Volume XLIV, Issue 23: Mar. 29, 2013

observer the

volume xliv, issue 23

A Promising

all renderings courtesy jennifer kerbo

Development

CWRU and CIA partner to create groundbreaking medical education software >>owenBELL games.and.techREPORTER<<

I

’m looking at an alien, or at least what looks like one. In reality it’s a human embryo, just a few weeks old; with its strange little legs, a bulging spine, and a pig-like head, it looks more like an insect larva than a human being.

I’m being shown this embryo

by John Fredieu, an assistant professor in the department of anatomy. It’s a 3D rendering of a human embryo for a piece of educational software called Embryon, something he has been working on since 2009. It is a project that he hopes will be able to change the way medical students are taught.

Fredieu started the project because he wanted to give professors a better way to teach embryology. As an embryology professor, he has seen daily how difficult it can be for students to learn things from the instructional material currently available.

“Right now what they’re using are textbooks, 2D pictures, and sections,” Fredieu told me, pointing to some diagrams. “So they have to reconstruct all the 2D stuff in their head.” When these are the only resources students have, it causes a knowledge gap.

“You really have to imagine in 3D to understand what is happening.”

The project was also driven by the medical school instituting their WR2 curriculum in 2006.

Under this new program, student learning is focused on clinical experience. While it has been a great success overall, parts of the old system had to be cut. The time that students spend with professors in anatomy, embryology, and histology was slashed down from an average of 170 hours a semester to 60.

This is unacceptable for Fredieu. He is emphatic about how important embryology is.

Models of embryonic development

Stage 12

Stage 13 These embryo renderings, created for Embryon, provide a 3-dimensional reference for students and scientists.

Pulling up another view of the embryo, he starts pointing at different structures on its face.

“All these [pieces] have to come together properly and at the right time in order to create a normal human face. If you have any defect in any one of these parts and how they’re interacting with each other, it can produce: clefts, a loss of tongue, loss of ear, loss of palate; congenital abnormalities. In order for a [doctor] to understand what congenital abnormalities [are present] in a face he is looking at he needs to understand how it’s put together.” This is information that doctors need, but the medical school is not dedicating nearly as much time or resources to actually teach.

To fill that gap, Fredieu wanted to create a way that students

friday, 03/29/13

could start teaching themselves the material, in addition to what they were getting from professors and textbooks. And so Embryon was born.

Fredieu needed people who could actually complete the project, though, because accurately modeling living things is a technical and time consuming process.

He found the talent he needed when he saw the work of a Cleveland Institute of Art student in one of his classes. “It was after spring break and she came back and brought in a big ball of yarn.

And she put this big ball of yarn on the table and started opening it up and it was a placenta with a knitted embryo inside it with a knitted umbilical chord. It was beautiful. And when I saw that I thought, ‘We have these students that are talented like this, why can’t I use them?’”

Fredieu immediately reached out to Amanda Almon, director of biomedical art and animation at CIA and in 2009, with the hard work of two CIA students selected by Almon, the first prototype of what would become Embryon was created.

It was a huge success.

Fredieu’s colleagues praised the software and it has been downloaded in 20 different countries.

The software also proved itself as a learning aid. When Fredieu tested it with focus groups, the groups that used the software saw improvements as high as 40 percent over students who had not.

Following that success, Fredieu and Almon decided to take that prototype and make a full featured piece of software, creating something that students at CWRU and other medical schools around the country could use.

Making the team to complete the software was not easy. Artists with both the technical skills and

see DEVELOPMENT | 10

sheehan hannan / observer

Charter One Bank robbed

The Charter One Bank on Euclid Avenue was robbed on Tuesday around 10:30 a.m. by a white male wearing a dark hooded sweatshirt. He handed the bank teller a note demanding cash, but authorities are unsure of the amount of money he stole.

Charter One officials would not comment on the situation. The hompage of observer.case.edu will feature updates on the robbery as more information becomes available.

There’s something about IMPROVment A look behind the Black Box >>brydenSPEVAK senior.newsREPORTER<<

Even Case Western Reserve University has a funny bone, and this year marks its 10th birthday. What started as several failed attempts to create a cohesive comedy improvisation group finally emerged in fall 2003 as IMPROVment.

Now, the tight-knit and talented student group is looking back on its 10 years of packed performances at Eldred’s Black Box Theater as they prepare for 10th anniversary shows, events, and alumni reunions to take place this upcoming fall semester.

Over the years, the troupe has put on shows with a wide variety of themes. They hold end-of-semester shows, charity shows benefiting organizations such as Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, improv celebrity guest shows, and alumni shows. Last year, they held their first improv festival. Through it all, they have

A look at the 2013 Cleveland Indians team See Sports, page 14 Opinion writer Ellen Kubit calls out for people to reflect on the Steubenville rape case and its recent verdict.

See Opinion, page 6

stayed together and grown.

IMPROVment is popular— really popular. Shows are well attended, often uncomfortably packed, and even the most anxiety-ridden biomedical engineering student can be seen hacking up a lung with laughter.

Undoubtedly, there’s something about IMPROVment.

Senior computer science major Anthony Christensen caught his first show as a freshman. The improv fever soon followed.

“Everyone on the troupe seemed so close,” he reminisced. “It looked like they were having a lot of fun on stage, and I wanted to get to participate in that.”

Despite his sometimes-timid exterior and limited acting experience, he decided to try out.

“I have always enjoyed joking around and making people laugh, but I’d never actually done anything on stage or for

see IMPROVMENT | 4

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03/29/13

2

Outside the Circle >>sarahGROFT national.newsREPORTER<<

courtesy wrcbtv.com Amanda Knox reacts to returning home to the United States in 2011. Accused of killing her roommate in Italy, Knox was acquitted by Italy’s final court of appeal after serving four years of her 25-year sentence. Italian courts have ordered a retrial. She will be tried in absentia if she does not return to the country.

Amanda Knox called to stand trial once more In 2007, American student Amanda Knox, who was studying in Italy, and her boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were accused of killing Knox’s roommate, Meredith Kercher. Two years later, they were convicted. In 2011, the convictions were overturned due to the lack of evidence and motivation. Prosecutors challenged the acquittals of Knox and Sollecito, which was allowed by Italian law.

According to his lawyer, Guilia Buongiorno, Sollecito is unlikely to be

jailed again in the retrial. Knox does not need to be present for the new trial, but if she is convicted, Italy could lodge a request for Knox’s extradition by the United States Government. Carlo dalla Vedova, one of Knox’s lawyers, said, “Amanda is very sad at this news but is strong and ready to fight on. She thought the nightmare was over, but was ready for this after the discussion in the Supreme Court went on longer than predicted. This means further harassment, but she’s ready to fight.”

Groundhog day celebration takes a legal turn The Groundhog Day celebration takes place in Punxsutawney, Penn. every year. This year, however, Ohio’s Butler County prosecutor, Mike Gmoser, filed a criminal indictment against Pennsylvania’s famous groundhog, Phil, over his “prediction” of an early spring. Gmoser was upset when snow began to fall during the week the groundhog had “predicted” spring to start.

Bill Deeley, president of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club’s Inner Circle, said that Phil the groundhog had actually

predicted six more weeks of winter, but Deeley had failed to announce this correct information. Last week when the “prediction” was made, Gmoser commented that “Punxsutawney Phil purposely, and with prior calculation and design, caused the people to believe that spring would come early.” However, Gmoser dropped the charge on Tuesday, when he found out that the groundhog’s handler was taking the blame. “Truly, I have really serious work to do in Butler County. Let’s end it on a high note,” Gmoser said.

Small Irish town legalizes drinking and driving Killarney, a town in southern Ireland, gathered a lot of attention this past winter when its local council apparently voted to legalize driving drunk. However, this information was not entirely correct. The Kerry County Council did pass a motion that called for people who live in country areas to be allowed a few beers before they drove home.

Danny Healy-Rae, a local pub owner and politician, was the first person to propose this motion. His goal was to combat the decrease in pub culture and the isolation of rural life. According to The New York Times, Healy-Rae’s exact wishes were “to issue permits to people living in rural isolated areas to allow them to drive home from their nearest pub after having two or three drinks on little-used roads driving at very low speeds.”

Upon talking to some of the inhabitants of the Healy-Rae family pub, it was found that most individuals approved of this new motion. One pub-goer said that the pub was “a great excuse to get out of the house.” He continued, “I wouldn’t drink every day or anything like that, but it does give me a lift

to have a couple of pints and maybe bump into friends and hear what’s happening in the world.” This pub-goer currently relies on a neighbor to take him to and from the pub.

Healy-Rae’s motion passed, and since then, his family pub has been host to film crews from all over Europe. “I am not advocating on behalf of the kind of individuals who cause accidents on our roads,” said Healy-Rae, “I am talking about mainly elderly people who live in very remote places who come to town to get a bit of shopping, enjoy a couple of pints and a chat with friends then drive home at less than 30 miles per hour.”

Toireasa Ferris, another Kerry County Council member, was not pleased about the motions’ passing. “Never in my wildest imaginations did I think it ever would be passed. This is not the way to address this problem. Some in an older generation who were used to having a few pints and driving home may still think it acceptable…But we have to break the link between socializing and drinking for the generations following.”

Mystery of Duffy’s cut beginning to be uncovered In the early 1800s, a cholera epidemic killed dozens of Irish immigrants who came to the United States. A small wooded area called Duffy’s Cut in Malvern, Penn. became a mass grave for those young immigrants. Over the past decade, multitudes of professors, students, scientists, and landscapers have excavated the soil in Duffy’s Cut. Their goal was to unearth the bodies and, according to The New York Times, give them historical context and ship them home to be buried in consecrated soil.

The story of the Irish immigrants began in June 1832, when the ship, John Stamp, docked in Philadelphia, Penn.

The youngest member on the ship was believed to be 18-year-old John Ruddy.

Other members of the ship’s crew bore the names Devine, McIlheaney, and Skelton. The crew’s job was to dig through the clay and shale of the land in order to level the ground for a train line. However, later in the summer, an outbreak of cholera occurred, most likely being spread through a contaminated creek that ran past the men’s living quarters.

After the outbreak began, the immigrants were shunned by most of the local community, with the exception of a few Sisters of Charity. When the outbreak finally ended, eight men were dead, and their living quarters had been burned down and buried. In 1909, a mid-level rail official names Martin Clement, erected a granite-block enclosure around Duffy’s Cut, but was forbidden to put an explanatory plaque beside the monument.

In 2002, a man named Bill Watson and his brother Frank, were going through some of their family’s old belongings.

