Issue 21

observer the

volume xliv, issue 21

friday, 03/01/13

BrainGate

Last May, news broke that the world was speeding into the realm of science fiction. Cathy Hutchinson, a woman left paralyzed in all four limbs due to a stroke, was able to drink a bottle of coffee using a robotic arm simply by imagining the action. Directed solely by

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Hutchinson’s thoughts, the robot gave Hutchinson the ability to control her environment without a caretaker’s assistance for the first time in 15 years. Taking that independent sip, the then 58-year-old cracked a smile.

This was the work of BrainGate2 Neural Interface System scientists, whose research aims to develop technology to restore com-

munication ability, mobility, and independence to people suffering from neurological disease, injury, or limb loss.

Seven years ago, Case Western Reserve University’s own Robert Kirsch began working with the BrainGate2 team, comprised of scientists from Brown University and Massachusetts General Hospital. Now, Kirsch is bringing a trial

A baby-aspirin sized array of electrodes is implanted under the scalp into the motor cortex to detect brain activity.

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A person can be trained to use the system to type.

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Brain signals are recorded as the individual imagines movement.

The computer translates these signals into moving a cursor around a screen.

The training pays

off, and the indiHow to move vidual is able to lift an object. a robotic arm 6 merely through thought images courtesy

angeline xiong

5 The next step adds the third dimension. A robotic arm is hooked up to the computer system, and allows the individual to actually move the arm through physical space.

information courtesy damien scogin

eline study home to Cleveland.

While the BrainGate2 study as a whole revolves around general body-brain interface, the Cleveland trials specifically aim to recreate results more like Hutchinson’s. Kirsch, chair of the biomedical engineering department at CWRU, explained his team’s research goals.

“Our specific twist on this is that we’re primarily focused on restoring arm and hand functions to people,” he said.

“We’re really interested in helping restore movement.” As such, Kirsch’s team is working mainly with people suffering from spinal cord injuries.

CWRU was an obvious place for BrainGate2 scientists to put a new clinical trial site focusing on movement restoration. It was in Cleveland, after all, that Hunter Peckham initially pioneered functional electrical stimulation (FES), technology that has since allowed researchers like Kirsch to make paralyzed limbs move again with electrical impulses.

Kirsch wanted to take all that he had accomplished with FES to new heights, and BrainGate2 technol-

see BRAINGATE | 5

Campus experts debate gun control, concealed carry >>mikeMCKENNA asst.newsEDITOR<< >>suneilKAMATH

civic.engagement REPORTER<< In the wake of the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary, gun control has been of utmost debate in the country. Proponents of additional control say that further regulation would help curb gun violence while critics argue that taking away an individual’s ability to protect themselves would in fact make society more dangerous.

This Wednesday, the discussion took a personal turn with Share the Vision and The Observer hosting a debate on the subject called “Guns, Our Community and Safety”.

Dr. Mark Singer, co-director for the Center of Substance Abuse and Mental Illness, Arthur Hardee, Chief of CWRU Police and director of Security for CWRU, and Rylan Pyciak, President of

Spartans for Concealed Carry, presented their opinions on gun regulation and concealed carry on college campuses to a crowd of students in the 1914 lounge of Thwing.

Singer and Hardee primarily were against concealed carry and were for tighter gun regulation, drawing from their work in their respective backgrounds, with Pyciak, who was raised in small town in Ohio and says he received his first gun at three years old, taking the opposition.

In his opening statements, Singer emphasized carrying a gun responsibly requires more training than current conceal and carried regulations, and that having a gun in one’s home increases a person’s chance of being a victim of gun violence.

Hardee agreed with Singer’s sentiment.

“I don’t believe in guns on campus because it would send a very bad message to the community,” Hardee said. “The community and CWRU should collabo-

court esy a ng

>>brydenSPEVAK senior.newsREPORTER<<

xiong

Researchers make science fiction reality with brain controlled prosthetics

Case Juggling Club to host Juggling Spectacular tonight and tomorrow in Thwing see A&E, pg. 8

This weeks editor’s note: CWRU must better promote counseling services see Opinion, pg. 10

shannon snyder / observer Campus police chief speaks during this past Wednesday’s “Guns, Our Community and Safety” debate hosted by Share The Vision and The Observer. rate more, so we can maintain and increase safety.”

Due to the fact that the rest of Ohio is concealed carried, Pyciak thought that the University should follow suit.

The panelists then touched on a variety of related issues, including how much defense a gun actually provides, the potential divide between gun carrying and noncarrying students, and how binge drinking or other reckless behavior could impact gun safety.

A majority of audience questions seemed to take Pyciak’s

view, addressing Singer’s and Hardee’s stance that guns do more harm than the safety they provide.

Kurtis Jensen, a Class of 2012 alum who works at University Hospitals, was one of the audience members who agreed with Pyciak.

“It would be a good thing for a small percentage of people to hold guns on campus,” said Jensen. “It would serve as a deterrent for people wanting to commit crimes on campus. If they couldn’t tell who did or did not have a gun, they wouldn’t want to risk it.”

Heartbreaking loss in overtime keeps men’s basketball from winning season see Sports, pg. 15

index 1 news 6 A&E 9 fun page 10 opinion 16 sports

news

03/01/13

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Case School of Engineering hosts E-Week featuring civil engineering department

>>staffREPORTS

After a week of events, the engineering department of Case Western Reserve University completed Engineers Week last Friday after the E-Week banquet, which was held at the Marriott Key Bank Center in downtown Cleveland. The event had a record-breaking attendance with over 600 students, faculty members, alumni, and event sponsors.

The theme of this year’s E-Week celebration was Past, Present & Future, emphasizing the changes for the engineering profession over time and commemorating the 130th anniversary of the civil engineering department.

Elizabeth Lehman, the senior chemical engineering major that took the lead in orchestrating the events, commented, “E-Week isn’t a week-long engineering panel discussion. We had peer advising for freshmen, events for high school students, a trivia night, an interdepartmental “minute to win it” style competition, and the banquet. It really is more of a celebratory recognition of the cool things and people found in engineering.” Other events that occurred over the week included a networking event with Alcoa, an Engineering Challenges Carnival, and the Departmental Decathlon.

mel sayre / observer The E-Week banquet last Thursday was attended by faculty, undergraduate and graduate students, alumni and event sponsors. It had a record-breaking attendance of over 600 people.

According to the civil engineering department, the main goal of E-Week is to celebrate achievements made by of those in the profession and to emphasize the positive impacts that engineering has on society. Assistant professor of civil engineering, Michael Pollino, commented, “I believe it is an exciting time for the civil engineering profession as the U.S. faces major challenges to maintain and enhance the infrastructure that serves society.”

Sponsors for the event included consult-

ing firm Accenture, national paint company Sherwin Williams, and power management company Eaton, who all sent representatives to the banquet.

Two alumni were presented with the Lifetime Service Award at the event, an award presented yearly to engineering alumni during E-Week. This year, Fran Gerace, who served on the Richard ’39 and Opal Vanderhoof Infrastructure Research and Education Facility committee, and Phillip W. Gutmann, the former president

of the Case Alumni Association, were presented the award.

Professor and chair of the civil engineering department, David Zeng, talked about future opportunities for E-Week by saying, “We can get more high school students on campus to show them that engineering is a cool career to get into.” Pollino also added that, “[E-Week] provides opportunities to engage CWRU students outside of the classroom and Cleveland area schools to learn about engineering.”

Chinese Students and Scholar Association hosts Lantern Festival Banquet >>shinichiINOUE asst.sportsEDITOR<<

On Sunday night, Feb. 24, the Chinese Students and Scholar Association (CSSA) hosted their annual Lantern Festival Banquet to celebrate the arrival of the Year of the Snake. The night was filled with traditional Chinese festival celebrations and a combination of performances by Case Western Reserve University students. Every year around the time of the Chinese Lunar New Year, CSSA welcomes the new year along with showcasing Chinese cultures to the CWRU community.

“We understand for many of our international Chinese students this is the first time they weren’t able to celebrate the Lunar New Year with their family, and it’s our goal as CSSA to provide that festive, family-like atmosphere for the students,” said Qiong Wu, the current President of CSSA. The preparation for the big event began months ago with the initial auditions and host selection. Undergraduate and graduate students put all of their talents on the line and auditioned for a chance to be one of the ten performances for the night.

Han Hui Ren, the Treasure of CSSA, spoke of the preparation. “This year, we explored all the possible options that we thought would make the event one of the best we have ever had. We went through various candidates to find the right performances that would both entertain the guests and make the night memorable.” The series of performances included a mix of traditional Chinese music and some English hip pop songs.

After a month of auditions, it came down to the final preparation for the event itself.

At 6:00 p.m. on Feb. 17, which led into the late hours of the night, over 50 club members helped prepare for the rehearsal. Then on Saturday, mere hours before the doors opened to the guests, volunteers and CSSA members worked tirelessly to setup and finish the last rehearsal run. Han Hui noted, “I was amazed

at the dedication shown by our club members.

These students took the time out of their hectic schedule to come and help make the event as successful as it was. I just want to thank them for their efforts.”

A major change this year was having four hosts on stage. Unlike traditional events where there are only one host and a hostess; CSSA brought in a two pairs of host and hostess – allowing more conversation and liveliness between the presenters. One of the hostesses was Bowen He, a third year political science and German double major.

She spoke well of the experience. “I haven’t done any hosting for quite a few years since I graduated from high school, so I was a little bit nervous before rehearsal. However, once I actually got on the stage, faced a room full of 350 people, the nervousness was gone. Once I regain my confidence, I think I did a pretty good job.” The witty and sometimes quirky exchanges between the hosts and hostesses brought laughter to the audience throughout the night and kept the excitement of the event going.

The event kicked off at 5:30 p.m. with various Chinese exhibitions in the Thwing Center Atrium. The guests had the opportunity to paint their own Chinese lanterns and practice their calligraphy skills. The Thwing Ballroom doors opened at 6:00 p.m. as guests began flocking into the place. For an hour, they had the chance to interact with friends, classmates, and other guests while enjoying some traditional Chinese Lantern Festival cuisines. Qiong said, “We want our guests to enjoy the dinner as if they were having Thanksgiving dinner at home. We were hoping that during the meal, the guests would be able to interact and converse with their friends and classmates, and simply just get away from the busy academic life at CWRU. The dinner also helped create a home-like atmosphere for everyone.”

The performances throughout the night included a showcase of various musical tal-

courtesy cssa Members of the Chinese Students and Scholar Association serve food at their event last Sunday.

ents such as a guitar solo of Maroon 5’s “Payphone” and the rap verses of Eminem’s “Love the Way You Lie.” The dance performance

by CWRU’s “Girl’s Generation” was another highlight of the night.

London Holt, one of the four performers of the act “Cross-Talk: Three and a Half,” said, “I really enjoyed performing because I could see how enjoyable it was for everyone. I know the lantern festival and the event were both very important from a cultural standpoint so me performing was just adding to the amazingness of the wonderful gathering. Our performance, as I performed with others, was pure fun. Nothing more, nothing less. And I will never forget that day.”

