer in Mexico. The money will be used for the needs of the school at which she is teaching. Little Brothers of the Poor The French Club will help the Little Brothers of the Poor prepare for their annual Christmas party. Members will aid in decorating the Christmas tree, wrapping gifts and distributing them to the poor old people of Chicago. Party Forty freshman and sophomore girls from Angel Guardian Orphan age will be special guests of the Home Economics, Chemistry and Math Clubs for their annual Christ mas party today at 4 p.m. in the Gym. Santa Claus, invited by the chemists of Phi Theta Nu, will dis tribute gifts and lead the caroling and games. Alpha Omicron's future home- makers made corsages, cakes and cookies. The mathematicians decorated the Christmas tree and gym. Fund Drive For their Christmas project, the German Club will begin a fund to help a priest in Germany. Con tributions are to come from the members. Entertainment The Laetare Players' Christmas calendar this year includes new clothes for a needy teenage girl, and entertainment for orphaned teens and aged people. A needy teenage girl will be com pletely outfitted. * Each member will be asked to donate 1. Joan Robinson will collect the money. Jackie Hughes and Alice Rasile wicz are in charge of the enter tainment for the orphaned teens and aged people. Dolls The Economics Club has 21 dolls on display in Room 505. Following their annual pattern, the club is col lecting various types of dolls from alumnae as their Christmas project. After being displayed here, the dolls will be given to the children of St. Agatha's school. Peace Corps Lack of space has postponed the publication of Virginia Pie- cuch's concluding article on the Peace Corps. It will appear in the next issue of the Skyscraper. Meantime, the first documen tary television presentation on the corps in the field will be shown Dec. 15 over all NBC sta tions at 8:30 p.m. SISTER MARY ANN IDA, B.V.M., Mundelein president, and Ann Moran '60, listen to Most Reverend Michael McGrath, Auxiliary Bishop of Panama (left) and Most Reverend Bernardine Rivera, Archbishop of Chile. Ann, a Papal Volunteer home on leave, attended the National Conference of Lay Missioners at Mundelein Nov. 24-25.
title:
1961-12-13 (5)
publisher:
Women and Leadership Archives http://www.luc.edu/wla
creator:
Mundelein College
description:
Student newspaper for Mundelein College
subject:
Newspapers
subject:
Religious communities--Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary
subject:
Students
subject:
Universities and colleges
subject:
Women's education
relation:
Mundelein College Records
type:
Text
language:
English
rights:
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coverage:
Chicago, Illinois
coverage:
Mundelein College