They discovered that their grandfather was the executive assistant to Clement, who eventually became the president of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Clement had kept an extensive file on Duffy’s Cut that indicated that at least 57 people had died as opposed to eight. “Something was off.

It made us dig deeper,” said Watson.

Working with a number of colleagues, the Watsons created a rough grid of the Duffy’s Cut site. Then, in August 2004, they began to dig with the help of a few college students. It took over a year to find anything buried from the living quarters. In Nov. 2005, Watson found the bowl of a clay pipe that was covered with shamrocks and a small harp. “That for us was the holy grail. It meant this wasn’t just an urban myth.”

A geophysicist, Tim Bechtel, was then recruited to the project. Using ground-penetrating radar and electrical imaging, Bechtel was able to scan the ground and detect “anomalies.” In March 2009, two of the male college students discovered a tibia, and the findings continued from there. The bones that were found were examined by Janet Monge, a physical anthropologist, and Matt Patterson, a local dentist with forensic odontology training.

Monge and Patterson indicated that the bone fragments found were indicative of a muscular man in his late teens.

This teen had never developed an upper right first molar, which Patterson said was very rare. Additionally, markings indicated that this teen’s skull had evidence of blunt-force trauma, meaning that someone had hit him on the head.

The next two years resulted in six more sets of remains, along with iron forks, pottery shards, handmade glass buttons, pieces of other clay pipes, and coffin nails. These nails indicated that some of the immigrants had been buried before the cholera epidemic was through.

Blunt force trauma was found in three of the six remains sets found in addition to a bullet hole. These discoveries, along with new accounts, indicate the possibility that the immigrants were forced into quarantine and were killed when they tried to escape. “I actually think it was a massacre,” said Monge. Excavations will continue until the true history of Duffy’s Cut is revealed.

South Korea and the U.S. make defense plans On Monday, the United States military announced that it would sign an agreement with South Korea that discussed how to counter provocations from North Korea. The agreement states that the United States would deal with “local clashes and skirmishes,” such as the shelling of an island in 2010 which killed four South Koreans.

Different possible provocations were considered, and South Korean-American responses were drafted to combat each proposed provocation. For now, the agreement is considered to be led by South Korea and is simply supported by the United States.

Recently, South Korea has commented that

if they are provoked, they will not only deal with the provocation, but will also go after North Korea’s supporting forces and its commanding post.

According to The New York Times, a joint statement from the United States and South Korea said that, “By completing this plan, we improved our combined readiness posture to allow us to immediately and decisively respond to any North Korean provocation.” The agreement was signed by the top American commander in South Korea, General James D. Thurman, and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the South Korean military, General Jung Seung-jo.

>>police blotter

Write

03/18 to 3/25

March 18 - Theft from auto - Items taken from unlocked vehicle, Lot 1 March 18 - Bicycle theft - Bike taken from rack between 3/17 & 3/18Howe House March 20 - Felony theft - Unattended laptop taken from office between 12:4012:45 p.m., A.W Smith.

March 20 - Theft from auto Vehicle entered/items taken between 6:30-8 p.m., Lot 1.

March 21 - Theft- Unattended backpack taken between 6-6:40 p.m., Thwing Center.

March 23 - Theft from autoWindow broken & items taken from vehicle between 6:30-8 p.m., Lot 1.

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Kids Against Hunger to host Mock Oscars event >>brianSHERMAN campus.eventsREPORTER<<

With midterms finally finished and the threat of finals looming over the far horizon, the average Case Western Reserve University student may be in need of a little self-esteem boost. Fortunately, Kids Against Hunger (KAH) is willing to help.

The group dedicated to alleviating hunger in the Cleveland area will be hosting a “Mock Oscar” event today, March 29, at 5 p.m. in Strosacker Auditorium. Like the well-known awards show, the event will recognize winners in several categories, albeit with a CWRU twist. Instead of the award going to the best picture or best actor, the Mock Oscars will honor the CWRU student KAH feels is most likely to win a Nobel Prize, is the procrastination champion, the class comedian, will become the next Steve Jobs, most hipster, most nocturnal, and best voice, among others.

“It’s like superlatives from high school, but tailored to CWRU,” said event organizer Michelle Chen. “I’m looking forward to seeing everyone enjoy the night.”

Mock Oscars will live up to its title, as there will be a red carpet, fancily dressed nominees, and interviews with the nominees, which will be shown to the audience on the big screen in Strosacker. In addition, there will be performances by Dhamakapella and Case in Point.

The event will cost $5 for students.

Raffle tickets will be sold at the event, with one complimentary ticket given to everyone at the door. These raffle tick-

shannon snyder / observer Members of Kids Against Hunger package meals during an event.

The group donated over 30,000 meals to the Cleveland food bank. ets can be used to vote on two additional categories: best dressed and best performance, which will be announced later on during the event. In addition, the Mock Oscars admittance ticket will also allow students to attend the CWRU Film Society’s featured movie tonight.

Money raised through Mock Oscars will benefit Kids Against Hunger and help support their food-packaging events.

The food-packaging events have proven to be very successful; this past Saturday, KAH and other volunteers from CWRU were able to package 30,000 meals for the Cleveland Food Bank.

“We’re a small group, but we make a big impact,” said Chen.

Kids Against Hunger has been deciding who will be the award winners over the past week. Nominations were open to all members of the CWRU student body.

Nominees, but not attendees, are required to dress formally.

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USG Brief >>nooraSOMERSALO student.affairsREPORTER<<

On Tues., March 26, the General Assembly (GA) of Case Western Reserve University’s Undergraduate Student Government (USG) held a different kind of meeting. This time, the GA had invited students not members of the USG to attend the assembly and voice their possible concerns about campus issues at an open forum while sipping complimentary coffee and snacking on tacos from Qdoba.

President James Hale opened the discussion by highlighting an op-ed article ran in The Observer, originally published in the CWRU House Mafia blog. The op-ed argued that the university is moving rapidly forward with an initiative for a completely smokefree campus but is doing so for publicity rather than actually planning on its proper enforcement.

The issue prompted a long discussion where many GA members as well as guests spoke up both supporting and opposing the planned policy. Many attendees were concerned about an effective way to implement the policy and the possible ramifications for violators, which are currently next to nonexistent.

It was noted that the university does offer smoking secession programs for smokers interested in quitting their habit. Some suggested that before introducing a stricter smoking policy, the university should make these programs more visible and accessible for students.

The supporters of the policy argued in response that smoking on campus still does affect students and that numerous other colleges in the country have already adopted the smoke-free campus program. However, it was concluded that in a survey conducted last year by the USG, a majority of the students at CWRU thought the current policy to be sufficient.

The general consensus of the discussion was that the policy should not be circulating solely among the administration, as stated in the CWRU House Mafia article, but that the issue should be turned into a campus-wide conversation.

Another topic brought up in the open forum was one that has been discussed at the

past few GA meetings as well. The Executive Committee asked feedback for a potential new practice where the Finance Committee would be consisted of appointed members, each representing a different caucus.

This reform would be a part of a new system where the Finance Committee would have the power to decide on funding independently without the need of the GA’s approval.

With the current biweekly meeting schedule, student organizations have to wait for up to two weeks to get the final decision on their rolling funding applications. By expanding the Finance Committee’s authority, it was argued, the process would be faster and more convenient for student organizations.

Some expressed worries that appointed members would not necessarily be interested in finance issues and would consequently not serve the student organizations’ best interest.

The supporters of the idea said that the new system would make the GA meetings shorter since funding bills would not be discussed anymore, which is already redundant as the GA usually approves any funding bills it is presented.

After the open forum, Elections Commissioner Tom Dooner presented the assembly the new Elections Commission, which the GA approved. He then introduced Bill B. 22-24, a bill to establish the number of representative positions for next year’s GA. According to the USG constitution, each caucus should have one representative for every 100 students, making the College of Arts and Sciences the largest caucus with 13 representative positions. Concerns were voiced about the lack of representatives for students with undeclared majors but no changes were made to the current system. The bill was approved with 91 percent affirmation.

Bill B. 22-25, a bill to establish the fall 2013 budget, was briefly discussed but tabled until the USG receives the final amount of money in the student activities fee funds.

At the time of the meeting, the estimated amount was $165,000 with a rollover of approximately $100,000.

Bills B. 22-26 and B. 22-27, the recognition bill and the rolling funding bill, were approved with 97 percent and 85 percent affirmation, respectively. With bill B. 22-27, the Finance Committee allocated $6,231.74 out of the $7,810.23 requested.

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03/29/13

SLJC Spotlight on…

Operation Smile >>jennaMILLEMACI senior.newsREPORTER<<

When Gabrielle Kelly was in elementary school, there was no competition against her in the classroom, or when she played the “scar game.” From a distance, it may just look like she’s worn too many headbands, but Kelly doesn’t make an effort to hide the perfectly hairless line that arches around her head from ear to ear. The scar serves as a constant reminder of the cranio-facial surgery that saved her life from a birth defect called craniosynostosis and the role chance played in her access to surgery.

Kelly, a second-year undergraduate premed and nutritional biochemistry major at Case Western Reserve University, doesn’t take anything for granted. She has realized how lucky she is to be alive in the United States where she has access to simple, life-saving medical procedures. When she learned about Operation Smile, an international children’s medical charity that provides reconstructive surgery for children born with facial deformities, she knew she couldn’t just ignore the chance to give back.

“I just became more empathetic toward people who were less fortunate than me,” said Kelly, president of CWRU’s chapter of Operation Smile since fall 2012. “I’m involved with it because I’ve personally been

affected by cranio-facial disorders… It’s just really a treatable cause.”

Established in 2007, the mission of CWRU’s chapter of Operation Smile is to raise awareness about cleft disorders and to raise money for the international umbrella organization. At the international level, Operation Smile is a force of medical professionals who provide reconstructive surgery and medical care in over 60 countries for children born with facial deformities such as cleft lip and cleft palate.

According to the organization’s website, every three minutes, a child is born with a cleft, and one in 10 of those children will die before their first birthday.

“It’s not a condition that you think of as being deadly, but it actually can be very deadly,” Kelly said. “When you see the pictures of the kids [affected by cleft disorders] it just looks like they may have a little bit of a deformity and socially they might not be accepted, but actually a lot of them have problems with eating, drinking, just basic life functions because their internal cavities are all kind of combined,” Kelly said.

“Overall, the first thing that people think of when they see you is your face.”

According to Kelly, the surgical procedures take about 45 minutes and costs $240 through Operation Smile. “The idea is that it’s something that’s very cheap compared

to [something like] curing cancer. It’s just something that’s very tangible,” she said.