In the middle of the performances, CSSA took time to reward their guests with the first of two raffle drawings. “We want to give back to our guests. We want our guests to walk away with memorable night and, for some lucky few, maybe a prize or two,” Qiong added. The lucky guests were able to walk away with some great gifts, but the main prize of the

night – a roundtrip ticket to San Francisco was still waiting to find its new owner.

The night ended with the final prize drawing and a performance by the entire CSSA executive board and staff, including Qiong dancing to Gangnam Style. When asked about the entire event, Qiong said, “Overall, it was a wonderful experience. Not only are we celebrating the Year of the Snake, we also wanted the Chinese students here at CWRU to feel at home and give our American classmates a glimpse into the Chinese cultures and traditions.” Han Hui added, “I think what CSSA has done tonight truly exemplifies the diverse and rich cultures we are so blessed to have at CWRU. We as students are not only here to study various subjects, but we are also here to understand, explore, and enjoy the different aspects of this world that we often miss when we submerge ourselves in our academic careers. I am really glad that CWRU has put so much emphasis on diversity of cultures and it truly showed here tonight.”

observer.case.edu

news

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Joyce Watson brings sunshine on gloomy days at Seidman >>alexisPARISI senior.newsREPORTER<<

On a crisp day, a brown Mercury Milan pulls up to the Jane and Lee Seidman Cancer Center. The passenger struggles to open her door. She walks slowly past a line of three empty wheel chairs, and into the main lobby where valet cashier Joyce Watson greets her with understanding and a smile.

“I love my job,“ Joyce Watson says, “it’s not the pay, it’s not the people I work with; it’s the people I meet.” Watson sits in her corner booth wearing a white button-up, ladies tie, and black slacks. She is always in uniform. Copper highlights lace through her hair, neatly twisted into small braids that are pulled back into a bun. She wears long acrylic nails designed with copper and orange swirls.

Watson reaches into a drawer in her office in search of a prized possession: a carefully written card from Tammy, a past Seidman Center patient. The card held Watson’s favorite line: You brought me sunshine on gloomy days. Tammy and Watson would often smile and laugh together. Then the doctors told Tammy that treatment options had run out. Watson told her, “Now it’s God’s turn,” as Tammy laid on her and cried. Remembering that day, Watson says, “I believe that we are all positioned on this earth for a reason, and, I just kinda figured that my reason is to help people in Seidman Center.”

Cancer and adversity are not unfamiliar to Joyce Watson. On Feb. 14, 2010, her sister died of cancer. Eight months later, her brother passed away unexpectedly at age 40. And just one month ago she admitted

her father to a nursing home. Her mother suffers from Alzheimer’s disease. No known cure exists. She even raised seven children by herself as a young mother because she says her husband was too addicted to drugs to help.

Yet her work attendance record and positive attitude exceed the expectations of her employers. Diplomas line her mantelpiece, grandchildren warm her heart, and her skin is practically free of wrinkles.

She smiles despite the hardship. Reflecting on her Pentecostal upbringing, she says, “It’s okay though, you know what I’m saying? I’m okay with this; I really am okay with this. It’s not me, God is doing this.”

Watson has been in the Seidman Center since it opened on Jun. 5, 2011. In previous years, she held various jobs that often go overlooked. She started out in a booth at lot 13 A, then moved to Lot 55, then to the cash register at Lerner Tower. She says she is grateful for the opportunity to work with cancer patients now. Her experiences help her recognize their hardships.

“I know I’m not kin to everybody. We don’t have the blood that connects us, but we have human being that connects us. Because we’re human beings, how could you turn your back on somebody who really needs you, who really lashes out…”

“When you’re sick there is no color,” she says, “There is no racism when you’re sick.”

Each day, Watson asks herself whether she has helped somebody, whether she has encourages somebody, whether she has thanked somebody. She says she learns from the people she meets.

Among the lessons Watson learns each

anqi li / observer The Seidman Cancer Center is University Hospitals cancer hospital which opened in the summer of 2011. day, she says she never forgets the advice of her father: “Never believe everything you see, memorize it. And, if you see it again, recognize it.” She memorized her sister’s struggle with cancer and the emotions that came along with it. As cancer patients enter the hospital, she recognizes

their struggle and understands.

Each day, Watson smiles at patients as they walk into the metallic and modern lobby of the cancer center. Each day, patients walk into the lobby asking Watson how much to pay, and many of them walk out asking her to pray.

news

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03/01/13

Outside the Circle News >>sarahGROFT national.newsREPORTER<<

Thirty injured in NASCAR incident Thirty people were injured at a secondtier NASCAR series race last Saturday. On the last lap of the DRIVE4COPD 300, a crash sent debris through a safety fence and into the grandstand. 14 civilians were sent to a local hospital by ambulance and 14 individuals were treated at the race track.

Among the injured was a 14-year-old boy who was sent to the hospital in critical condition and a man with a life-threatening head injury.

The crashed vehicle belonged to Kyle Larson. During the last lap, his vehicle broke apart, causing other cars to swerve

out of control. The crash occurred when Regan Smith, another driver, tried to block a competing driver, who ended up hitting another car. Smith took complete blame for the accident and said he hopes that everyone involved would be okay. The crash caused Larson’s car to become airborne, where the engine ripped out. Larson sustained no serious injuries.

Steve O’Donnell, vice president of race operations for NASCAR said that the ripped fencing would be replaced and that NASCAR would be looking into the incident carefully.

Traces of horse meat found in IKEA meatballs About a month ago, an Ireland factory admitted to finding small amounts of equine DNA in the beef patties that they were exporting to the United Kingdom.

Now, inspectors from the Czech Republic have announced that horse meat has also been found in the frozen meatballs that are made for the furniture company, IKEA. According to USA Today, Tiva Magnusson, IKEA spokeswoman, said that all meatballs have been removed from shelves in Slovakia, Hungary, France, Britain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Greece, Cyprus, and Ireland.

Magnusson also said that the shipments of IKEA meatballs to the United States were not affected by this discovery. “Our global recommendation is to not recall or stop selling meatballs,” she said.

Finding the source of the horse meat has been difficult for authorities. Since this discovery, horse meat has been found on pizza in Denmark, and in products from Nestle and Birds Eye. One of the first incidences of horse meat occurred in Findus, a European firm that made a beef lasagna that was found to contain between 60 and 100 percent horse meat. However, Findus’ meat suppliers

form a complex chain, so it was difficult to pinpoint the direct source.

From previous investigations, it was found that the horse meat was relabeled as beef when it left CarmOlimp, a company in Romania. The company stated that they indicated clearly that their meat was labeled “horse” and they have denied any involvement with the switch. Evidently this horse meat was combined with cow meat somewhere around Breda in the Netherlands.

This meat then went to Spanghero, a company near the Spain border. There it was checked in as Romanian horse meat, but checked out as European Union beef. The company’s chief executive said, “I don’t apologize because I don’t feel responsible.

I think the responsibility lies elsewhere.”

In an e-mail, Marion Nestle, a food studies professor at New York University, said, “We [the United States] get meat from lots of countries. One United States Department of Agriculture study said that a single pound of hamburger meat might come from 400 different cows.” Nestle continued saying, “If there was a lot of horse meat around, it could easily get mixed in, and nobody would notice if nobody checked.”

Jet fleet grounded An entire fleet of 51 F-35 fighter jets were grounded on Friday after one was discovered to have a cracked engine blade.

The Pentagon said that the crack was discovered at Edwards Air Force Base in California during a routine inspection of an F35A, an air force version of the fighter jet.

According to BBC News, the F-35 fighter jet is the Pentagon’s most expensive weapon, costing nearly $400 billion.

The Pentagon said that a full investigation into the cause of the crack will occur, but until then, all flight operations would be suspended. This announcement was the second in the past two months that grounded jets from the F-35 range. The first announcement occurred in January when the Marine Corps version of the jet, the F-35B, had a manufacturing defect that caused the fuel line to detach right before taking off.

Uranium discovered in Iran Iran announced last week that enough raw uranium was found last week to power 16 nuclear power stations. The Iran Atomic Energy Organization report indicated that the deposits were found in southern coastal areas. Until this discovery, Western experts had thought that Iran was close to exhausting its raw uranium supply.

Although the exact locations of the 16 proposed nuclear plants are unknown, the

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state news agency, IRNA, stated that the areas included coastal areas such as the Gulf, Sea of Oman, Khuzestan, and the Caspian Sea. According to diplomats, the United States and its allies are prepared to offer Iran some easing of sanctions in exchange for Iran agreeing to restrict its production of higher grade enriched uranium. This request stems from the idea that Tehran intends to develop nuclear weapons capabilities.

>>police blotter

02/19 to 02/27

Feb. 22 - Unattended cell phone taken, theft, Leutner Commons Feb. 22 - Unattended laptop taken, theft, Peter B Lewis building Feb. 25 - Bicycle taken off porch, Bicycle theft, Hessler Road Feb. 27 - Parking sign stolen, theft, Triangle building Feb. 27 - Maintenance items taken, theft, Lot 46 garage

Rosa Parks statue constructed in the United States capital This week, a statue of Rosa Parks was placed in the United States Capital. Parks, an African-American Civil Rights activist, made history in 1955 when she resisted bus segregation and was arrested for refusing to yield her seat to a white passenger. Her actions became an important symbol in the civil rights movement.

Parks’ statue was the first full-sized statue of an African American in the Capital, which holds over 180 statues. Among them are busts of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Sojourner Truth. Frederick Douglas is expected to be added soon.

When asked how he felt about the statue, House Speaker John A. Boehner said, “It’s another breakthrough for someone who has made so many of them possible.”

Representative John Conyers Jr., a democrat from Michigan, employed Parks for

a period of time. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, he said, “As humble as she was, she would be overwhelmed by the fact that there would be a statue in Statuary Hall in her honor.”

The statue was sculpted by Eugene Daub and his partner Rob Firmin. It was made out of bronze and sat on a pedestal of black granite. When erected, it stood almost nine feet tall and weighed approximately 2700 pounds. The statue was authorized in 2005 shortly after Park’s death. When she died, Parks became the first woman to be buried in the Capitol rotunda. Additionally, in 1999 Parks was given the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest award that Congress can present. This month, the United States Postal Service issued a Rosa Parks “forever” stamp in honor of what would have been her 100th birthday.

Breast cancer drug approved The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a new drug on Friday that has shown to be effective in the battle against breast cancer. Kadcyla is a combination of a well-known breast cancer medicine called Herceptin with a powerful toxin that will theoretically reduce side effect while increasing the drugs’ ability to kill cancer cells.

The drug went through extensive clinical trials and was shown to extend the survival time of women with advanced breast cancer by almost six months. The company that developed the drug, Genentech, estimated the cost

at about $9800 per month, which would add up to about $94,000 for one round of treatment. Although this cost is about two times higher than that of plain Herceptin, the cost is equivalent to some of the more recent breast cancer drugs on the market.