Operation Smile just wrapped up their latest event last Friday afternoon in the Hovorka Atrium with a speaker panel on facial deformities. About 50 guests attended, and the panel of experts featured geneticist Suzanne Debrosse, pediatric plastic surgeon Gregory Lakin, orthodontist Manish Valiathan, and otolaryngologist James Arnold from University Hospitals’ Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hopsital. The panel was moderated by Karl Rishe, Operation Smile’s advisor and assistant director of residence life for the First Year Experience.

Rishe, also a personal patient of cleft palate surgery, provided a middle-ground for all of the questions.

“I think one of the most exciting things about [the event] was that one of our speakers, Dr. Lakin, was really interested in getting people involved with the cranio-facial team at University Hospitals. He extended a big opportunity to anyone there if they wanted to get involved with any research, volunteering, or shadowing,” Kelly said.

Additionally, the CWRU chapter of Operation Smile raises money and awareness through community activities such as bake sales and selling t-shirts. Their monetary goal this year is to raise $500, and according to Kelly, they are well on their way.

“There are going to be a lot of upcoming opportunities for people to get involved with doctors specifically, so it’s going to be a really good pre-medical, pre-dental organization for anyone who wants to actually get into the hospital and see how to treat these deformities,” Kelly said.

The club has about 10 regularly active members, and they meet the first Thursday

courtesy gabrielle kelly CWRU chapter president of Operation Smile Gabrielle Kelly (right) has headed the organization since she came to campus in the fall of 2012. She personally had been affected by a cranio-facial disorder and viewed the organization as her way of giving back. of every month.

“It’s definitely a smaller club of regularly active members,” Kelly said. “I just want it to be a bigger club on campus that can do big events.”

With regards to the chance she was given, Kelly never forgets why she’s the president of Operation Smile.

“It’s a gift to know that you’re in a position that thousands and thousands of people were never given,” she said. “It definitely puts life in perspective.”

Prepared in partnership with the Student Leadership Journey Council, Spotlight On... is a recurring piece that features Case Western Reserve University student organizations.

from IMPROVMENT | 1 an audience,” he explained. But he sees this as a positive.

“I basically came in with a clean slate as far as performing goes,” Cristensen said.

“But I think that has helped me look at things from a unique perspective and separate the drama from the performing.”

It took Christensen two tries to make it on the troupe, but once he did, he never looked back.

Now 11 performers strong, IMPROVment can expect to hold over 40 shows a year, all of which are free.

Lines form outside the theater well before each performance starts. Students file in half an hour before the show, chattering excitedly over the background music, and fill every possible nook of the improv cave. Meanwhile, the troupe goes through their “secret rituals” as they warm up.

The opening song finally comes on, the host emerges, and the show begins. The troupe plays games similar to those on Whose Line Is It Anyway?, with plenty of audience participation.

Some involve singing, some are heavily movement based, and some feature word play. Together, they make a delicious recipe for entertainment.

“The particular set of games is mixed up every time,” Christensen said, “though we have some favorites that we play more often than others.”

Given the unscripted nature of the evening, sometimes things go wrong.

Fumbles are made, jokes are not always funny, but the audience still leaves with their cheeks stuck in semi-permanent smiles.

But getting these full houses and audience reactions is not as easy as the troupe makes it look. While there is no script, practice is still necessary. “In other types of acting, you know what you’re going to say and what you’re going to do,” said Christensen. “Not only that, but you know what others are going to say and do as well. Improvising takes all of that away. So you are more or less completely thinking on your toes.” It is difficult to imagine how a group resting on so much uncertainty can function

courtesy improv.case.edu Members of CWRU’s improv comedy group IMPROVment have been making audiences laugh since its inception in 2003. The group has upcoming shows on April 5 and April 13. so well. The trick, as Christensen has experienced, lies in the IMPROVment bond.

“A lot of groups will call themselves a family, but we really take it to an extreme,” Christensen explained. “It’s so important for us to be cohesive, to be able to know what a person is thinking or what they might do on stage.”

The future of IMPROVment rests on the new talent that continues to come out to auditions. Those interested can try out every fall semester in a process that includes one night of preliminary auditions followed by callbacks for those who make the cut.

“We try to get a feel for people’s sense of humor, stage presence, and ability to work with other performers,” Christensen said. Typically, around 40 people come to preliminary auditions,

and half are called back. The current troupe members must unanimously vote for each new member to join.

For Christensen, currently the president, IMPROVment has had practical benefits as well. “I’ve already found that the experience has done a lot for my self-confidence, charisma, and presentation skills,” he explained. “And employers are always intrigued when they see it on my resume.”

Despite the competitive audition process, Christensen hopes that new candidate interest continues to remain high. He is confident that new members are out there, perhaps hiding behind a shy exterior. As Christensen has emphasized, nerves should never stop someone with an interest from trying out.

His reasoning: “There are no mistakes in improv, only choices.”

>>Dates of Upcoming Shows Friday, April 5 10 p.m., All Music Show Saturday, April 13 11 p.m., Black Box Show Friday, April 19 11 p.m., Senior Show Monday, April 29 8 p.m., End of Semester Show

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03/29/13

Feeling the prospie love >> heather O’KEEFFE | WHAT A GIRL WANTS While open houses mean the dining halls will be overtaken by awkward prospective students and intrusive parents, they also mean early starts and long days for me. As a tour guide, they provide the perfect opportunity to work a lot and start to pay off my spring-break trip.

After last week’s two-day open house and prospie overnight, I can officially say I love open houses. Despite walking through the snow before sunrise to get to Thwing by 7 a.m. and begin unloading boxes of pamphlets in the dark atrium, I was eager to wake up each morning.

If you haven’t spent some time talking to a prospie and their family then you are missing out. Their energy and interest in Case Western Reserve University is palpable; you can’t help but be infused with their eagerness to experience all that CWRU has to offer.

So I am more than happy to mix and mingle throughout the Thwing Atrium: asking lonesome prospies how their overnight stay was and clarifying the schedule of events for confused parents. They either smile and politely deny your advances, as they are already on top of the day and have a feel for CWRU, or they quickly engage you in discussion, pressing you for your knowledge of all our school has to offer. This is the fun part.

Through these interactions with prospies and their families, I get to divulge the best-kept collegiate secret that is CWRU. I share my experiences, typical experiences, and the experiences of my friends in an attempt to sum up campus life.

Families ask about professors, study spaces, the anomaly that is Cleveland weather, roommates, dining halls, internships, research, course load, extracurricular, study abroad, majors, minors, the college transition, and of course, the students running around in green bandanas with

nerf guns. My favorite question to receive was also my favorite question to ask way back when I was a prospie: why did you decide to come to CWRU? Through this question and every other question asked, I am provided the opportunity to reflect. I might be stressed out from housing drama and worn down by piles of homework, but when I am with families all I have to do is think about what makes our school great. When I am interacting with families I am reminded of all the wonderful opportunities and resources CWRU presents and they overwhelm the negative aspects.

Families are genuinely excited to be on campus and interested in soaking up as much as possible. The college decision process is daunting, no doubt, but inevitably it is thrilling: prospies are deciding their future. And the possibility that I could somehow positively affect that decision and the degree of impact that I, as a tour guide, make upon a prospies visit to campus encourages me even more so to highlight the wonderful aspects of our campus.

At the end of a day spent tour guiding and mingling, I happily churn through my homework, relishing the opportunity to study at such an exceptional institution.

We, the CWRU student body, are truly blessed with many opportunities, from Seth Meyers to groundbreaking research, but we easily forget this in the day-to-day, week-to-week exhaustion of homework and exams. Sometimes all it takes is a lost prospie to remind us of our exceptional school.

Heather O’Keeffe is a first year student studying biomedical engineering.

She spent spring break wandering the streets of New York City and navigating the subway like a local.

Editor’s Note Here today, gone tomorrow Believe it or not, Cleveland sits on the global stage. We may be the city of springtime snow and powerless traffic lights, but our little dot on the map is observed worldwide. Case Western Reserve University has more than recognized this in recent years, implementing a Plan for Internationalization that continues to make the institution a borderless competitor for academic talent.

This effort has materialized in multiple ways, from the creation of the Center for International Affairs to a significant increase in the number of undergraduates studying abroad. Additionally, the university continues to enroll more international students with each class. The problem remains, however, that CWRU is not training future alumni; it is training its future competitors.

The United States’ economy requires highly-skilled workers, especially in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) areas. However, many of the foreign-born university graduates who seek employment in these areas are forced to return to their home county. There they must wait for the proper visa to stay in the United States.

The wait for obtaining an american visa can frequently last ten years.

This long delay provides a decade-long opportunity for other countries with streamlined visa options to attract and recruit our talent.

This is the sentiment conveyed by the presidents of several Ohio universities in an open letter to United States senators Rob Portman and Sherrod Brown. The letter urges Congress and the President to fix the nation’s broken immigration system so that United States-trained talent can innovate within our borders.

The signers of the letter include the presidents of Bowling Green State University, University of Cincinnati, University of Dayton, The Ohio State University, University of Toledo, Miami University, and Northeast Ohio Medical University. But these names pale in comparison to CWRU president Barbara R. Snyder’s name on the list.

In last week’s Editor’s Note I criticized the university for not taking a stand against the unjust jailing of Inamori Prize recipient Beatrice Mtetwa. This week I write with pride that our university – the best in Ohio – is not staying quiet about an issue causing serious effects to both the country and the school.

I understand that being the best university in Ohio and one of the best in the nation comes with certain responsibilities. It means statements made by this institution go noticed and often the proverbial punch must remain pulled.

But it also means words spoken by this school resonate long past the time they are stated and can affect more change than almost any other entity can muster. Forcing graduating talent to become foreign competitors is not in the best interest of the United States, and the time for the government action has long since arrived.

When they do finally act, they’ll find Case Western Reserve University was already there.

Tyler Hoffman – EXECUTIVE EDITOR Want to connect with the editor?

Follow him on Twitter @tylerehoffman or drop him a line at observer@case.edu.

courtesy media.cleveland.com

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.

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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.

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A necessary reflection after the Steubenville trial >> ellen Kubit | The “F” Word: Feminism Last month, I wrote a piece about the Steubenville rape case and the grim reality of sexual violence prevention in the United States of America. However, on Mar. 17, Judge Thomas Lipps found the two Steubenville teens charged with raping a 16-year-old West Virginian girl delinquent (guilty).

Trent Mays, 17, was sentenced to at least two years in juvenile detention for rape and distributing a picture of the girl naked, and Ma’Lik Richmond, 16, was sentenced to at least one year.

This rollercoaster of a case is still far from over. More charges and attempts to appeal the rulings have surfaced every hour since that Sunday morning. The discourse on this case has been rigidly divided since the beginning, and the reactions are not any different.