Kadcyla focuses on the 20 percent of patients that suffer from HER2-positive breast cancer. The possible reduction in side effects occurs because the toxin in the medication does not activate until it reaches the tumor. However, the drug could lead to liver toxicity, heart toxicity, and possibly death.

observer.case.edu

news

Students to be offered free online courses >>brianSHERMAN staffREPORTER<<

Beginning this May, students at Case Western Reserve University will be offered access to hundreds of new classes.

What are these additional courses going to cost students? Nothing. Through a partnership with Cousera.org, an online classoffering platform, CWRU will be providing its students access to massive open online courses, often known as MOOCs. To bring MOOCs to campus, CWRU is joining with 28 other institutions, including 16 from outside the United States, to partner with the online organization. Launched less than a year ago, the company has attracted 2.7 million students to courses covering subjects from calculus and human physiology to business strategy and songwriting.

MOOCs at CWRU will be developed by faculty members and can be a version of an existing course or an entirely new one. Additionally, the courses may be a traditional 14-week course or

as short as four weeks, and they can be taught individually or with another faculty member.

CWRU has already seen an interest in MOOCs from the faculty. Michael Scharf and Richard Boyatzis will teach CWRU’s first MOOCs, Introduction to International Criminal Law and Inspiring Leadership through Emotional Intelligence, respectively.

Michael Scharf, associate dean for Global Legal Studies at the School of Law, and Richard Boyatzis, professor of organizational behavior at the Weatherhead School of Management, are well known on campus for their dynamic, engaging teaching style. They also stand as leading minds in their fields. This fall, for example, 11,000 human resource directors worldwide named Boyatzis one of management’s top 10 most influential thinkers. Scharf, meanwhile, is managing director of the Public International Law and Policy Group, a Nobel Peace Prize-nominated non-governmental organization.

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from BRAINGATE | 1 ogy has allowed him to do just that.

“The direct motivation for this was that we can stimulate muscles and cause [the person’s] arms to move, but we have to give them some reasonably natural way to control that,” he described, divulging his thought process. “We’ve tried a lot of different things, and they’re awkward and unnatural. Our hope is that if we can tap into the person’s thoughts about moving their arms, we can make it very seamless for them, and more effective.”

Replicating amazing stories like Hutchinson’s is not on the immediate horizon, however. Kirsch’s team, composed of Benjamin Walter, MD, Jonathan Miller, MD, assistant professors at CWRU Medical School, and Bolu Ajiboye, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, must first work to overcome the obstacles set by the Food and Drug Administration. In other words, before they can make this technology available to the wider population, they have to convince the FDA that the procedures involved are safe and can feasibly work.

“We have to be very careful that when we recruit people [for the study]. We’re not making promises to them,” said Kirsch.

“This is very much an experimental, exploratory study. We hope that in the future this will lead to benefit for them, but right now we can’t promise that.”

The Cleveland BrainGate2 team is currently looking for people to include in the trials. Besides the obvious requirement that participants have one or more paralyzed limbs, Kirsch has more qualifications in mind for those interested.

“They have to have a stable environment,” he explained. “We actually go to their place of residence to do all the experiments.

We’re kind of invasive in their house; that sometimes is okay and sometimes not.”

In addition, he stipulated, “They have to

5

be healthy otherwise, and have to have good support.”

After consenting to help in the research, participants can expect a physical transformation of sorts to take place. A small incision in the scalp allows surgeons to drill a hole into the skull and place a baby aspirin-sized array of 96 electrodes into the outer layers of the brain. Another piece of equipment is inserted in the skull that connects the inner electrodes to the outside of the body, allowing scientists to essentially “plug” the patients into computers. The electrodes are then able to communicate with a brain-computer interface system and record surface-level neuronal activity associated with a desire to move a limb.

The eerie, aesthetically unappealing result—a plugged-in human—is one that Kirsch acknowledges needs to be altered before the technology can actually be implemented on a larger scale.

“Sometimes the connector gets irritated,” Kirsch admitted, revealing one reason to switch the device to wireless.

Once the simple neurosurgery is complete, participants will meet with the research team several times over a 13-month period or longer. At these meetings, the paralyzed individuals will be asked to imagine using their immovable limb to do basic tasks, while the scientists record the signals given off by certain areas of the brain. For those participants who have been paralyzed for a significantly long period of time, this may be very difficult.

“There’s a chance that the brain forgets how to control arm movement,” Kirsch explained.

But once the initial safety and feasibility testing is complete, and the associated hiccups and road bumps have been addressed, the outlook for BrainGate2 research is bright.

“We’re very confident,” said Kirsch.

“This kind of work could lead to many other applications.”

Page 6

arts & entertainment 03/01/13

Spring Slam brings poetry to CWRU

courtesy sarah jawhari

>>anneNICKOLOFF courage all writers to read anything they musicREPORTER<< want, as long as it’s within five min-

Enthusiasm for English is not exactly prominent at Case Western, but tonight it will undergo a revival of sorts thanks to Spring Slam Nite 2013.

This event is not an average poetry slam… though there really is no such thing as an ‘average’ poetry slam. Sarah Jawhari, both President of Sigma Tau Delta and Editor-in-Chief of the Case Reserve Review, knows students could bring almost anything to the table.

“Though the word ‘slam’ suggests beat poetry and spoken word, we en-

utes,” said Jawhari. “We’ve had people recite monologues from plays, short prose pieces and poems that belong to others- with the proper credit given, of course.”

The event is student run, coordinated by the three prominent English groups on campus: the Case Reserve Review, Sigma Tau Delta and Ars Poetica.

Jawhari, who will be functioning as emcee at the event, is very excited to welcome interested writers. “It’s a great time even if you don’t want to read, or if you don’t have anything to read. Listen-

“The Devil’s Music”: hazards of stardom >>jasonWALSH ber, making the emotional impact of the musicCRITIC<< songs all the more forceful.

The Devil’s Music: The Life and Blues of Bessie Smith is not a play. It is a concert with a few words between songs. That said; it is absolutely wonderful. Miche Braden roars onto the stage as Bessie, filling the entire Allen Theater with an exquisite rendition of Bessie’s greatest hits. Live piano, cello and saxophone music graces the stage all set to the beautifully reproduced backdrop of a Memphis parlor in 1937.

The main focus of this production is the music. All of the actors play the music live, in front of the audience, seamlessly weaving it into the story. While all of the actors did a splendid job playing, particular praise goes to Keith Loftis for his dance with the saxophone and of course to Braden whose performance makes the entire production worthwhile. Not only does she deliver an outstanding lyrical performance of thirteen of Bessie’s best songs, including “St. Louis Blues” and “Nobody Know You When You’re Down and Out,” but also manages to effectively evoke the character of Bessie Smith through the brief moments of monologue and dialogue slipped in, between the songs. During these moments, the audience gets some personal context for each singing num-

The Bessie Smith we get to know throughout the play is a strong, powerful black woman who has fought her way from the depths of southern poverty all the way to stardom. But this story is not a triumphal narrative but a tragedy.

Bessie is a seriously flawed heroine, but one whose flaws make her all the more human. Many of her best qualities, her force of personality, her presence, her unwillingness to back down, are also her worst vices and lead to volatile relationships. On top of that, she is an alcoholic.

Yet we sympathize with her, sometimes a little too much. But that’s not a bad thing. At one point she recounts how she shot at her husband with a rifle on account of his philandering. We don’t feel that she is justified in this act by any rational or objective standard but rather because she compels to through the conviction and sincerity of belief in her own rectitude.

That we sympathize with Bessie is further underscored by the fact that she breaks the fourth wall fairly often.

Rather than communicate to other actors on stage, Bessie addresses the audience directly, as if it were an actual concert in 1937 Memphis. This funda-

see THEATRE | 12

ing to others perform is some good oldschool entertainment,” she said.

Other event helpers are also very open to hearing some fresh work. “We as poets could never deny anyone the opportunity to voice their poetry for our members,” said TJ Madden, President and co-founder of Ars Poetica.

The event is certainly less demanding compared to other activities put on at Case. “The slam is a really relaxed event,” said Sigma Tau Delta Secretary Owen Bell. “You don’t need to tell us in advance if you want to perform; just show up.”

Bell knows that Spring Slam Nite, just the second poetry slam thrown this year, may be unpredictable. “We had all kinds of stuff last semester. Love poems, nature poems, poems about I don’t know what. One guy even did a free style rap while another guy beat boxed,” he said.

Last semester’s slam’s success was considerable. “I would say most people there performed at least once and nobody went home unhappy,” said Bell.

The groups are trying to do at least one slam a semester, but will increase the frequency of the event if their popularity continues to grow.

All event coordinators would like to see the slams’ popularity spread. Madden especially loves to watch new poets read surprisingly great work at the slams. “It’s an utterly edge-of-my seat type feeling that compels me to find that poet after the slam and congratulate their intellect, just completely lionize them for their linguistic prowess,” he said.

Regardless of their experience, all writers are more than welcome to read their creative work at the slam. The event also gives any attendees an indepth opportunity to learn more about

the lesser-known English clubs.

“We are trying to get English enthusiasts to come out and meet, and we are providing a form of networking and entertainment that is both English-major and non-English-major friendly,” said Jawhari. “It breaks away from the ‘quiet’ and steps into the ‘cool.’”

Jawhari also believes this event will be more popular than last semester’s. “I hope I’m right because I bought a lot of food. But hey, if no one shows up, we’re all starving artists,” she joked.

Despite the lack of English enthusiasm on campus, many non-English majors are very accomplished writers. “I think that Case students are more creative than they give themselves credit for. With so many people in engineering and hard science majors on campus, we often think of ourselves as really leftbrain oriented,” said Bell.

“Some of the best poetry that we had at the last event was from engineering students and a bunch of people in the audience were engineers too,” he continued. “People should come and have fun because listening to people speak from the bottom of their hearts is an experience that anyone can enjoy.”

Jawhari wants to see this relatively new tradition in the CWRU English Department continue to grow. “I’m willing to bet there are non-English major artists waiting for the chance to express themselves amid the fervent English enthusiasts. On Spring Slam Nite, the floor is theirs,” said Jawhari.

The event runs from 6-9 pm in Guilford lounge.

Madden urges anyone interested to attend. “It’s honestly a great time to get out and do something different. How many poetry slams can someone honestly say they’ve been to? Their answer should always be ‘not enough.’”

Is good reality TV possible?

Watershed Down able. Unbeknownst to the Schmo, the other >>drewSCHEELER contestants are trained improvisational acfilm&tvCRITIC<< tors, like Kristen Wiig who starred on the

Are there any good reality shows left on television? Last week I received several responses to my review of ABC’s The Taste: I panned that show for its poor handling of even the most basic tropes of the reality genre and for bringing nothing new or interesting to a tired format. A close friend who read that article asked me if I could recommend just one reality show on television right now worth investing in. And, after several labored minutes of thoughts and verbal stalling as I sifted through the network schedules, I came to a sad realization: the best reality programs on television right now are flat-out parodies of the genre.