All this information exists at the touch of a mouse, in case anyone has somehow managed to avoid this important story. But at this point, I ask that everyone just take five minutes today to do one thing: reflect.

“My life is over. No one is going to want me now.” —Ma’Lik Richmond Richmond expressed this concern immediately after hearing the Judge’s sentence. Doesn’t something seem strange about the word ‘now’? The only difference for Richmond between now and before the trial is that he was convicted. He was a rapist from the moment he raped the victim, not from the conviction.

His reaction implies that the verdict is why “no one is going to want [him],” and not his previous actions.

Richmond’s breakdown occurred after the verdict—not before. Perhaps Richmond was not crying because he felt serious remorse for what he did to the girl, but because he got caught. Now we must reflect.

The world cannot afford declaring rape a crime only by a conviction. It must be known as a crime from the moment it is thought of and committed. The consequences of raping a very drunk 16-year-old girl should not hit Richmond after the verdict but as soon as he created the opportunity.

If teenagers in the 21st century are as desensitized about rape as Richmond, then society has truly failed. An important lesson the world can take away from this case is that we need to talk more about rape and why it is a crime against humanity even before the rape happens.

“Many of the things we learned during this trial were that our children were saying and doing [things that] were profane, were ugly.” –Judge Thomas Lipps Judge Thomas Lipps forgot to mention how disturbing this case was. Mays and Richmond were not the only ones to blame. What about all the teenagers who watched, laughed, contributed to, and did nothing while the crime occurred? Where was everyone’s concept of right and wrong?

Furthermore, some text messages found on Mays’ phone indicated the Steubenville football coach was in-

volved in keeping the incident quiet.

Several teenage girls were recently arrested for threatening the victim over social media. The victim experienced the first round of terror during the assault, the second before the trial, and now an additional round after the judge found her rapists guilty.

Until we learn to discuss rape as rape rather than rape as a category of sex, we will continue to blame victims. Mays and Richmond’s actions during the assault were atrocious, but the commentary after the crime and during the trial was even more appalling.

But in reality, the disgusting comments of those who belittled the victim and considered her at fault accurately reflect where the rest of the country is at when discussing rape. Some may look at the Steubenville case and show their disapproval, but what they also fail to see that Steubenville is everywhere.

“They treated her like a toy.” –prosecutor Marianne Hemmeter Without a doubt, Mays and Richmond demonstrated to the world that on the night of Aug. 11, they did not value a human life.

The boys claimed the disturbing photo of them carrying the victim’s lifeless body by her limbs was just a joke they were all part of. Take a look for yourself. If that photo was a joke, then I do not want to know what those kids do when they are serious.

She was clearly intoxicated beyond the state of even being able to hold her head up. But apparently that meant the boys had full license to drag her around

like a corpse. No, these rapists did not kill anyone, but taking advantage of a drunk girl and leaving her naked body in the basement of a stranger’s home did not exhibit any value in her life.

I am still trying to wrap my head around the fact that consent was never even considered by Mays and Richmond. They truly felt entitled to do what they wanted to her. A woman is not a toy, let alone a drunken 16-year-old girl. We clearly have a drinking age for a reason, but alcohol cannot be to blame in this case.

Mays and Richmond would have eventually done this to another victim given the indifference to morality displayed through their text messages discussed in court. The defense attempted to argue that the girl was drunk, but was capable of giving consent.

Nothing that appeared in that case implied that Mays and Richmond were not boastfully overpowering her from the beginning of the night until the trial.

As usual, I advise everyone to learn more about the case. I will conclude with a text message sent from Trent Mays’ phone shortly after the night of the crime: “I shoulda raped her since everyone thinks I did.”

Ellen Kubit is a Political Science and English major. She intends to change the world for the better. If that doesn’t work, then she wants to travel the globe visiting castles.

The pursuit of happiness >> ashley Yarus | KEEPING PERSPECTIVE The debate over same-sex marriage has been batted between institutions for decades. In 1996, former president Bill Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which defined marriage to be between a man and a woman. In 2008, California passed Proposition 8, which restricted marriage to heterosexual couples. Then, in 2010, California’s Supreme Court declared Proposition 8 unconstitutional. This week, the Supreme Court is considering the constitutionality of both Proposition 8 and DOMA. Nine states and Washington, D.C. recognize same-sex marriages.

The list of states is varied, but is composed of predominantly liberal states: Connecticut, Maine, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Vermont, and Washington.

Still, more states recognize samesex marriages under different names, with a range of associated legal rights. However, there is no federal stance on the issue of same-sex marriage besides that of DOMA. To put things into perspective, Denmark recognized same-sex unions in 1989.

Since then, ten additional countries have legalized same-sex marriages.

Yet, here we stand, unable to take a firm stance, unable to even draw a line in the sand.

The greatest fear of same-sex marriage supporters is that this latest Supreme Court case will dissolve, and the Court will dismiss the case. After a twisted series of laws, propositions, and bans have redefined and then dismissed the rights of homosexual citizens, this Supreme Court case may do little to clarify the rights of samesex partners in the U.S. However, I believe that a change

courtesy pixel.nymag.com is coming. A recent CNN poll found that 53 percent of Americans support same-sex marriage. It also found that 57 percent said that a family member or close friend was homosexual. The issue of same-sex marriage is hitting closer to home for citizens across America.

More than that, the image of homosexual couples is starting to melt into that of the nuclear family.

Looking at the crowd outside of the Supreme Court, one can’t help but notice how commonplace all the protesters seem. Yes, many of the women support cropped hair and the men wear rather stylish glasses, but they look like average Americans. More than that, they seem like nice, happy, enthusiastic people. Most are smiling and seem to emit an aura of optimism. Their signs are sincere and peaceful, most simply

tout slogans of love and equality. With such meager demands, I find it hard to believe that anyone would deny these people their basic rights.

The ideas that support the gayrights movement are simple and clear: if people are in love, they should be given the right to marry. Same-sex partners are just like any other citizens: they pay taxes, they have jobs, and they wish to share their happiness.

Separating the views of religion from the actions of state, it seems wholly unconstitutional to deny citizens their rights. Whether every American believes that their emotions are true and righteous doesn’t really pertain to the matter of people’s right to marry and receive the benefits of a legal marriage.

A Supreme Court ruling on Proposi-

tion 8 and DOMA isn’t expected until June. In the meantime, the supporters of same-sex marriage can at least hope for the best. If nothing else, a case regarding same-sex marriage has reached the Supreme Court. This alone can be considered a major step in the direction of change for the gayrights movement. Even if the step is small, perhaps the mere recognition of same-sex marriage as worthy of the Supreme Court’s consideration will mean that a change is on the horizon.

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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Facing the facts: gay marriage is on the way >> andrew BRELAND | THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM Like most of America last week, I was enveloped and enamored by the performance of the upstart players from Florida Gulf Coast University in magnanimous wins over Georgetown and San Diego State universities.

These upsets, while busting the brackets of nearly all fans (except the most diehard FGCU fans), thrust the public university into the hearts and minds of sports enthusiasts across the country.

Now, we do not yet know if the Cinderella story behind the Eagles will translate into further success in the tournament. They may lose tonight. However, there is a lesson to be learned in the image and success of the boys from Fort Myers.

America loves a happy story. We love to join one another around the table and tell tales of happiness, good luck, and love acquired. America loves the underdog. We want the small person to succeed. We want the oppressed to rise up and throw off the chains of his oppressor.

America accepts and desires the “huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” We celebrate the success of small-business owners who risk everything to make a living – and succeed.

America celebrates the rule breakers, the people who are not and cannot be satisfied with the status quo.

Rule breakers inspired the greatest American movements and creations: jazz, blues, pop art, rock and roll, Hollywood, New York City, and Disneyland. Throughout our country’s history, these individuals have

taken on many forms. They were the abolitionists, the suffragettes, and the capitalist industrializers. Civil Rights advocates, religious leaders, and revolutionary guard who built our nation round out this creative group. This week, such a movement has again confronted the American people.

I had never seen a supporter of gay rights prior to my junior year of high school. Yes, there were classmates, avowed liberals who parroted the political beliefs of their parents, but they hardly count. I had never met a real proponent of gay rights. This was, of course, due in part to my living in conservative Ohio. I hail from the county where more than 60 percent of people voted for Mitt Romney in 2012 and John Kasich in 2010. I live in the district of John Boehner. To say we are conservative is an understatement.

Gay rights were not an issue. People around me didn’t support it, and to this day, the majority of my town/county/ district believes it to be wrong. If you talk to practically anyone, you will be bombarded with anti-gay rights taglines, religious zealotry, and misinformation.

Some, not all or even a majority, will declare homosexuals as unequal, others going so far as to call it, “curable.”

But there is not even a conflict to be argued here. There is no “cure,” or “solution,” to a nonexistent “problem.”

There is no bastardizing of our culture, or attempt to overturn the hierarchy of society. And allowing homosexuals to exercise their rights as Americans will do little more than give equal treatment

to a demographic that is being unreasonably denied their God given rights.

At the Supreme Court on Tuesday, Justice Samuel Alito postulated that gay rights cannot be solved now, because it is a young issue. “Newer than cell phones or the Internet,” he said. However, it is only because of this that the issue can be put to rest.

In less than 40 years, since the gay rights movement emerged in the 1970s, the issue became paramount in the American political scene. Just in 2004, former president George W. Bush was reelected, and openly criticizing the idea of gay marriage. But slowly, states began to realize the folly of that view.

Gay marriage is now legal in nine states and Washington, D.C., and the Supreme Court has been asked to decide whether it is legal in all 50. Gay marriage and the struggle for equal rights is the underdog story.

In 50 years, the movement has advanced from a fringe group to the mainstream. In less than 10, a country that elected a President because he was antigay, now supports the rights of homosexuals to marry. In short, gay marriage is here. We can no longer deny individuals the equal protections of the law. And no one can stop the movement that is coming.

But Facebook profile changes and anonymous statements will not advance the cause. Red equal signs can only go so far. Instead, every person, to drown out the voices that otherwise want to silence us, must preach the case for liberty, equality, and freedom.

I suppose people reading this column expected a rant against gay marriage. Or insistence that the Supreme Court not decide the cases at hand because of procedural or standing issues talked about this week. If the court decides to take that path, I will support it. Truthfully, the cases before the court are questionable and the legal precedent set would be strange at best. But if the court decides to ignore the simple issues that would require “punting” the case, they have the opportunity for real jurisprudence.

This is an issue I do not normally talk about. Only select individuals knew my thoughts prior to now. But for what I hope will be the first and last time, I have decided to make them known. However, just to be clear – this week, the court has the opportunity to acknowledge the success of the underdog, to change America for the better. The huddled masses have assembled and we now stand watch as higher powers try to decide our fate.

We just hope that the game has not already ended.

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.

State Your Case Do you think CWRU should publicly denounce the imprisonment of Beatrice Mtetwa?

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arts & entertainment 03/29/13

Music for Insomniacs

>>annieNICKOLOFF around the station and can find the mumusicREPORTER<< sic they are searching for easily, despite The campus is dead at 3:45 a.m., Sunday morning. Only an occasional rustle or distant bus screech breaks the eerie, frigid silence. Walking across campus is not only unnatural, but also frightening.

Inside the WRUW-FM 91.1 Cleveland studios, however, the hosts of Calculated Chaos are bustling through the halls in preparation for their program.

Preparing... that is, not leaving to sleep, not taking a break, not just stopping by. The hosts, two Case Western Reserve University freshman volunteers, have one of the most unfortunate time slots with a show that spans from 4:00 to 6:00 a.m. every Sunday.

On a day that most people use to catch up on sleep, these students have to be up at a time that dances the line between early morning and late night.

“I complain about getting up,” said cohost Jay Zhang, “but when I get here I always enjoy doing the show.”

According to Zhang, she often does not even try to sleep before arriving at the studio, and will essentially pull an all-nighter every week.

Surprisingly, Calculated Chaos does not completely lack an audience despite its early hour, with song suggestions ringing up as they normally would at other time slots. “It’s hard to get listeners at 4 a.m. on a Sunday, but we’re still apparently getting them,” said co-host Charlie Topel.

“We’re definitely not one of the more listened-to shows,” said Zhang.

“Insomniacs listen to ours.”

Music from the previous show, The Counselor’s Cornucopia of Classic Rock & Curios, emanates throughout the musty-smelling basement. Zhang stoops and shuffles through countless rows of CD shelves, compiling a stack of select tunes for her and Topel’s show.

After a full semester of shadowing underneath other WRUW programmers, Zhang and Topel know their ways

the overwhelming amount of material available in the station. The WRUW training program is more extensive and rigorous than other schools’, requiring seminar attendances, test taking, and practice being on-air.

“It’s a really good opportunity so you’re not making a mistake on your show,” said Zhang. “Somebody’s there to help you.”

Calculated Chaos is a free-form show, typically dabbling in indie and experimental music. Last Sunday’s playlist included songs from Beach House, The Decemberists, and Junior Boys. “College radio is good for music that’s not as popular,” said Zhang.

WRUW, known for its slogan of “More Music, Fewer Hits,” is a nonprofit organization that rarely is allowed to play top songs. Officially, it is run as a CWRU student radio station, but many of WRUW’s radio show hosts are volunteers from the community or graduates of CWRU. “Everyone’s really passionate about their shows,” said Zhang. “It doesn’t just reach the bounds of our campus.”

Zhang and Topel work well together when they are on the air, but that’s not to say they are musically identical.

While Zhang naturally gravitates towards indie rock, she claimed, “Charlie definitely brings diversity to the show.”

Topel backed this statement, saying, “I don’t like being trapped by the man.”

The first song on their show, “Pursuit of Happiness (Nightmare)” by Kid Cudi feat. MGMT and Ratatat, was something Zhang personally knew Topel would not approve of.

“We have scarily similar musical tastes,” said Topel, but later went on to say they “only argue about trivial stuff;” for example, when they “get into screaming matches about which [Death Cab for Cutie] album is better.”

Zhang and Topel find new music for Calculated Chaos through different sources. “Like a typical hipster, Pitch-

annie nickoloff / observer

Charlie Topel and Jay Zhang host an early morning radio show on WRUW called Calculated Chaos fork is nice,” Topel said, but he also uses the popular application Spotify to find new artists.

Calculated Chaos’ two hosts are grateful to be paired together. “I like having a co-host; talking on-air is much easier that way,” said Topel.

“That way we don’t have two shows to babysit,” agreed Zhang.

Their late time slot, given to them because of their bottom place as “Freshmen” on the CWRU class totem pole,

will only get better from here. “It’s worth it and that pain is going to go away,” said Zhang, who plans on continuing the show with Topel in years to come.

Their show is definitely worth a listen – but that doesn’t mean music enthusiasts need to wake up at four in the morning. Like all WRUW programs, Calculated Chaos’s latest show is archived on the WRUW website for anyone to check out, but is revised weekly.

CWRU Dance Department Presents Converging Pathways After a warm round of applause, The last piece, Time River, by >>elainaLIN reographed by Bellando, the dancers’ theatre&danceREPORTER << costumes had thin blue sleeves to the Carissa Bellando holds the spotlight in Chun-Jou Tsai, had bright, colorful, The blue glow brightens in the background whilst the dancers hold their poses, creating an aesthetically pleasing silhouette. The Spring Master of Fine Arts thesis concert, Converging Pathways, was presented last week at the Mather Dance Center. The dance thesis concert featured works choreographed by Carissa Bellando and Chun-Jou Tsai, MFA candidates, Karen Potter, as well as group works and solos performed by both graduate and undergraduate dance students.

Outside the Mather Dance Studio, crowds of excited family members, friends, and fans gather in simultaneous chatter, eager to slip along with the spirit and energy of the dancers.

In the first piece Sea Swept, cho-

side, drawing a beautiful imagery of the tranquil sea. The slow and suggestive movements illustrated states of motion and energy. The dancers formed a line and did a canon, with successive movements following one another, portraying waves in motion.

Following Sea Swept, the light gradually shines onto Chun-Jou Tsai, choreographer and dancer of the piece, who holds her pose in a picturesque manner in Soliloquize. The breathtaking moment captivated audience members.

From a behind the scenes point of view, Tsai explains, “The most difficult part of being a choreographer is to select the exact one thought and idea I want to make from thousands of ideas.

It’s not as easy as paperwork.”

her enchanting red dress and graceful posture in Rivela. As Bellando took on the role of a woman undergoing stages of acceptance, her effortless movements took the audience along with her journey.

They then transitioned to the next work from Dance Department chair Karen Potter, Plain of Passage. It featured both Bellando and Tsai, making it a very promising performance with a blend of their skills and talents. The dancers interacted with the movements of the other, revealing the close friendship they have. Mirroring one another, it conveyed the idea of reflection and connection, but in the end, with a final glance, they drifted apart from one another, stepping off in opposite directions.

costumes that were suggestive of casual style. The vivid colors flowed across the stage, like the streaming river.

With the ponderous rhythmic walking and the sliding movements along the floor, it conveyed a theme of time where people are passing in and out throughout moments in life.

“To make my dance moveable and touchable through the body language with the dance material is what I keep working on. With the audience, lighting and music on, my dance becomes alive,” said Tsai.

As the light dims with the closing of the final piece, cheers and whistles spread throughout the room, adding to the vibrancy of the dancer’s performance.

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Super Serious: Metal Machine Music Dusting Off a Classic album is Reed sticking it to his soon>>jasonWALSH to-be-former label. musicCRITIC<< These critics have further used the Lou Reed and Metal Machine Music are a man and an album that need no introduction. Lou Reed was born in 1942 and rose to prominence in the 1960s and 1970s as chief songwriter for the Velvet Underground. Throughout those decades, Reed and the Velvet Underground achieved considerable critical and commercial success.

Contrary to the critical consensus around the Velvet Underground’s The Velvet Underground & Nico, however, Metal Machine Music is Reed’s shining moment and his magnum opus.

Recorded and released in 1975, Metal Machine Music has been the subject of much debate and undue criticism.

The fact that Metal Machine Music was the last album Reed was contractually obligated to release for RCA, with whom he had a contentious relationship, along with the fact that the album is an hour of guitar feedback, has led many critics to speculate that the

fact that Reed never played any of the compositions from Metal Machine Music live until 2002, and the fact that he allegedly commented on the album by saying “No one is supposed to be able to do a thing like that and survive,” as evidence for their case.

However, these critics simply refuse to see the facts and realize that Metal Machine Music is one of the greatest albums of the ‘70s, the 20th century, and all time. It doesn’t take more than a cursory listen to hear that Metal Machine Music is a masterpiece of avant-garde proto-noise minimalist composition.

Metal Machine Music was crafted with two guitars. Reed tuned each into different, unorthodox tunings and different reverb levels. Reed then placed each guitar in front of an amp and turned the amps up as loud as he could.

The feedback from the amps would cause the guitar strings to vibrate, so they were, in effect, being played by

the feedback, which they then helped create.

This is magnificently emblematic of the (post-) modern condition. Metal Machine Music invites us to see ourselves as the two lone guitars, being buffeted on all sides by forces out of our control that cause us to move in ways we cannot choose. When we do try to move ourselves, our movement is immediately subsumed by the outside forces and thrown right back at us in an infinite feedback loop.

While so perfectly capturing the unpredictability and contingency of our everyday lives, Metal Machine Music also symbolizes the complete predictability and drudgery of the everyday. Reed mastered every song so that it lasts exactly 16 minutes and one second. The fourth and final composition, “Metal Machine Music, Part 4” ends with a fixed groove on the vinyl pressing, causing the final two seconds to endlessly repeat. Metal Machine Music traps us in an infinite loop of complete contingency and, simultaneously, complete drudgery.

The crowning touch of Metal Machine Music is how Reed chose to mix it. The two guitars are completely separated, with one in the left channel and one in the right channel. In order to clearly tell them apart and be able to hear what each is doing, the record must be played at 16 RPM with the balance either completely left or completely right. Once again, Reed astutely comments on our world and offers his solution: in order to deal with the complete inundation of information and sensory overload of the modern world, we need to slow down and be able to calmly listen to each other, one at a time.

Metal Machine Music finds Lou Reed making music without music.

Instead of delivering themes or messages through the traditional elements of classical music or the lyrical techniques of pop music, Reed uses the recording process itself to comment on and critique the state of the world.

Metal Machine Music is not music: it is life.

Rating: 6 / 5 April Fools!

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The Observer’s playlist of the week 03.29.13

>>jasonWALSH musicCRITIC<<

The Bullitts – “They Die by Dawn (ft. Yasiin Bey, Jay Electronica, and Lucy Liu)” I’ve never heard of the Bullitts, but apparently one of their members recently directed a spaghetti western short film called “They Die By Dawn” that stars Michael K. Williams and Erykah Badu. The soundtrack features Jay Electronica, Yasiin Bey (formerly known as Mos Def), Tori Amos, Rosario Dawson, and Lucy Liu. If your curiosity isn’t piqued, something is wrong with you.