I present two shows to support this argument. The first is Spike TV’s The Joe Schmo Show. If you aren’t familiar with Schmo well, neither is its network. It is incredible that a network that broadcasts at least four hours of Repo Games a day is unable to advertise or reair what could have become its signature series. The original two seasons of The Joe Schmo Show aired back in 2003 and 2004 and lampooned the first wave of reality television. Season one establishes a basic formula for the series: one regular contestant, the Schmo, is thrust into the most outrageous reality show imagin-

first season of Schmo before Saturday Night Live. The competitions are staged. Plots are scripted by actual writers. Just how many contrivances can one person handle before questioning their sanity? This current third outing, and its first series back from its ten year exile, features everyman Chase competing on The Full Bounty, a reality series looking to find America’s next great bounty hunter. If it sounds unbelievable, it is. Challenges often end with people getting tazered.

And Dog The Bounty Hunter, the obvious inspiration for the competition, peaked in popularity a good five years ago.

Normally a ten year break would cut any momentum going for a series. But reality has changed significantly in this time and our new Schmo reflects this. This time out the cast is particularly wonderful as they play up the stock characters that audiences expect on modern reality shows. Jo Newman’s turn as Karlee, the token deaf contestant, channels Marlee Matlin’s appearance on The Celebrity Apprentice a few years ago in the best possible way. And Fred Cross plays Stan, Karlee’s interpreter, with such conviction that you too might feel your hand twitch along to his earnest signing. But

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CWRU Juggling Club hosts Juggling Spectacular “We also perform at a ton of events around >>anneNICKOLOFF said. “We have members who dabble in all of campus, so I like to think most Case students musicREPORTER<< the above mentioned categories, and more.”

All college students must find ways to juggle schoolwork, social life and sleep. The Case Western Juggling Club finds ways to juggle all that and much more.

Today and tomorrow, the Juggling Club will be hosting their annual event, Juggling Spectacular. First created in 2006, this free event began as a small half-hour show put on for a handful of people, but last year’s show grew to welcome a crowd of over a hundred for an act four times as long.

This year’s Juggling Spectacular theme will be Juggling Around the World. “We take a trip across the globe, and even to outer space, to see what juggling we find,” said Juggling Club President Jon Duff.

Both nights of the show will be the same lineup, and the acts will include presentations by members of the club that highlight their different skills in juggling. Some of these acts will involve glow-in-the dark and balancing tricks, along with the many various forms of juggling itself.

Juggling does not just mean throwing balls in the air in some intricate way- according to Juggling Club member John Gunderman, juggling is any form of object manipulation.

This includes forms like diabolo, poi, contact juggling, balance tricks, pen-spinning and yoyoing.

“There’s a lot of stuff in this category,” he

Other than just object manipulation, the club has a few members that also unicycle and free line skate, adding a lot of variation to the performers’ abilities.

Both Gunderman and Duff believe the knife juggling portion of the night will be a crowd favorite. “It is usually quite funny and also fairly dangerous,” said Duff. “We are juggling real machetes that, although not sharpened, are heavy enough and pointy enough to draw blood if caught incorrectly.”

Gunderman knows the juggling acts will be impressive to different types of people. “It’s a sad fact of juggling that sometimes the most difficult tricks aren’t the most impressive. If there are any jugglers in the audience who recognize the difficult tricks, there’s some stuff in there that they’ll particularly enjoy,” he said.

The juggling club can often be seen practicing inside Leutner, where their colorful materials fly through the air and flash through the windows of L3 and The Spot. “We are fairly well known,” said Duff. “I can’t tell you how many people I have taught to juggle in these past two years.”

Their popularity has only grown. Though there are definite regulars that attend most practices, there are also many students who come every now and then to juggle as a form of stress relief. New members are always welcome to the juggling practices, which are 6-8 pm every Tuesday and Thursday at Leutner.

have seen us at least once,” said Duff.

For Gunderman and Duff, their juggling enthusiasms reach into their childhoods. Gunderman learned at a young age through a juggling book from a book fair. “The librarian at the time saw me with it and commented that buying the book was useless, as her son had tried it and had failed. I took that as a challenge,” he said.

Duff also started at a young age, by a teacher who taught him in the third grade, and his talent continued from there. “When I came to Case it was the first time I had a large community of jugglers I could practice with, so that refreshed my interest,” said Duff.

Gunderman is also grateful for a community of enthused jugglers. “I know a lot of universities don’t have juggling clubs, so I feel lucky to participate in one here at Case,” said Gunderman. “Recently students have been showing more interest. We’re really lucky to have a lot of new freshman members this year.”

The only other event the Juggling Club hosted was last semester’s Cleveland Circus, a new and already successful juggling festival started just this past year. “We had around 100 people attend over the three days, which was a good start to what we hope to make an annual event,” said Duff.

Despite new leaps the Juggling Club made, the classic Juggling Spectacular will not fail to

courtesy angeline xiong disappoint.

The event will be held in the Thwing Ballroom from 7:30 to 9 pm on

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Trap God 2 by Gucci Mane All the elements of the trap aesthetic are with good guests and gets great verses out >>jasonWALSH eminent producer, among others) are practipresent.

Musically: unrelenting, pounding of them (Lil Wayne is actually interesting on musicCRITIC<< cally synonymous with trap. Since his 2005 drums; sinister 808s and dark synths; snares being hit at super-human speed thanks to drum machines; DJs shouting their name every few minutes.

Trap God 2 hits right where you’d expect it to thematically as well, never straying too far from women (to speak a little more respectfully than Gucci), drugs, and guns.

If that’s two check marks so far, Gucci provides the third; he’s right in his element.

He’s a good but not great rapper, fitting more syllables in a measure than most, though you usually can’t tell what words those syllables form thanks to an impenetrable Atlanta drawl that sounds like he has marbles in his mouth, and he makes plenty of car noises.

Gucci is a singular personality, more technically proficient than most rappers who crank out five mixtapes with “Trap” in the name every year, and a quality executive producer. He surrounds himself

“Bullet Wound”), and, despite being culled from many different producers, Trap God 2 sounds cohesive front-to-back and comes together around Gucc’s specific style.

If Gucci knows exactly what he’s doing, then, it’s too bad he’s still doing trap. 80 minutes of dark beats and (albeit technically impressive) rhymes about misogyny and nihilistic violence can only go so far.

Another reviewer, writing about Trap God the first, made the following analogy about Kanye and Gucci. Kanye is rap’s Apple, dropping a moment-defining, industrychanging product every year or so. Gucci is a specialist, continually churning out products for a niche market.

Maybe that’s the case. Trap God 2 is no doubt an impressive album in terms of rhyming and production. Maybe I’m just not in Gucci’s niche. If you are, you could find a lot worse trap to listen to than Trap God 2.

from REALITY TV | 6 reveals a deft hand at comedic timing and no one can question the talent shown this

fan of the last fifteen years of comedy will recognize a cast member from the current season: Adam Scott, Michael Cera, Martin Starr and Paul Scheer are among equals.

Perhaps we have finally reached a critical point with how our society responds to reality shows. Just how long will it be until we can abandon the common contestants and replace them with talented actors ushering in a new era of scripted reality programs that the producers of Laguna Beach and The OC could never have predicted? Any step away from the Real Housewives of the Kardashians is a step in the right direction.

Trap God 2 by Gucci Mane Artist: Gucci Mane Album: Trap God 2 Rating: 3 / 5 Along with the rise of dubstep and electronic dance music, the rise of trap is one of the biggest trends in pop music in the last few years. Starting in the early 2000s with groups like Three 6 Mafia and UGK, trap found its first big mainstream appeal with T.I.’s 2003 album Trap Muzik.

Since then, trap and its aesthetic have continued to move in to the mainstream.

Lil Wayne, Rick Ross, Kanye West, Nicki Minaj, Chief Keef, et al. can all, at least some of the time, be categorized under trap.

Gucci Mane and his 1017 Brick Squad crew (OJ Da Juiceman, Waka Flocka Flame, Sonny Digital, and Lex Luger, trap’s pre-

Karlee slips up sometimes. And the producers constantly underestimate Chase’s ability to win contests that have been stacked against him. Chase will tazer anything that gets in his way. Another inspired choice is featuring campy D-list actor Lorenzo Lamas, the former star of the bounty hunter syndicated crapfest of early ‘90s awesomeness Renegade. Lamas plays Lorenzo Lamas with such a fiery conviction that it’s hard to believe his career as a dramatic actor has stalled when his self-depreciation

debut Trap House, Gucci has always been somewhere in the trap movement. Trap just wouldn’t be the same without Gucci.

Occurring alongside the rise of trap, the rise of hip hop on the internet has dramatically changed the way rap is released. Studio albums have been de-emphasized – free mixtapes can make a career now, and most mixtape rappers are incredibly prolific.

Gucci is no exception. He’s released three studio albums (including Back to the Trap House), five independent albums (including Trap House and Trap-A-Thon), and,

by Wikipedia’s count, 27 mixtapes since 2007.

If being prolific is the new name of the game, it also means you never really know what you’re going to get with a mixtape. The follow up to 2012’s Trap God, Trap God 2 finds Gucci and trap in prime form, for better or for worse.

sensibilities.

But, most importantly, The Full Bounty gives comedian and Family Guy voice actor Ralph Garman a chance to come back as the host for the third time as the “nationally famous” bail bondsman Jake Montrose.

Each improvised line Garman delivers is inspired. Garman constantly propels the show forward while remaining believable.

Quite simply, in a strong cast Garman remains this series’ best asset. In next week’s finale Chase will finally learn that the only real part of the series has been himself. But

season: I see bright futures for everyone involved.

My second choice for best current reality show isn’t actually on television. Yahoo has been premiering two episodes of Burning Love each week, perhaps the greatest extended pastiche and parody of a single show in the history of recorded culture. Burning Love is a scripted version of The Bachelor/ Bachelorette starring comedians and featuring plots so contrived that you can see ABC executives get excited over activities and dates they can steal for next season. Any

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easy

Sudoku

hard(er)

*Crossword*

ACROSS 1. Cyphers 6. Food 10. Products of human creativity 14. Warning 15. Sexual assault

16. Person, place or thing 17. Tropical vine 18. Dwarf buffalo 19. Lacquered metalware 20. Ominously prophetic 22. Part of an archipelago 23. Deception 24. Sheen 26. Watercraft 30. Ganders and goslings 32. Wings 33. Not our 35. Hebrew unit of dry measure 39. A dish of greens and tomatoes 41. Fifty-two in Roman numerals 42. Rock 43. Bowel cleasing 44. Consequence 46. Bit 47. Church council 49. A loud and disturbing noise 51. Spreads sleeping sickness 54. Anagram of “Got” 55. Found on most heads 56. Spoilable 63. Impolite 64. Take 65. Permit 66. 1 1 1 1 67. Slave 68. Shop 69. Taverns 70. Noxious plant 71. Pillar DOWN 1. Young cow 2. Me’lange 3. Honey

4. Sea eagle 5. Horse barn 6. Mark 7. Hindu princess 8. Once ____ a time 9. Snoopy was one 10. Thoroughly clean 11. Perch 12. Soft fine silk 13. Contemptuous look 21. Greasy 25. Purposes 26. Arrangement holder 27. Distinctive flair 28. A period of discounted prices 29. Dressmaker 30. A formal association 31. Goddess of discord (Greek mythology) 34. Margarine 36. On the end of a fisherman’s line 37. ___ meridiem 38. Warmth 40. Not nights 45. God of love 48. Son of a sibling 50. Shocked 51. Pulse 52. A Finnish steam bath 53. Sea duck 54. Covered with thin linoleum squares 57. Lack of difficulty 58. Magical symbol 59. Countertenor 60. Hard punch 61. Old stories 62. Pitcher(archaic) 60. Breastplate 61. Religious offshoot 64. “Yikes!”