Kurt Vile - “Never Run Away” “Never Run Away” is the latest single from Kurt Vile’s upcoming album Wakin On A Pretty Daze, due out Apr. 9. Apparently, there’s a Kurt Vile parade in Philadelphia this Saturday.

I don’t know how or why or where, but if for some reason you’re going to be in Philadelphia, you should probably go.

James Blake - “Digital Lion” Yet another James Blake single.

I think nearly half of his upcoming album Overgrown has now been released as singles. But hey, they’ve all been good and so should the album.

White Fence - “Fragility” White Fence released one of my favorite albums of last year, a collaborative album with Ty Segall called Hair. “Fragility” is the B-side to White Fence’s new single “Pink Gorilla.” “Fragility” is part lo-fi country, part old-school Kinks, and a solid B-side.

Schoolboy Q - “Yay Yay” “Yay Yay” is the new single from Kendrick Lamar-collaborator and Black Hippy crewmember Schoolboy Q, whose new album Oxymoron is out later this year. Oxymoron is the follow-up to 2012’s Habits & Contradictions, which is a really great album that got unfortunately overshadowed

by Lamar and Frank Ocean last year.

The Observer’s app of the week

Capitolio >>sheehanHANNAN arts&entertainmentEDITOR<< Platform: iOS Price: $6.99 This week’s app of the week is just hardly an app. Even so, it’s beautiful and available through the app store.

Christopher Anderson is a photographer’s photographer. A purveyor of what he bills as documentary photography, Anderson has amassed a collection of works over the years that are beautiful and otherworldly.

He first reached prominence when, accompanied by a writer from The New York Times Magazine, he boarded a rickety from Haiti bound for the United States. Along the way, the ship began to sink, leading to a series of haunting images that graphically illustrate the hope and sorrow of immigration.

Recently, he was accepted as a full member of Magnum Photos, possibly the most exclusive society of photographers in existence. Applicants for membership to this fraternal society of photojournalists and artists must undergo an excruciatingly intense review process, with multiple portfolios and feedback sessions required. Anderson made it out the other end.

He is a skilled artist, but what place does he have in an app of the week section? Well, Anderson recently released a selection of photos for consumption on iOS devices. Entitled “Capitolio,” the collection chronicles unrest in Caracas, Venezuala during the age of revolution.

Shot between 2004 and 2008, the

book was originally published in print.

Like many other forms of media, photo books are adapting to updated technology, turning to alternative platforms to put content out there. Apple has actually been pushing for more artistic expressions on its platform, particularly with the inclusion of the Newsstand collection of apps.

Adopters of Newsstand, however, have been slow. Though The New York Times and Wall Street Journal distribute through the platform, many mainstream magazines have neglected it, leaving it to lesser-known publications. Thus, photography has had a minimal presence within the platform, at least in terms of fully authored, curated, and laid out creations.

Capitolio, however, is the exception.

The app, though not featured within the Newsstand collection, has all the hallmarks of a fully authored photo book.

Layouts are clean and beautiful, with design elements that compliment the works without looming over them. It reads (if one can even read a photo book), like the work of art that it is, with vibrant blackand-white photographs playing off a red background with a perfectly chosen hue.

Some photos are laid out side-by-side, inviting comparison and playing with juxtaposition. Others are left to themselves on the page, standing solidly. There’s joy, violence, staid determination, and simple depth.

Given, it’s for the connoisseur. However, for those that wish to delve into an absolutely fantastic collection of photography, presented in a well-contemplated way, and perfectly suited for the platform, it’s well worth the rather expensive asking price.

from DEVELOPMENT | 1 lies and what causes them to develop. the scientific knowledge necessary to create accurate biological models are very rare. Almon puts it like this: “You don’t always get both in these students.

You get ‘I don’t like math,’ or ‘I don’t like science,’ or ‘I’m pretty good at science, but I really like to draw,’ or ‘I’m really awesome at science, but I can’t visualize anything.’ So these students are in this really delicate balance.

When we recruit them, it’s a very small class.” How small? By Almon’s estimate, for every class of artists she sees, no more than ten have what it takes to work on this kind of project.

Almon picked out four students for the project: Carly Bartel, Julie Pasini, Jennifer Kerbo, and Maia Garcia Fedor. To help teach the students, Fredieu recruited a former graduate student in anatomy, Story Elliott.

Embryon is more than just a collection of art, though. It is interactive.

The user can look at different stages of embryo development. They can pan around and zoom in on different parts of the body, highlight different organs or structures, and see different anoma-

To do all that, they needed someone with programming experience to bring everything together. They turned to Marc Buchner, associate professor in EECS, to advise the project and find a student that could contribute to the programming. He picked out Brendan Mulcahy, a computer science undergrad.

With the team assembled, work started last January.

Now, months later and well into development, Fredieu is optimistic about the project’s future. Feedback has been nothing but positive, and the work that the students are doing is incredible.

Within a few weeks of starting, they already had art. Fredieu gestured at the embryo rendering again and said, “I expected some stick figures and they had this.”

The software still has a long way to go though. Months or work and many long nights are still ahead.

Regardless of how long it will take, it’s clear from the feedback and support that Fredieu and his team are receiving that their work is going to make a difference.

Come write for The Observer! smh132@case.edu

a&e 11

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New-munity: Community Redux Watershed Down

>>drewSCHEELER film&tvCRITIC<<

If a television series is particularly successful, a spinoff is all but guaranteed. Spinoffs are created to capitalize on the goodwill your average television viewer gives to the shows they watch.

Dropping a fan-favorite character into a new situation is an easy way to plug a hole in a network’s broadcast schedule and have a built-in viewership from the first episode.

But for every successful spinoff like “Frasier” or “Laverne and Shirley” you’re going to be trapped with “The Tortellis” or “Joanie Loves Chachi.”

But sometimes a network tries to pull a fast one and reinvent a television series so suddenly that it doesn’t have time to change its name even if the entire cast has been substituted for younger and cheaper alternatives.

I have previously mentioned my love for “Community” in this column. I love “Community.” “Community” might just be my favorite sitcom ever at this point.

Its first three seasons are consistently smart, endlessly re-watchable, and pay tribute to their sitcom forbearers even as they intelligently deconstruct the very nature of episodic television.

But I don’t like New-munity. Newmunity is “Community’s” spinoff that has been on air for the past few months and it is terrible. Like the final season of “Scrubs,” it keeps the name of its predecessor while transforming into a different, altogether unfamiliar show.

But unlike the final season of “Scrubs,” which featured a brand-new cast, this New-munity kept virtually all of its actors and most of its creative team intact.

Just what has gone wrong?

The popularity of franchise shows like “CSI,” “Law and Order,” and “NCIS” shows that a compelling format can triumph over middling characters who are replaceable if the need arises. But Community has always relied on the strength of its characters to ground its mixture of traditional and high-concept formats that can wildly fluctuate between episodes.

In our first episode back, New-munity presented a Hunger Games parody spliced with a Muppet Babies homage and scenes filmed in the style of multiple camera sitcoms like “The Big Bang Theory.” These high-concept ideas are great if they mesh well with the story and feel unforced. But these first episodes back are just poorly executed.

And these early episodes of the fourth season were crafted by members of the

old writing team that should understand who these characters are and how they can exist organically in the cartoonish world the series has spent three years building up.

The most obvious change to account for the difference in quality between this and last season is the much publicized departure of series creator Dan Harmon.

Harmon is difficult to work with. He admits this.

But Harmon’s pen is responsible for some kind of demented spark that has elevated previous episodes. Several of the most recent episodes have disappointed in ways that Harmon wouldn’t have allowed. Taking New-munity’s characters to an Inspector Spacetime convention should have created a classic episode of television.

Inspector Spacetime – the “Community” universe’s analogue to the classic BBC science-fiction series “Doctor Who” – is a multilayered show-within-ashow, built up over the last two seasons and responsible for many well-crafted jokes on fan culture. And somehow, the writers shoved three plots together so clumsily that the estates of the “Three Stooges” are demanding royalty checks.

Harmon knows to not underestimate his viewers. And by kicking out the series’

greatest promoter, it is quite possible that NBC has destroyed whatever leniency fans have given to this new set of disappointments.

“Community” is a demanding and ambitious show. New-munity is willing to settle for mediocrity and phone in whatever part of the episode comes after thinking of a clever theme, like dialogue and story structure.

I’m still a bit reluctant to discuss “Community” at this point because its last two episodes have been suggesting some level of improvement. Characters are speaking as they once did. The plots suggest some level of actual character development, an issue with the last two seasons.

But this recent string of episodes is in line with the most mediocre of the show’s previous output and nowhere near the transcendent brilliance of its best stories. New-munity is a doppelganger of its formal self. There are still sparks of creativity, but someone has smashed the jars needed to contain that energy. “Community” will be cancelled long before its writers will ever be able to recapture lightning in those bottles again.

Broadway Cabaret Benefit at Club Isabella >> josephVERBOVSZKY theatre&danceREPORTER<< Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome! Case Theater Society (CTS) is holding a free Broadway Cabaret Benefit to raise money for United Way, starting at 8:30 p.m. on Mar. 30 at Club Isabella in Little Italy. Directed

by Thayer Juergens, the benefit will honor musical director Brad Wyner, who worked with members of the group on this past fall’s Eldred Theater production of Rocky Horror Show. Rocky was the largest grossing show in Eldred history, selling out four times.

No one could have expected the magnitude of the success, including the actors, who had never sung before. “I had no idea I could sing, I thought I had been miscast,” said Juergens, who played the lead role of Dr. Fran-N-Furter. It was Wyner who helped the cast find their voice. Not only was the production a real “blockbuster,” but the cast has continued singing. “We really discovered a part of ourselves that we didn’t know existed.” In appreciation for helping them along with this self-discovery, some mem-

bers of the cast have decided to honor Wyner with the Benefit at Club Isabella.

Many members of the Rocky cast will return to grace us with their musical talents including: Thayer Juergens, Kelly McCready, Hannah Cooney, John Dulin, and many others, including some singers whom we’ve never heard on the Eldred stage.

The theme of the evening will be “cheeseball.” Unlike the obscure numbers often heard at cabaret establishments, CTS will be singing some of the best (and cheesiest) numbers from Broadway’s most famous musicals. They will sing pieces from The Book of Mormon, Les Miserables, The Lion King, Spamalot, as well as some reprisals from Rocky.

Even the orchestra and the establishment are beautiful! Club Isabella in little Italy will host the event. At this classy French restaurant and cocktail bar, anyone who comes to hear the music can also enjoy dinner or drinks. The dimmed lighting and cool, modern décor sets the perfect atmosphere for the cabaret. Jesse Ofsowitz will accompany the singers on the club’s gorgeous grand piano.

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Philosofish I just can‛t find a way to tell you how I feel...

Kate Hart Ray Krajci

Give it a shot.

You make me feel...

You make me feel...

Like a level 80 paladin.

Oh, Brandon, you‛re such a hopeless romantic.

I try.

PhilosofishComics@gmail.com

Sudoku

easy

ACROSS 1. Get hold of 6. Corduroy feature 10. Coarse file 14. Impressive display 15. Keen 16. Angelic headgear 17. Make reparations 19. Historical periods 20. Ancient ascetic 21. Two fives 22. Carry 23. Perfume 25. In shape 26. Lacquered metalware 30. Speechmaker 32. Inflexible 35. Go-between 39. Venue 40. Run from confinement 41. Quartz glass 43. Demesnes 44. Pitching dangerously to one side 46. The period preceeding Easter 47. Take place 50. Birch relative 53. Survey 54. Music with jazzlike riffs 55. Empathize 60. Brainstorm 61. Not an oil painting 63. Tidy 64. Matures 65. A South American bird 66. Slave 67. What we sleep in 68. Models

hard(er)

DOWN 1. Competition involving speed 2. Greek god of love 3. Weapons 4. A superhero might wear one 5. A doglike nocturnal mammal 6. Is, formerly 7. It represents an Internet chatter 8. Not figurative 9. Biblical garden 10. Figurative 11. Moses’ brother 12. Formerly, a writing tablet 13. Modeled 18. Mesh 24. Young child 25. Breakfast bread 26. After-bath powder 27. Fragrance 28. Delicate 29. Castrate 31. Fastens 33. Communion table 34. In the vicinity 36. Fill to excess 37. Not closed 38. Where a bird lives 42. Seepage 43. Finale 45. Jubilant 47. Express a thought 48. Cyphers 49. Not dirty 51. Be mistaken 52. Rundown 54. Q-Tip 56. Letterhead feature 57. “Oh, my!”

58. Hefty volume 59. Goddess of discord (Greek mythology) 62. S

Happy April Fool’s Day!

sports

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13

of innings pitched as well. As the starting rotation wasn’t able to hold down the fort, the bullpen was often called upon to clean up the messes left by the woeful rotation early in games.

“No part of a team ever acts independently from the other parts,” general manager, Chris Antonetti said.

“They all depend on each other. We’re hoping for more innings from the starters this year so the relievers can stay in their roles.”

The talent is clearly there—closer Chris Perez has posted 98 saves in the past three seasons while setup man Vinnie Pestano has stepped up to bridge the gap in the eighth inning. Chris Antonetti brought in right-handers Matt Albers and Bryan Shaw from the Arizona Diamondbacks, adding two solid, veteran arms to the mix. Shaw was terrific against right-handed hitters last year for the Diamondbacks, holding them to just a .211 average.

Smith joins Perez and Pestano to form a solid back-end trio. Much more often than not they will hold a late lead.

A young new addition will be lefty Nick Hagadone who will replace Tony Sipp as the left-handed specialist.

courtesy cleveland.com Right-hander Justin Masterson will look to carry an Indians starting rotation that was second worst in the American League last year with an ERA of 5.25.

from INDIANS | 14 in July 2011 for two top pitching prospects. Jimenez is a shell of his 2010 self when he posted a 15-1 record and 2.20 ERA. Since then, he has gone 2337 with a 4.78 ERA. The Indians exercised the 2013 option on Jimenez’s contract for $5.75 million, hoping that it was simply a case of bad mechanics that caused the issues.

The 28-year old Masterson saw rough times last season. After a promising 2011 season that saw him post a 12-10 record and 3.21 ERA in 33 starts, Masterson underwent offseason surgery on his non-throwing shoulder. According to new manager Terry Francona, that surgery could have prevented Masterson from repeating his normal delivery. Masterson and Jimenez are

from BASEBALL | 15 batted in. However, look for Pakan to heat back up this weekend against Ohio Wesleyan.

Shortstop Matt Keen – Fellow senior Matt Keen is also off to a scorching start this year. Keen has 118 hits on the season and leads the Spartans in RBIs with 13. He currently shares first place in doubles with teammate Pakan. The senior shortstop also has visited home plate the most with 15 runs scored.

Keen is riding his second six-game hitting streak. Over the last six matches, Keen is batting .333 after going 8-for24, scoring a total of seven runs and driving in two runs. Keen’s best game was against Washington University in St. Louis where he had two homeruns and three RBIs to go with them.

Infielder William Meador – Fresh off his first UAA Hitter of the Week honor, Meador currently leads the team in batting averages with .378. The sophomore batted .556 after going 5-for-9 over the weekend against the Heidelberg. The second-year Spartan doubled, drove in a run, scored three runs, earned three walks, and was successful in his lone stolen base attempt. He has scored 12 runs to go with his nine walks and two stolen bases. The infielder is also fourth in total base hits with 17 in the season.

Top Pitchers for the Spartans: LHP Jarrett Gish – In a 4-1 victory

again at the top of the rotation despite last year’s struggles. For the Indians to compete in the American League Central, it’s incumbent that both need to show vast improvement this season.

The third starter will be 10-year veteran Brett Myers who will be transitioning back to the rotation after closing for the Houston Astros and working as a late-inning reliever for the Chicago White Sox in 2012. Myers has shown to be more than capable as a starter during his career. While he’s no longer a strikeout-first pitcher, Myers is an effective innings-eater and should provide veteran leadership to the young Indians rotation.

The youngster of the rotation will be Zach McAllister. The 25-year-old has shown flashes of consistency in his first full year last season. The Indians to open a three-game weekend series against then No. 14 nationally-ranked Heidelberg University, the lefty pitched the fifth complete game of his career to improve to 3-0 on the season with an impressive earned run average of 1.20.

In nine innings of work, Gish allowed only one unearned run on six hits and two walks, while striking out four. The southpaw currently leads the Spartans in wins and has tallied 30 innings pitched.

He trails teammate sophomore Kevin Johnstone by one strikeout with 17.

RHP Kevin Johnstone – In four game starts this season, Johnstone has logged 28.2 innings with one victory under his belt to go with 1.26 ERA. During his last outing against Heidelberg, the righty pitched a completed game allowing just five hit and two runs with one earned run. Johnstone gave up three walks and recorded seven strikeouts.

LHP Jamie Hora –Fellow ace to Jarrett Gish, Hora has pitched 16.2 innings over four games. While the lefty has struggled, surrendering nine earned runs, 21 hits, and recording an ERA of 5.94. Hora has compiled 11 strikeouts and is third on the team with innings pitched. As the season progresses, look for the senior to fine-tune his mechanics and rebound back to his 2012 shape where he posted a perfect 8-0 record with a 4.16 ERA, 51 strikeouts, and one complete game in 62.2 innings of work to tie school record for wins in a season.

online content | State Your Case voting | Twitter and Facebook links | and more

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hope that McAllister can gain better command of his secondary pitches and work deeper into games for the 2013 season. The last rotation spot goes to lefty Scott Kazmir. The former Tampa Bay Rays starter pitched in the Puerto Rican winter league under former Miami Marlins manager Edwin Rodriguez who gave Cleveland a glowing report of Kazmir’s returned arm strength. Kazmir hasn’t pitched in the majors since April 2011.

Bullpen: If there’s trouble, make it double.

The Indians bullpen matched the rotation in posting the second-worst ERA (3.99) in the American League last year. Much of issues were attributed to being overworked and overused — the bullpen posted the fourth-highest total

Prediction: 85-77, second in AL Central With $104 million invested in Swisher and Bourn, owner Larry Dolan sent a message that he is indeed interested in building a winning team.

Payroll will be significantly higher in 2013, but it allowed general manger Antonetti to make deals that benefit the team both short and long term. However, even with a newly overhauled starting lineup, the pitching will continue to be a main concern. The addition of Myers and Kazmir will definitely provide some veteran leadership, but if Masterson and Jimenez failed to rebound, the Indians will be looking at quite a long summer. Trevor Bauer, Zach McAllister, and Mitch Brown are a few years away from establishing their own in the Majors. If the top of the rotation crumbles, look for these three (most likely Bauer will come up from AAA) to take on more serious roles.

courtesy alex abbott Matt Poole looks to make a throw under pressure as the Fighting Gobies cruised to a second-place finish at the fifth annual Chicago Invite.

from ULTIMATE | 16 still gave Case a run for their money as the Fighting Gobies managed to hold on for an 11-10 win. In the group’s other final match, Oregon State knocked off Carnegie Mellon 9-8, leaving the top three teams in a tie atop Pool “D.” Case then won the opening match of the first-place bracket with a comfortable 11-8 win over the University of Iowa (11-10). The Fighting Gobies would pick up dominating wins in the quarterfinals and semifinals with a 12-6 win over No. 24 University of Missouri (19-4) and a 10-2 win over No. 39 University of North Texas (12-3). With a ticket punched to the tournament cham-

pionship, the Fighting Gobies looked over to the other side of the first place bracket where Pool “D” foes Oregon State managed to top Carnegie Mellon 11-8 in the other semi-final.

Despite opening the tournament with an 11-9 win over the Beavers in the team’s first game, Oregon State would even the score and earn the title with a 12-10 victory in the championship match.

Carnegie Mellon would top North Texas 8-7 in the third-place match.

The Fighting Gobies will be back in action when Case hosts their annual CWRUL memorial tournament on Apr. 6-7 at the Chagrin Polo Fields in Hunting Valley, OH.

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03/29/13

A look at the 2013 Cleveland Indians >>shinichiINOUE asst.sportsEDITOR<

Even if the weather doesn’t make it seem like spring is approaching, we are only days away from the start of the Major League Baseball season.

The Cleveland Indians will look to rebound from their 68 win season. With the addition of two-time World Series champion manager in Terry Francona, the Tribes added major bats in Michael Bourn, Nick Swisher, and Mark Reynolds along with new arms for the rotations in veteran Bretty Myers, Scott Kazmir, and youngster Trevor Bauer.

Starting Lineup The Indians overhauled majority of their starting lineup during the offseason. First baseman Matt LaPorta, centerfielder Grady Sizemore, right fielder Shin-Soo Choo, and designated hitter Travis Hafner have all departed from Cleveland. The new additions to the Indians include three free agents: center fielder Michael Bourn, Swisher, and Reynolds along with traded right fielder Drew Stubbs from Cincinnati.

The Indians starting lineup will sport a dramatic new look.