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Double talk over nukes

Editor’s Note

>> ashley YARUS | KEEPING PERSPECTIVE After eight months of silence, it’s time to start it all over again. Iran’s nuclear program is once more under pressure from leading powers and we are, yet again, among the countries being rather hypocritical.

In Kazakhstan, six world powers are meeting to discuss the state of Iran’s nuclear program. The goal: try to convince the country to halt progress and reduce its program. Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States, and Germany are expected to meet strong opposition, as Iran will be holding elections in June.

Looking to avoid signs of weakness before reelections, Iran will probably stick with its argument of simply enriching their uranium stocks for energy-related purposes.

With this latest meeting experiencing resistance before it even begins, it looks like things are stuck once more.

It has been over 60 years since the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the conversation about nuclear weapons has barely begun.

At this point in time, it seems unlikely that any country will actually launch a nuclear weapon. Once one bomb is sent, retaliation is expected and we all know the horrific consequences that could follow. The term ‘Nuclear Winter’ comes to mind and suddenly, things get real serious, real fast.

It seems clear that launching nuclear weapons is not a sane choice, and never will be. I suppose that’s why the idea of Iran and North Korea with a set of atomic bombs at their disposal is so terrifying: no one is quite sure how calm and rational their leaders are. Ahmadinejad is a character, as is Kim Jong-un. When I say characters, I mean that I’d prefer they didn’t have a bee-bee gun at their disposal, much less an atom bomb.

The thing about the nuclear situation is that the super-powers are in no position to impose sanctions. The

only way to encourage other countries is to set an example.

Yet the United States still retains a nuclear arsenal: 2150 operational nuclear warheads was the last official account from Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Russia comes in second with under 2000 weapons.

It’s understandable, yet infuriating, that the debate really comes down to the problem that no single country should have nuclear weapons, but no one is willing to give them up first.

Someday a leader will take the plunge and relinquish their dangerous little stash; I don’t expect this in my lifetime. Can you even imagine the United States without a bomb bigger than everyone else’s? I sure can’t.

We’ve crafted a universal image of ourselves based upon might rather than consideration and money rather than amity. Especially in the United States, we seem to wallow in a sea of hypocrisy. Regarding the goings-on around the world, we chastise frequently, yet find ourselves above our own high expectations.

Looking to the situation with Iran, our position is understandable, but perhaps unwarranted with regard to our own policies. It may well be time to truly assess our own policies before asking others to change.

Despite the election season, I expect that the negotiations with Iran would not progress while the countries in charge hold their own arsenals behind their backs. We may be a ‘superpower’, but we are a country who has nuclear weapons, no matter the reason.

After all, progress begets progress and we are in a position to change.

Ashley Yarus is a freshman studying Chemical Engineering. Her ability to doodle anchors has increased exponentially within the last week. She is feeling slightly crushed now that magical snow no longer covers the campus.

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Is a smart brain a healthy mind?

It is a well-known fact that all students at Case Western Reserve University are of a high intellectual caliber. This is shown not only by our acceptance into this university, but also our success here. Yes, some of us excel more than others, and a few of us may have needed to use pass-fail as a last resort to keep our precious GPA above a 3.0, but we’re all above-average in the smarts department.

However, being smart doesn’t just apply to academics, nor does it imply emotional stability. Some of the world’s greatest minds have suffered from less-than-ideally functioning brains: from “Infinite Jest” author David Foster Wallace, who suffered from depression, to brilliant—and paranoid schizophrenic—mathematician John Nash.

In an environment where academic prowess is so highly prized, we sometimes forget that there is more in a person’s brain than information. Last week, The Observer reported on The Healthy Minds Study, a mental health survey emailed out to 8000 random CWRU students.

According to the email sent out by Vice President for Student Affairs Glenn Nicholls, the survey purports to be gathering information “that can be used to think about strategies for improving the emotional health and wellbeing of students at CWRU and other colleges around the country.”

The survey does an adequate job of asking about things like drug and alcohol use, and it also asks about how you and your peers are affected by these substances—a fairly probing question for a survey. It continues on with inquiring about your stress levels and knowledge about available health services on campus.

While it is nice that a small part of the survey dedicates itself to asking how aware students are of things like University Counseling Services (UCS), nothing is actually being done to promote these services on campus.

Since arriving here at CWRU in 2009, I have never seen any material around campus advertising UCS. Students may have no idea where to go when they’re feeling stressed or upset, yet they are constantly being bombarded with information about groups and activities. Perhaps if we were to make counseling services more visible to students, they would be more likely to use them.

There is a certain stigma that comes with saying you are in counseling or therapy. People may assume there is something wrong with you—that you’re depressed or unstable. It’s not exactly first-date material, so-to-speak. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

Increasing awareness about mental wellness services on campus may encourage more students to see what help is available to them. It is easy to assume that going to counseling is only necessary if you have a “serious” problem, like depression or debilitating anxiety. What most members of the campus community may not know is that counseling can be helpful for things as common as stress or social awkwardness—things we’ve all experienced here at some point.

I appreciate the thought behind sending out The Healthy Minds Survey, but rather than simply gathering information about how students are feeling through an impersonal poll, perhaps we should be encouraging them to talk to someone.

Lisa N. Viers –OPINION EDITOR

State Your Case Do you think marijuana should be legalized across the country?

copy editors JACK BEHREND, KATY WITKOWSKI distributors VICTORIA ZAGORSKI, GRACE LIU advisor BERNIE JIM

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The Observer is the weekly undergraduate student newspaper of Case Western Reserve University. Established in 1969, The Observer exists to report news affecting and/or involving students and to provide an editorial forum for the university community. Unsigned editorials are the majority opinion of the senior editorial staff. For advertising information, contact The Observer at (216) 368-2914 or e-mail observerads@case.edu.

The Observer is a proud member of the CWRU Media Board.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by the columnists and contributors in this section are solely their own.

They do not reflect the views of The Observer or Case Western Reserve University.

opinion

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11

One nation becoming divided >> andrew BRELAND | THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM Last week the Undergraduate Student Government of Case Western Reserve University vocally supported abolishing the practice of reciting the Pledge of Allegiance before each meeting. Though an unofficial vote, the idea garnered more than a majority of the General Assembly of the group.

Supporters of the idea vocalized concerns that international members of the GA feel uncomfortable because of the practice, while others argued that reciting the Pledge of Allegiance adds formality to meetings. Neither of these rationales considers the real reasons we recite this mantra.

The Pledge of Allegiance reads, “I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” Enshrined within our pledge is a statement of loyalty to the country we call home. We recognize that this country provides freedoms and equal treatment of laws for all of its citizens.

We believe in a republic conceived as a shining city on a hill to stand for centuries to come. Recitation of this not only confirms those beliefs, but also binds us as a country, a people, and a civilization.

We say the pledge because no matter whom you are, if you live in this country you agree to protect your home from outside forces who want to destroy it. You agree that living the American dream is your goal and that we as Americans benefit from Exceptionalism. You agree that

a government should exist to protect the freedoms we innately possess – not to take away choices or regulate away our lives.

This is the mentality expressed in our Pledge of Allegiance, and this is precisely why the recent action by our student government makes absolutely no sense.

Supporters of the action worry about the feelings of international students. They fear that these students feel uncomfortable, awkward, or otherwise “different” because of the Pledge. Why does this matter?

Why does it matter when someone feels different or uncomfortable? The Pledge of Allegiance is an affirmation of the values of the United States. By stating it, you are simply confirming your belief in those principles and your desire to foster and assist those principles in taking hold across this land. If you cannot permit yourself to hear about that viewpoint, I’m not sure you necessarily belong here.

This is not to say that you must recite the words of the Pledge. Repeatedly, federal courts in this country have stated that one need not stand and recite the pledge when asked. In 1943, the Supreme Court enshrined this right when they stated that forcing someone to salute or recite the pledge violated freedom of speech. Since this decision, challenges to the Pledge of Allegiance, in practice and in form, have gone unheard because of the innate right not to participate.

Why is it an issue at all then? Those individuals uncomfortable with the Pledge of Allegiance can abstain from participation.

They have freedom to quite literally sit

Tycoon’s tragic life: a boon for CWRU >> CWRU House Mafia | FROM THE MAFIA Did you know that much of the CWRU campus was built thanks to the gifts of the Stone family? While the story of Amasa Stone is rather gloomy, the Stone family has given us some of our most beautiful and cherished buildings. Some recognition is due.

Amasa Stone Chapel is a landmark for the campus and, arguably, is an icon for the university. However, the chapel’s beauty are in stark contrast with its namesake’s history.

Amasa Stone was born in 1818 in Massachusetts. He became an apprentice in construction and later worked with his brother in-law, William Howe, to refine the Howe truss bridge design. Stone bought the truss patent in 1842 and built several hundred bridges using the Howe and other modified designs.

In 1851, Stone relocated to Cleveland to become the superintendent of the Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad.

Between the many railroads and other complimentary enterprises, such as steel mills, Stone became part of the emerging industrialist elite. However, his luck started turning in 1876 with the Ashtabula Railroad Disaster.

On December 29th, Stone’s bridge spanning the Ashtabula River collapsed while a passenger train was crossing, killing 92. At the time, it was the worst railroad accident in the United States. The investigation that followed implicated Stone by citing the reason for failure was an unstable span length.

However, the real guilt likely belongs with the steel mill that provided material that did not meet the specifications in Stone’s design.

While the success of Stone’s railroads began to wane, he was also burdened with the loss of his son, Adelbert, in a swimming accident while studying at Yale. Stone, looking to both honor his son and compete with Leonard Case’s new school on the east side of Cleveland, donated $500,000 to Western Reserve College on the condition that it relocate to Cleveland from Hudson and use the money for the construction of Adelbert College - now Adelbert Hall.

When considering how to name the new college, Stone’s name was rejected because of it’s connection to the Ashtabula disaster.