Bourn will provide the Tribe a legitimate threat at the top of the lineup and, combined with Michael Brantly and Drew Stubbs, the Indians have one of the quickest outfield trio. With Bourn and Brantly holding the first two positions in the lineup, the Tribe will keep pressure on the opposing pitcher. Shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera and second baseman Jason Kipnis will provide even more speed on the base path. Speed has vastly improved which allows manager Francona diverse freedom when it comes to strategies - small

courtesy waitingfornextyear.com Indians catcher Carlos Santana will be one of the core members of the Indians line up. Santana batted .252 last year with 18 home runs and 76 RBIs. ball, hit-and-run, or sacrifice.

The potential for power is certainly there—catcher Carlos Santana, Swisher, Reynolds, and Stubbs are all capable of 20-plus homerun this season. Cabrera and Lonnie Chisenhall will continue their progress into superstars. The acquisition of Mike Aviles also gives Francona a solid option off the bench.

All in all, it should be a vastly-

improved offense. The combination of speed and power brought in by the newcomers alone gives the Tribe a well-balanced attack. However, a possible downfall is that Mark Reynolds and Drew Stubbs are both high strikeout batters. If the two struggle early on, the Tribe’s offense could potentially hit a black hole.

Starting Rotation

With a 5.25 ERA, the Indians starting rotation was the second worst in the American League last season. Justin Masterson and Ubaldo Jimenez contributed mightily to the cause with their subpar performances. Jimenez, in particular, has been a major disappointment ever since the trade that brought him over from the Colorado Rockies

see INDIANS | 13

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Spartans hit road, take on Ohio Wesleyan and Thiel College >>shinichiINOUE asst.sportsEDITOR<

After the postponement of the Wednesday, Mar. 27, matchup against Muskingum University, the Spartans will head back on the road to take on Ohio Wesleyan University for a doubleheader on Friday and another doubleheader on Saturday against Thiel College. Here is a look at some of the top players on both sides of the ball for the Spartans.

Top Hitters for the Spartans: Centerfielder Paul Pakan – The senior centerfielder is once again off to a hot start this season. Throughout the first 14 games of the year, he leads the Spartans in hits with 20 and has collected six doubles – another team high. Pakan also holds the third highest batting average (.351) among the Spartans. His best game came against the University of Rochester during the UAA Championship tournament where he went 3-for-4 with two extra base hits – a double and a homerun to drive in two runs. During the three-game series against Heidelberg, he went 3-for12, collecting one double and two runs

see BASEBALL | 13

courtesy case sports information Senior shortstop Matt Keen has been one of the top batters for the Spartans, batting .321 while also leading the team in both home runs (2) and RBIs (13).

Gish, Meador, Weintraub named Iacono named to Jump25.com UAA Athletes of the Week All-Star Classic team >>compiledFROM staffREPORTS<

BASEBALL The Case Western Reserve University baseball team swept the University Athletic Association Player of the Week awards announced on Tuesday as senior left-hander Jarrett Gish was tabbed Pitcher of the Week, and sophomore infielder William Meador was named Hitter of the Week.

Gish earns the honor for the second time in his career, while Meador is a first-time honoree.

The reigning UAA Champion Spartans (9-5, 5-3) won two out of three in a key weekend series at then No. 14 nationallyranked Heidelberg University on Saturday

and Sunday, Mar. 23-24.

In a 4-1 win to open the series, Gish threw the fifth complete game of his career to improve to 3-0 for the season. In nine innings, the southpaw allowed just one unearned run on six hits and two walks while

striking out four. For the season, Gish has a pair of complete games and a fine 1.20 earned run average in a team-high 30 innings of work.

Meador batted .556 (5-for-9) with three walks over the weekend. The second-year Spartan doubled, drove in a run, scored three times, and was successful in his lone stolen base attempt. Overall, Meador leads the team with a .378 average this season and has 12 runs, nine walks and two steals.

The Spartans play four games in two days this weekend beginning with a doubleheader at Ohio Wesleyan University on Friday, Mar. 29, at 2 p.m. in Delaware.

TRACK AND FIELD

arianna wage / observer Senior Evy Iacono was selected to play in the Jump25.com All-Star Classic this past week. Iacono was the UAA Most Valuable Player and was named an All-American this season. >>courtesyOP case.sportsINFORMATION<

photos courtesy case sports information For the second time in his career, Spartan junior thrower Harry Weintraub (Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y./Hendrick Hudson) has been named the University Athletic Association Field Athlete of the Week, announced the league office on Tuesday.

Weintraub won the hammer throw event by more than 24 feet with a mark of 177 feet, 10 inches at the Amy Adams Memorial Invitational on Saturday, Mar. 23. His season-best throw of 183’2” in the hammer currently ranks fourth in the nation in Division III. Last spring, Weintraub won a UAA Championship and broke a 24-year-old league record in the hammer throw with a personal best of 184’2”. That mark was good enough to qualify for the NCAA DIII Outdoor Championship Meet, where Weintraub placed 16th overall.

Weintraub and the rest of the Spartans are idle until the annual Marv Frye Invitational Saturday, Apr. 6 at Selby Stadium in Delaware.

Jump25.com has released the rosters for the 2013 All-Star Classic, which will be played Sunday, Apr. 14, inside Alumni Hall Gymnasium on the campus of Ohio Dominican University. Among those named to the roster was Case Western Reserve University senior AllAmerican guard Evy Iacono.

The women’s all-star game, scheduled to tip-off around 1:30 p.m., will feature the top student-athletes from Ohio in all three NCAA divisions as well as the NAIA. The women’s game is the second in a quartet of contests including a men’s collegiate all-star game as well as high school boys’ and girls’ games.

Iacono was recently named the second All-American in program history by D3Hoops.com.

Piling up the postseason accolades following a successful career on the hardwood, Iacono is also just the second CWRU women’s basketball studentathlete to be named University Athletic Association Player of the Year.

In 2012-13, Iacono led the UAA in scoring at 17.9 points per game, and she

posted the second-highest single-season scoring total (447 points) in school history. A four-time UAA Player of the Week this winter, Iacono joined the program’s 1000-point club in late November and twice set the school single-game scoring record with respective totals of 37 and 38 points. Overall, she scored in double figures in 21-of-25 games and averaged 4.7 rebounds, 4.0 assists, and 2.4 steals.

In 99 games, Iacono finished her decorated career third in school history in points (1352) as well as tied for first in three-pointers (179), fifth in field goals made (463), and sixth in steals (200), free throws made (247) and assists (334).

Earlier this season, Iacono was lauded for her efforts both on the floor and in the classroom with Capital One Academic First Team All-District VII honors.

The Spartans ended the season at 16-9 overall and in fourth place in the ultracompetitive UAA (8-6). 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 produced five winning campaigns.

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Fighting Gobies finish second at fifth annual Chicago Invite No. 32 Case emerges from group of death unscathed, finish 6-2 >>peterCOOKE sportsEDITOR<

The Case Western Reserve University Fighting Gobies Ultimate Frisbee team kicked off its spring season with a second-place finish in the 69-team field at the Chicago Invite, one of the biggest tournaments in the world. The Fighting Gobies finished the weekend 6-2 overall, falling in the tournament finals to Oregon State University, 12-10. Case is now 11-4 on the season.

The second-place performance rocketed the Fighting Gobies up the USA Ultimate performance rankings. Case shot up 61 spots after the weekend to the 32nd position, Oregon State jumped 20 spots and are now ranked 27th.

This was the fifth annual Chicago Invite. The Fighting Gobies finished 23rd in 2012.

Collegiate ultimate Frisbee is governed by USA Ultimate.

Case is a Division I school and competes in the Ohio Region.

The Fighting Gobies were tasked with one of the hardest opening groups in pool “D” as they were matched up with eventual champion No. 27 Oregon State (13-7), No. 25 Carnegie Mellon University (16-4) who finished third, and No. 90 Michigan State (812). The matches proved to be extremely even between the groups, and coincidentally, the tournament’s top three teams.

Case, Oregon State, and Carnegie Mellon University each

courtesy alex abbott Junior Matt McGoogan makes a grab over a diving defender from Carnegie Mellon in the Fighting Gobies 13-9 loss in pool play. Case would rebound to reel of five straight wins before losing in the championship match to Oregon State, 12-10. finished 2-1 in the group stage while Michigan State finished winless at 0-3.

The Fighting Gobies topped the eventual champion Beavers 11-9 in their first game, but fell

in their second to the eventual third place Tartans 13-9. Despite Michigan State losing

their first two matchups, they

see ULTIMATE | 15

Dillione named two-time All-American in 100-, 200-yard butterfly

Swimmer finishes 12th, 14th in first ever trip to national championship >>peterCOOKE sportsEDITOR<

courtesy case sports information Junior captain Maggie Dillione picked up a pair of All-American laurels with a 12th place finish in the 200-yard butterfly and a 14th place finish in the 100-yard butterfly at the 2013 NCAA Championship.

Headline: Dillione named twotime All-American in 100-, 200yard butterfly Subline: Swimmer finishes 12th, 14th in first ever trip to national championship Case Western Reserve University junior captain Maggie Dillione returned from the 2013 NCAA Division III Championship a two-time All-American after a pair of top-16 finishes.

The meet was held at the Conroe ISD Natatorium in Shenandoah, Texas.

Dillione picked up a 12th-place finish in her flagship event, the 200-yard butterfly, and a 14th-place finish in the 100-yard butterfly.

Her two finishes earned her honorable mention All-American status in both events for finishing in the 9-16th place range. In the 200-yard butterfly she opened in the preliminary heat with a time of 2:04.25 and swam a time of 2:04.73 in the finals.

She swam a time of 56.74 seconds in the 100-yard butterfly finals and a time of 56.26 seconds in the preliminary heat.

Dillione entered the meet seeded fourth in the 200-yard butterfly and finished ninth in the preliminary heats. Dillione was seeded 14th in the 100-yard butterfly and finished in that position in both of the preliminary and final heats.

Senior Hannah Saiz of Kenyon College won the 200-yard butterfly.

Saiz swam a 1:57.42 championship final to win by over four-seconds after a time of 1:55.98 in the preliminary heat. Kirsten Nitz of Wheaton College scored the upset of Saiz in the final of the 100-yard butterfly, bouncing back from a time of 54.07 seconds in the qualifying races to win the national championship in 53.08 seconds. Saiz was second in 53.20 seconds.

Dillione also swam the 50-yard freestyle as a warm-up event on Wednesday, Mar. 20. She finished 44th in the nation with a time of 24.58 seconds in the race.

Dillione is first All-American in program history since Lauren Preyss in 2007.

The trip was the third-year swimmers first to the NCAA Championship as Dillione looks to gear up for her final season next year as a Spartan.