Finally, in 1883, Amassa completed suicide. He left behind a wife and two daughters: Clara Stone Hay and Flora Stone Mather. His daughters, looking to honor their father, commissioned the construction of Amasa Stone Chapel which includes a stone bust of his head above it’s west-facing door.

So There you have it - a tragic story, but a visionary commitment to higher education in North East Ohio that helped shape the schools that form Case Western Reserve.

A new weekly contributor to The Observer, CWRU House Mafia is a blog beyond The Daily that strives to engage and develop a deeper sense of community at Case Western Reserve University. They’re only a click away at cwruhousemafia.tumblr.com.

courtesy cwruhousemafia.tumblr.com

down and do nothing. But apparently this is not enough. Apparently, to protect the feelings of the few, we must infringe the rights of the many and remove the Pledge from everyday practice.

This view is innately wrong. Do we prevent the establishment of religious groups to appease one citizen who finds issue with Islam, for example? Do we disallow studying Marx or Stalin because we do not like or agree with them? Taken to the n-th degree, do we prevent cars because one person is in an accident, or prevent books because of the possibility of a paper cut? The answer is simply “no.”

In Federalist Paper No. 10, James Madison writes that the U.S. was founded under majority rule, but protection of minority rights. To fulfill this vision of our nation, we say a Pledge of Allegiance that binds us together as a majority. Those individuals wishing to abstain may do so; we protect that right. But to abolish the practice in any venue because of worries about discomfort, awkwardness, or “being different” is a vast overstep of what could otherwise be a simple solution.

Now they are right about one thing: the Pledge adds an air of formality to meetings.

But it does more.

The Pledge binds us and reminds us that we live in a country known for Exceptionalism. It affirms in us a desire to spread freedoms and celebrate a rich, diverse history. It reminds us that while individualism is important, we are part of something bigger. I apologize that this image might offend or discomfort some.

However, we cannot abandon our chartering freedoms and beliefs to appease a very small minority. I leave with an anecdote that attempts to explain why the Pledge is important.

Working for Senator Rob Portman during the summer of 2012, I had the opportunity to attend several naturalization ceremonies. I got to meet hundreds of people who traveled to the United States seeking a better life for themselves and their families. At the conclusion of this ceremony, the newly naturalized citizens recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

The beaming looks on their faces and shouts of joy at the conclusion only affirm that we live in the greatest country on Earth. Listening to that recitation, certain things stand out. These individuals, the most patriotic you will ever meet, take pride in affirming their beliefs, as we all should. Near the end, it is almost impossible not to notice their excitement, when they finally say “… one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

Andrew Breland is a sophomore planning to triple major in Political Science, English, and History. At CWRU, Andrew serves as the Vice President of the Case College Republicans and the treasurer for the Case Western Mock Trial Team. After graduation, Andrew plans to attend law school and pursue a career as a civil litigation attorney specializing in Tort defense.

The epidemic of housing drama >> heather O’KEEFFE | WHAT A GIRL WANTS

It’s that time of year. No not midterms or the eve of spring break. Nope, it’s housing time. Housing, oh housing, how you plague me.

About two months ago, choosing where to live next year was exciting: whom do I want to live with? Where do I want to live?

And how much money will I save when I change meal plans?

Around this eager time, five friends and I decided to live together. The prospect was wonderful. All of us girlies would live on top of the hill on Southside. Everyone would get along, clean up their dishes, respect each other’s space, and most of all have heaps of fun together.

But then stress and tension set in. Classes got difficult so people retreated to their textbooks and when housing drama got real people hid in their rooms. Choosing who to live with comes with exclusion and rejection. When you decide whom to live with, you also decide whom to live without.

Amongst my floor, housing was never openly discussed for fear of hurting people’s feelings with the tough-to-swallow truth. So instead, hushed plans were hatched behind closed doors. While tension mounted, seclusion continued to settle.

Finally everything came to a head and bam: drama hit like a hurricane. True feelings and housing plans were expressed and thus rejection fully realized.

As everyone tried to make a housing decision that best suited their needs, my housing plans fell apart. My story is not unique—on my floor and across CWRU, there were tears, anger, and frustration.

After the shock of lost housing plans, a wave of questions flooded my mind.

Where am I going to live? Why don’t you want to live with me? Why weren’t we more open with our feelings sooner?

Why can’t we all get along and be nice?

And most importantly, why has our stress grown to be so great that we are retreating from our friendships?

CWRU is a hard school and doles out its fair share of academic challenges.

These challenges can bog us down and surround us in a cloud of stress. Throw the tough housing decision on top of that and disaster is bound to occur. But stress shouldn’t limit our friendships and prevent us from being happy. So for those of us out there suffering from the housing blues, let’s make a decision to cheer up and, however hard it may be, move on.

My housing plans falling through was a blessing in disguise. Next year I will get to live with people I barely even know, and I am so excited to build friendships with them. Making friends is always fun.

Arguably better than that, old friendships can be restored to pre-housing-drama strength. Once decisions are made and the whispered ambiguity ended, the sooner we can put this stress behind us.

I am tired of housing and all too ready to submit my application and let the lottery process begin. I am ready to stop the hushed conversations and tiptoeing around. Let’s go back to two months ago when housing drama wasn’t even a thing.

Let’s talk to each other openly and honestly. Let’s follow the Girls Scouts poem: make new friends but keep the old and put this all behind us.

Tension, sadness, betrayal, frustration, drama, seclusion, and stress: ain’t nobody got time for that. So how about we just be friends instead?

Heather O’Keeffe is a freshman studying biomedical engineering. February 19 she turned 19 and after wondering what cool things happen you turn 19, realized it is a very un-milestoney birthday.

For the newest State Your Case poll, visit observer.case.edu and voice your opinion!

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03/01/13

The Observer’s app of the week

Sunrise

>>sheehanHANNAN arts&entertainmentEDITOR<< I​n the nonstop stress-fest that is CWRU student life, few things are as important as a quality calendar app. Google Calendar is, of course, the service of choice. The service itself has many advantages and benefits from institutional support from most CWRU departments. ​The only downside, however, is a lack of any Google-made calendar app for iOS. Though their Android Calendar app is extremely useful, if a little simplistic, Google has not offered any real support for calendars on iOS. True, the native Apple Calendar/iCal app offers the ability to sync with Google calendars, but that service is rife with problems. Syncing a Google Calendar with iCal is extremely slow, with events sometimes taking inordinate amounts of time to appear on both calendars and occasionally resulting in duplicate events. In short, using a Google Calendar on iOS is almost not worth the trouble. ​Sunrise seeks to solve that problem, offering a single destination for Google Calendars, Facebook events, and more on iOS. Most importantly, Sunrise is cloud-based, allowing for instant sync of your Google calendar on an iOS device.

Events appear on Google’s web interface almost instantly, in a drastic improvement over the native iOS Calendar app.

Even more useful is in-app support for both Google and Facebook events, in-

cluding the ability to RSVP and see who else is going.

The app itself is vaguely cluttered, ​ though the colors are pleasurable and nothing seems superfluous or out of place. Most importantly, Sunrise eschews more traditional calendar display modes.

Dates are arrayed across the top of the screen, with vertically scrollable days below. Days only display the events that you’ve scheduled, getting rid of the ludicrous amount of white space that represents empty times in most other calendar apps. Days are also broken down into morning, afternoon, and evening. In an added touch, an icon-based weather forecast is inconspicuously attached to morning, evening, and night. ​Though Sunrise doesn’t rely too heavily on gestures, it definitely has the potential for added swipe functions in future iteration. Currently, swiping to the left or right on an event launches Google Maps with the event’s location as input. Though seemingly innocuous, it’s extremely useful. Hopefully, later versions of the app will increase gesture functionality.

After several days of use, Sunrise ​ holds up well. The layout is incredibly functional and easy to use, in a drastic improvement of the native iCal app. The Facebook integration is nice, but largely useless, as you cannot create Facebook events within Sunrise. Despite that, Sunrise is easily the best calendar app for iOS and should be a central component of any student’s productivity arsenal.

The Observer’s playlist of the week 03.01.13

>>jasonWALSH musicCRITIC<<

Young Galaxy - “Fall For You” Young Galaxy put out a pretty solid album called Shapeshifting in 2011, and they’ve got a new one called Ultramarine coming out April 23. “Fall For You” is the second single, and it’s a fantastic, catchy pop song with a kind of tropical feel to it.

gives me high hopes for more from Fyfe.

Autre Ne Veut - “Counting” The first single from Autre Ne Veut’s upcoming album Anxiety. It’s part Miguel, part Prince, part How To Dress Well, and all awesome.

Frank Ocean - “Eyes Like Sky” “Eyes Like Sky” is apparently a leftover from Channel Orange, Ocean’s 2012 album that pretty much took over the world. “Eyes Like Sky” is a straightforward, acoustic guitar pop song and leaving it off Channel Orange was probably the right call.

But in related news, Mr. Ocean has “10-11 songs” completed for his new record. No release date yet, though.

Fyfe - “St. Tropez” Fyfe is apparently the new moniker of Paul Dixon, who I’ve never heard of and who used to release music under the name David’s Lyre, which I’ve never heard. But “St. Tropez” is a nice bit of laid-back electronica / pop and

Juicy J ft. The Weeknd - “One Of Those Nights” Wherein The Weeknd does his normal thing and Juicy J reminds us that he’s an actually good rapper capable of more than shouting about lean over Lex Luger beats.

from THEATRE | 6 mentally changes the nature of the play and makes it into something along the lines of historical interpretation. There’s a bit of Brechtian Theater here in the way we are introduced to themes of discrimination, racism and sexual mores of the 1930s. This is further reinforced by the set design, which favors an ultranaturalistic interpretation of a Mem-

phis parlor. My only criticism here is that because such little action occurs on stage, the set underscores the museum atmosphere a bit. Nevertheless, all of this makes for a very immersive experience. We don’t just watch what’s going on, on-stage, we are sucked into it, invited and compelled to see things from Bessie’s point of view, to be caught up in the emotional tornado of her life, to really feel the blues.

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Sluggers split first doubleheader of season at Guilford, 11-8, 0-2 >>staffREPORTS

The Case Western Reserve University baseball team pounded out a combined 27 base hits and split a doubleheader at Guilford College on Sunday at Edgar McBane Field.

The Spartans won the opener, 11-8, before falling 2-0 in game two. The Spartans also topped crosstown rival John Carroll University 4-3 in Beckley, WV on Friday, Feb. 22.

With the split, the Spartans move to 2-1, while the Quakers advance to 4-5.

Of the 27 hits, sophomore designated hitter William Meador collected five in eight total at-bats.

In game one, each side posted a run in the opening inning before the Spartans added a pair to take the lead in the third. Sophomore left fielder Kerrigan Cain led off the frame with a double then came around on an infield single by sophomore third basemen Andrew Gronski. After back-to-back singles by senior first baseman Brett Ossola and senior centerfielder Paul Pakan, sophomore catcher Robert Winemiller hit a sacrifice fly to left.

Guilford answered back with one in the

bottom of the fourth when Corey Wallace roped an opposite field single to plate Justin Pittman, but the Spartans came back with one of their own in the fifth as Pakan reached on an error, stole second, and came home on a Winemiller single.

Then in the seventh, the Quakers batted around and rallied for six runs. Gabe Mirabelli scored on a wild pitch to open the scoring before both John Macon Smith and Pittman hit RBI doubles. Mirabelli also closed the rally with an RBI single that made the score 8-4.

Undaunted, the Spartans came right back with seven runs in the top of the eighth beginning when Cain drew a bases-loaded walk.

Senior shortstop Matt Keen followed with an RBI single to center, and a key error followed by a hit batter forced in the next three. Junior second baseman Andrew Frey eventually closed the scoring with a two-run single to left.

On the mound, senior southpaw Jarrett Gish started and threw the first five, allowing two runs on four hits while striking out three.

Junior right-hander Jose Vega blew a save opportunity but did pick up his first win of the season in an inning of relief. In his collegiate

debut, freshman Sammy Altman logged two scoreless innings for the save.

Will James went the first five innings for the Quakers and surrendered four runs (two earned) on eight hits while striking out two.

Tyler Hunt took the loss (0-2) after pitching one third of an inning out of the bullpen.

For the game, Meador had a career best of 4-for-5, while Winemiller, Pakan, and Keen each collected two hits.

In game two, sophomore right-hander Kevin Johnstone was a tough-luck loser on the mound, logging seven innings and allowing only one run. The one run came on four hits and four walks, and Johnstone struck out a career-high seven batters.

The Spartan offense recorded 12 base hits but was unable to push a run across due to a 0-for-11 performance with runners in scoring position.

Borja Jones-Berasaluce (1-1) threw eight shutout innings with nine hits allowed and one strikeout to outduel Johnstone. Chad Wagoner recorded the final three outs and earned his first save of the year.

Guilford broke a scoreless tie in seventh in-

ning when Wallace led off with a solo homer to right center. The Quakers added an insurance score in the eighth when Pittman singled home John Macon Smith, who reached via a double.

In the ninth, the Spartans threatened to get back into the game as Gronski led off with a single to left but was thrown out at second when Pakan hit a blooper to right field.

Ossola then singled to left, and both Pakan and freshman pinch runner Marques Winick each advanced a base following a wild pitch.

However, a fly out and a strikeout followed as the hosts danced out of trouble.

For the game, Keen was 2-for-4 with a pair of doubles, while Ossola was 3-for 4.

Inclement weather forced the cancellation of the Spartans’ next matchups, a four-game series against Franklin College scheduled for this Saturday and Sunday, Mar. 2-3 at Chillicothe. The team is expected to reschedule alternative games for the weekend.

The next games for the Spartans would then be the University Athletic Association Championship from Mar. 10-16 in Altamonte Springs, FL.

Grapplers 1-2 at Si Ostrach meet, Seniors’ Day >>staffREPORTS

Freshman Josh Hall was a perfect 3-0 at 125 pounds, and the Case Western Reserve University wrestling team posted a 1-2 mark as hosts of the 2013 Si Ostrach Meet on Saturday, Feb. 23, at Adelbert Gymnasium.

The meet, which also served as Seniors’ Day, is named in honor of Simon Ostrach, the Wilbert Austin Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Engineering at CWRU and Spartan wrestling faculty advisor.

Prior to the meet, CWRU honored graduate student Dale English and senior Evan McDowell, who concluded their home careers as Spartans.

The Spartans (2-9 overall) opened the day with a 32-15 victory versus Muskingum University. Rochester Institute of Technology defeated the Spartans in round two, 30-12, and Thiel College clipped the hosts, 43-9, in the final match.

Hall started his day with a 17-1 technical fall versus Muskingum’s Ahmad Taylor. Hall then earned a 7-3

decision over RIT’s Mike Nguyen and a two-minute, 48-second pin of Thiel’s Nick Hart. With his performance, the University Athletic Association’s Rookie of the Year improves to 15-9 for the season.

Also posting winning records on the day was freshman Eric Sullivan at 157, English at 285, and McDowell at 157.

Sullivan (1-0) won via a 9-6 decision versus Nicholas Greenquist of RIT. English (2-1) pinned Muskingum’s Bass Conway in 2:41 to open

the day and picked up a 6-0 decision versus Nick Stewart of RIT. McDowell (2-0) won via forfeit versus Muskingum then defeated Xavier Williams of Thiel by a count of 7-3.

The Spartans conclude the regular season next Saturday, Mar. 2 at the NCAA Midwest Regional on the campus of Ohio Northern University at 10:00 a.m. in Ada. Overall, 16 teams will compete in the event and look to qualify wrestlers for the NCAA Championship Tournament on Mar. 15-16 in Cedar Rapids, IA.

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Spartans find bats in final game of three game opener After one run in two games, sluggers explode in 11-0 victory >>peterCOOKE sportsEDITOR<

After sitting idle for two days due to inclement weather in North Carolina, the Case Western Reserve University softball team returned to action with a split during an abbreviated Methodist College Early Bird Tournament on Sunday at Lamon Street Park. The Spartans were blanked 9-0 in six innings by Lynchburg College, but rebounded with an 11-0 victory in five innings versus Stevenson University on Sunday afternoon. Three days earlier on Thursday the Spartans lost to host Methodist 2-1.

The Spartans move to 1-2 for the season and will return home to Ohio until the National Training Center Games on March 8-9 in Clermont, FL. In game one, Lynchburg (2-1) invoked the varsity run rule as the Spartans lost their second-straight game to open the season with a combined one run scored.

Freshman pitcher Rebecca Molnar made her collegiate debut on the mound and was the victim of six Spartan errors. Overall, the rookie right-hander went all six innings and allowed two earned runs.

At the plate, sophomore second baseman Molly Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Brien went 3-for3 with a pair of singles and a triple.

Freshman first baseman Erin Dreger was 2-for-3 as the Spartans collected a total of five hits.

In game two, the Spartan bats awoke

to the tune of 13 hits, seven of which were for extra bases.

After a 1-2-3 first inning, the Spartans broke through with three runs in the second thanks to RBI doubles by sophomore pitcher Rebecca Taylor and junior catcher Amy Taylor as well as a sacrifice fly by sophomore left fielder Ashley Parello.

Case added three more in the third with an RBI double from Dreger and a two-run double by Amy Taylor before putting the game out of reach with four in the fourth. Sophomore right fielder Gena Roberts keyed the inning with a two-run double of her own.

Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Brien added the icing on the cake with an RBI triple in the top of the fifth, and the varsity run rule came into effect in the bottom of the frame.

On the mound, Rebecca Taylor was dazzling with five shutout innings of two-hit ball, allowing two hits and no walks, while matching a career high with 12 strikeouts.

For the game, Dreger was 3-for3 with two RBI. Parello was 2-for-2, Amy Taylor was 2-for-3 with a pair of doubles and three RBI, and Rebecca Taylor was 2-for-3.

Case will play four games in two days at the NTC Games, beginning with a 1 p.m. matchup with Moravian College on Friday, Mar. 8.

After the two-day trip to Clermont, the Spartans will head to Altamonte Springs for the 2013 University Athletic Association Championship on Mar. 12-16.

austin sting / observer Sophomore pitcher Rebecca Taylor has opened her second season as a Spartan in impressive form with an ERA of 1.17 in two games and a remarkable 23 strikeouts in two games.

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Heartbreaker in overtime keeps men from winning season Spartans let Tartans get the best as they finish 12-13 overall, fifth in UAA >>peterCOOKE sportsEDITOR<

In his final collegiate game, senior forward Austin Fowler recorded his 18th career double-double with a game-high 33 points and a career-high 19 rebounds as the Case Western Reserve University men’s basketball team ended the 2012-13 campaign with an 80-76 Senior Day overtime loss versus University Athletic Association rival Carnegie Mellon University on Saturday evening at Horsburgh Gymnasium.

The Spartans end the season at 1213 overall and 5-9 in the UAA leaving them in a three-way tie for fifth place in the conference. With the victory, the Tartans finish at 6-19 overall and 3-11 in the conference for a last place finish.

A topsy-turvy final weekend left University of Rochester, Washington University and Emory University as co-association champions as the three schools finished with 10-4 records.

Brandeis University was the only other school with a winning conference record, finishing fourth with an 8-6 record in the UAA. With his 33 markers, Fowler moved into a tie for ninth place in program history with 1,193 points. Also in just 74 career games, he ranks sixth with 553 rebounds. Fowler also earned his fourth career UAA Player of the Week honors for his performance, his third recognition this year. Fowler was also named to the second-team All-UAA squad.

In addition, sophomore forward

Dane McLoughlin added his first career double-double of his own with 14 points and 10 boards. McLoughlin joined Fowler on the All-UAA secondteam.

Junior center David Thompson just missed another with nine points and 10 rebounds to go along with a career-best six blocks. Junior guard Tim Chung also earned All-UAA recognition as an honorable mention.

In the first half, Fowler scored the Spartans’ first eight points to build an 8-2 lead with 14:36 on the clock. The Tartans then responded with a 10-2 run and took a 12-10 advantage after Kevin Stursberg converted a layup at 12:04.

The next seven minutes saw backand-forth action before the Spartans produced an 8-2 run to lead 33-27 as McLoughlin canned a three pointer at the 3:18 mark. Each side added six to their respective total heading into the break, and the Spartans led 39-33.

In the second, the Tartans opened with a 16-6 run and led, 49-47, at 13:56 after Rashaun Riley knocked down a jumper to give the visitors their first lead since the half-way point of the first. Case responded with an 11-1 run and went back ahead 58-50 when sophomore forward Brian Klements converted a layup at the 10:56 mark.

The Tartans then held the Spartans without a basket for the next six minutes as part of a 14-0 run that culminated in a Seth Cordts three, making the score 64-58 with 5:15 remaining. After the Spartans got to within three, Cordts hit another triple to double the advan-

tage to 67-61 with 3:51 left in regulation.

Chung answered with a three of his own to make the score 67-64 at 3:24, and Fowler would hit a pair of free throws several possessions later to bring the count to 67-66 at 1:36. Several empty possessions followed before Fowler hit one-of-two at the line with six seconds remaining to send the game to overtime.

In the extra period, CMU’s first possession resulted in an Andre Moore triple at 4:13.

Fowler then hit backto-back buckets to give the Spartans their final lead as Carnegie Mellon would score the next four thanks to layups from Moore and Matt Loebbaka. After McLoughlin made a arianna wage / observer jumper to decrease the deficit to one, 74-73, Senior Austin Fowler capped off his final game with the Tartans responded his 18th career double-double in an 80-76 loss to with a clutch three ball Carnegie Mellon. Fowler was named UAA Player of from Asad Meghani with the Week and a member of the All-UAA second-team 27 seconds left to give after the game. five rebounds and four steals. Meghani CMU a 77-73 lead.

That lead would never be relin- added 18 points; none bigger than his quished as the visitors held on for the overtime three.

For the game, the Spartans held a deseason-ending victory.

Moore led CMU with 26 points, cisive 56-37 advantage on the boards.

No. 17 men ace season openers, upset No. 4 Washington 6-3 Spartans are 6-0 in the spring, 5-0 against ITA top 30 teams >>peterCOOKE sportsEDITOR<

Coming off the best season in program history, the No. 17 Case Western Reserve University men’s tennis team doesn’t seem to be intent on slowing down. The men have opened the 2013 spring season on a 6-0 tear, capping the streak off with an upset over University Athletics Association rival No. 4 Washington University. The Spartans topped the Bears 6-3, who were ranked Nos. 3 and 2, respectively in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Central Region.

The Spartans have started off their season with five of their six foes being ranked in the ITA top 30 nationally. In the opening weekend Case took down No. 12 North Carolina Wesleyan College and No. 21 University of Mary Washington and unranked Vassar College. This past weekend at the DePauw Invitational the Spartans dispatched the No. 28 hosts, No. 29 University-Wisconsin Whitewater and No. 4 Washington.

With the first official poll of the 2013 season debuting on Thursday, Feb. 28 (after the Observer goes to print), the Spartans are all but assured of climbing the national rankings from what was previously their best ever position in program history.

Against the Bears, the Spartans were led by their doubles as the Central’s No. 2 ranked duo of junior John Healey and senior Nicholas Howe won in the top slot in an 8-6 win over the No. 9 doubles team of brothers Adam and Ross Putterman. Also earning a point for the

Spartans were senior Kyle Gerber and freshman Christopher Krimbill who scored an 8-2 win over Kevin Chu and Max Franklin.

The Bears got on the board with an 8-3 win by Kareem Farah and Tyler Kratky over Alex Solove and Richard Brunsting.

The Bears would even the score in singles as the No. 3 player in the nation, Adam Putterman, scored a win over Drougas, 6-3, 6-1, in the top spot.

The Spartans would rebound and capture the second-fifth spots to seal the victory. Gerber, the regions No. 7, topped Ross Putterman 6-2, 6-3 in the second spot. Krimbill topped the ninth ranked player in the central region Tim Noack in three sets, 6-3, 1-6, 7-5. Klawitter won in the fourth spot 6-4, 6-4, over Kratky and in the fifth slot Derek Reinbold won 7-6, (7-4), 6-3 over Gary Parizher.

Farah won in the sixth spot for the Bears over freshman Harrison Smith 7-5, 7-6, (7-4).

Krimbill has opened up his rookie season with an impressive debut, going 5-1 in combined action this week, losing in doubles to DePauw. Krimbill was named UAA Athlete of the Week and is the third Spartan to earn that honor so far this season. He is 12-4 in singles this year, 5-1 in the spring season and 14-4 in doubles this year, 5-1 in the spring.

The Spartans will head to the Hope/ Kalamazoo Shootout this weekend starting on Mar. 1, for five matches over two days beginning with Ohio Northern University at 12:00 p.m. Friday.

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Women close out season with 88-73 win, most victories since 2002 Iacono wins UAA Player of the Year, Iafelice, Mueller, Orcutt named All-UAA >>peterCOOKE sportsEDITOR<

Senior wing Marissa Miles saved her best for last with a career high 22 points as the Case Western Reserve University women’s basketball team ended the 2012-13 campaign with an 88-73 Seniors’ Day victory versus University Athletic Association rival Carnegie Mellon University on Saturday afternoon at Horsburgh Gymnasium.

The Spartans end the season at 16-9 overall and 8-6 in the UAA. The 16 victories are the most for the program since the 2001-02 season when the team was 20-9 overall and advanced to the NCAA Tournament. In six years under head coach Jennifer Reimer, the Spartans now have five winning campaigns.

With the loss, the Tartans finish at 13-12 overall and 5-9 in the UAA, ending the season fifth in the conference.

The association title was won

by Emory University who finished 12-2 in the UAA, one game ahead of University of Rochester (11-3) and two ahead of Washington University (10-4). The Spartans finished fourth at 8-6.

Prior to tip-off, CWRU honored its four women’s hoops senior student athletes Evy Iacono, Erica Iafelice, Miles, and Emily Mueller.

Iacono was named UAA Play-

er of the Year after the game for her dominating offensive performance that saw her lead the association with 17.9 points per game, 2.5 more than the second place player. Iacono was also named to the All-UAA first-team. Iafelice earned a second-team nod while Mueller and sophomore Brooke Orcutt earned honorable mentions.

Miles’ 22 points came via six field goals and a career best 8-for8 performance at the line. Overall, the Spartans were a program best 20-of-20 from the charity stripe.

The three other seniors also didn’t disappoint in their final games.

Iacono tied for the game high with 23 points and dished out a game high seven assists. The twoyear captain finishes her career with 1,353 points, which is good for third all-time in program history. Iafelice scored 14 points and recorded four helpers, adding to her school record assist total, which stands at 374. Mueller just missed a double-double but did finish with 11 points, nine rebounds, four assists and two blocked shots.

In the first half, Case built an early 6-2 advantage before CMU went on a 17-2 run to take an 11-point lead, 19-8, as Gabrielle West converted a three pointer with 14:19 on the clock. The Spartans responded with an 11-3

run and cut the deficit to two, at 22-20, after Iacono made a three with 12:18 in the half. During the run, Iacono scored eight of the 11 Spartan points.

The Tartans then went on a 9-2 run of their own to push their advantage to nine, 31-22, with 10:23 left after Liza Otto hit a layup. Case scored the next seven to cut the deficit back to two, 31-29, following a Miles jumper with 6:33 in the half. CMU responded with an 8-0 spurt of their own and restored an eight-point lead, 39-31, with 5:18 remaining after Chandler Caufield knocked down a three pointer. The Spartans outscored the Tartans 12-6 to close the half and trailed by two at the break, 45-43.

In the second half, the Spartans opened with a 10-0 run and recorded 18 of the first 22 overall to turn a two-point deficit into an 11-point advantage with 13:09 remaining.

Miles hit six free throws during the stretch, while Iafelice hit a layup and a triple at the onset.

The closest the Tartans got the rest of the way was seven, 71-64, following an Emily Peel layup with 6:48 left. The Spartans remained in control the rest of the way.

Peel led the way for the Tartans with a game high tying 23 points and a game best 10 boards. West (16), Liza Otto (13), and Lindsey Poss (12) also scored in doublefigures.

arianna wage/ observer Sophomore Brooke Orcutt scores two of her 12 points in the Spartans 88-73 win over Carnegie Mellon. Orcutt was tapped for an All-UAA Honorable Mention following her performance this season.

Men fifth, women seventh as Spartans host indoor UAA Championship Savitsky, Weintraub headline weekend for Spartans with record, title >>peterCOOKE sportsEDITOR<

Led by a school-record performance in the triple jump by junior Thenessa Savitsky, the Case Western Reserve University women’s track & field team finished seventh. The men finished fifth with an individual title by junior Harry Weintraub in the shotput at the 2013 University Athletic Association Indoor Championship Meet that concluded on Sunday, Feb. 24, at the Veale Center.

Emory University won the women’s team title by the narrowest of margins, compiling 132 points to defeat defending champion Washington University’s total of 131. University of Chicago with 96, Carnegie Mellon University with 42, and New York University with 40 rounded out the top five.

The women finished fourth last year in the indoor championship and moved up to third in the outdoor championship.

On the men’s side, Carnegie Mellon University, last year’s indoor runner-up, ran away with the association title with 139 points. University of Chicago placed second with 87, Washington University at St. Louis came in third at 78, and Emory University was fourth at 69. The

men finished the two-day event with 48 points.

The men finished sixth last year in the indoor meet before improving to third in the outdoor championship.

On the track, the mile run duo of seniors Chris Kelly and Phil Yeung placed fourth and fifth respectively, with times of 4:22.64 and 4:22.78. Yeung’s time was a career best indoor mark. The duo also ran anchor and leadoff for last night’s runner-up distance medley relay.

In sprint events, freshman Devon Belew hit a fifth place time of 51.78 seconds in the 400-meter dash.

Belew then teamed with fellow rookies Jonathan Freeman, Perry Billett, and Abdallah Soliman to cross the line sixth with a time of 3:32.50 in the 4x400m relay.

In field events, sophomore Sam Reusser placed fourth with a career best shot put of 46’8.75.”

Junior Andrew Barnhart, who was fourth in yesterday’s long jump, scored in the triple jump with a sixth-place mark of 40’9.50”.

Junior Harry Weintraub turned in a career best throw of 57’9.5” for an association championship. Joining Weintraub on the podium was senior team-

mate Izzy Budnick, who placed third with his own personal best throw of 50’8”.

Also in field events, freshman Joshua Malone just missed out on All-UAA honors with a fourth place performance in the high jump at a height of 6’2.25”.

Carnegie Mellon’s Michael McDermott finished at the same height but cleared the bar in fewer attempts.

Junior Andrew Barnhart also came in fourth in the long jump with a season-best mark of 20’9”.

On the track, the Spartans picked up a key eight team points with a runner-up finish in the distance medley relay.

Phil Yeung in the leadoff spot followed by freshman Abdallah Soliman, junior Michael Perisa, and Kelly in the anchor position crossed the line in 10:20.48.

Savitsky posted a best jump of 36 feet even to finish third with All-UAA honors. The third year Spartan reached the UAA podium for the first time in her career.

Also in the triple jump, sophomore Keri Walter, the previous school record holder in the event, finished sixth with a mark of 34’0”.

In the shot put, senior captain Jenna Pansky just missed AllUAA honors with a fourth-place

courtesy case sports information Junior Thenessa Savitsky set a program-record in the triple jump an earned a third place finish as the Case women finished seventh in the UAA Indoor Track and Field Championship. showing in the shot put with an indoor career best throw of 35’4”.

Freshman Laurel Shickler placed sixth in the high jump clearing the bar at 5’1.25”.

On the track, junior Gavriella Pora tallied team points with a fifth place time of 27.23 seconds in the 200-meter dash.

Pora also ran anchor for the 4x400m relay that placed fifth in 4:10.00. Freshman CeCelia Hanline, sophomore McKenzie Braun, and senior Alyssa Harker joined her.

Senior Emily Tran placed

fourth in the weight throw with a season best mark of 39’4.5”.

Sophomore Sophia Herzog also hit a season best mark and turned in a fifth-place height of 10’6.25” in the pole vault.

The indoor season now turns to the Carthage College “Gill Athletics Final Qualifier” next Friday, Mar. 1 at 3:30 p.m. at Tarble Athletic and Recreation Center in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

Select student athletes will look to improve marks in hopes of qualifying for the 2013 NCAA Division III Championship on Mar. 8-9 in Naperville, Illinois.