Volume XLIV, Issue 26: Apr. 19, 2013

observer the

volume xliv, issue 26

friday, 04/19/13

too close for comfort

Library staff member misses Boston blast by minutes >>mikeMCKENNA newsEDITOR<<

Rich Wisneski was euphoric.

On Monday, with perfect weather for running, the Kelvin Smith Library acquisitions and metadata services team leader had set a personal best at the Boston Marathon. It was his fourth time competing at the event, and Wisneski had never seen crowds so thick, numbering in the hundreds of thousands, lining the streets.

With his friends having several miles to go, after a quick stop at his hotel two blocks away, Wisneski went back to the finish line to watch more of the race.

Pulling his phone out, he snapped a few pictures. He was interrupted by a text message telling him to go back to the hotel, since the rest of his group was finally there.

That text message probably saved his life.

About 10 minutes after Wisneski left, around 2:50 p.m, on Monday, two explosions ripped through the finish line of the Boston Marathon, leaving three dead and over 170 injured. Built from pressure cookers and shrapnel, officials say the bombs responsible were not designed to frighten, but rather kill, in the worst bombing on United States’ soil since 9/11.

As of press time, reports have indicated that authorities have a suspect, but that no arrest has been made.

Investigators studying surveillance videos said that there appeared to be a person carrying two backpacks leaving the area after the bombs went off, but they do not yet know whether the individual was related to the attack.

Pictures from several major media outlets have shown two seriously wounded, only feet away from where Wisneski had been standing.

Instead, Wisneski witnessed the blasts from his hotel room. He knew something was wrong after seeing a funnel of smoke. The second explosion shook the building.

Pandemonium erupted in the street below, with medical officials and police rushing to assist the injured. Wisneski’s building went into lockdown.

He was unharmed, but the next challenge he faced was contacting loved ones. Cell phone service in Boston was jammed by the government for several hours to avoid detonation of another bomb by a cellular device.

Wisneski was ultimately able to call his wife and family, but described the situation as “surreal”. Monday’s events still shock him. He says that he hasn’t had really any thoughts of “what-if;” he is still trying to wrap his head around what happened.

“What can you say?” Wiseneski asked. “You never in your wildest imagination imagine something like that happening at a marathon, especially Boston’s.”

photo by John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe via Getty Images Police react to the second explosion at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Three people were killed and over 170 were injured in the blasts. Kelvin Smith Library staff member Rich Wisneski was at the bomb site only moments earlier.

CWRU’s first free online courses to begin May 1 >>juliaBIANCO but for those who teach them as contributingREPORTER<< well.”

Beginning May 1, Case Western Reserve University’s first free Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) will be live at coursera.com. The courses, “Inspiring Leadership Through Emotional Intelligence,” and “Introduction to International Criminal Law,” represent CWRU’s, as well as other universities’, move toward offering more online education options.

CWRU recently started offering an online master’s in social science administration from MSASS, and is in the process of developing an online certificate program for the engineering school.

CWRU Provost W.A. “Bud” Baeslack II said to The Daily, “These online academic offerings represent new ways for us to advance learning--- not only for those who take the courses,

During “Inspiring Leadership Through Emotional Intelligence,” taught by professor Richard Boyatzis, students will learn how to use their positive emotions in order to improve their leadership skills and their relationships with others. The course examines the idea of resonance leadership, which involves developing the social and emotional abilities to lead effectively.

Using neurological, behavioral, organizational, and psychological research, students will learn about how to apply the Positive Emotional Attractor to their lives in order to improve themselves as individuals, teams, organizations, and communities.

The course consists of nine classes spread out over six weeks, but will stay open for an additional two months to give students extra time to catch up on assignments. Each class con-

sists of two to four modules, each of which contains a short video, a quiz, required readings, a personal reflection assignment, and questions for online discussion forums. Each week also has supplemental readings and an exam.

The course has two tracks: the core track, for most people, and the practicum track, which requires an additional three Action Learning Assignments that ask the students to apply their newly learned skills and write reflections.

A professor of organizational behavior at the Weatherhead School of Management, and coauthor of The New York Times best seller, “Primal Leadership,” professor Boyatzis is extremely qualified to teach this course.

“The democratizing effects of a free course, open to anyone with an Internet connection, is quite appealing for helping many people around the world who yearn for learning and develop-

ment, but lack the means for access,” he said.

The other course, “Introduction to International Criminal Law,” taught by professor Michael Scharf, focuses on a different area of interest. The course will examine the legal aspects of international crimes like genocide, war crimes, terrorism, and piracy. It will also look at international criminal liability and the challenges of finding accused criminals.

Designed to meet each student’s personal schedule, the course is split into eight modules that can be taken in eight days or eight weeks. Each module consists of an online reading and simulation, followed by video clips and slides. A quiz and an ongoing online discussion forum also accompanies each module.

Working at CWRU as the associate dean for global studies at

to MOOC | 2

ABC’s baby bet, CWRU’s Holi celebration and Bitcoin explained See Arts & Entertainment pg. 9

Brandon Bianco named new men’s soccer head coach See Sports pg. 14

The Observer’s executive editor exposes CWRU’s dirty little secret.

See Opinion pg. 6

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Greek Week makes annual return

from MOOC | 1 the School of Law, Scharf has spent his life travelling and learning about the intricacies of international law through personal experience.

Scharf was one of five people chosen to train the judges for the 2005 and 2006 trial of Saddam Hussein. He has helped prosecute Somali pirates, war criminals in the Ivory Coast and Libya, and the Khmer Rouge, who were involved in killing fields during the Vietnam era. Scharf is also managing director of the Public International Law and Policy Group, which was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 2005.

“The topics we will be discussing are literally ripped from the headlines,” Scharf said to Coursera. “The topics are often controversial and thought provoking, and always exciting.”

“Inspiring Leadership Through Emotional Intelligence” has been averaging

1,000 new students per day, and currently has 49,140 enrollees, while “Introduction to International Criminal Law” has 14,000 people enrolled and is expected to top 20,000 by the start of the course.

The MOOCs are designed so that everyone from undergraduates to business professionals can participate. Upon completion of a course, the student receives a Statement of Accomplishment signed by the instructor.

Boyatzis is eager to see the positive effect that offering these courses could have for CWRU. “This level of exposure should help build a broader image of CWRU and our faculty and stuff to prospective students… and donors,” he said.

“It is an investment of CWRU resources. Will it be worth it? Who knows,” he added. “But I know that the detailed design has opened up methods and techniques that I am now incorporating into all my regular degree courses, and am sharing the ideas with other faculty and staff.”

Senior Week tickets now on sale, early bird options available >>juliaBIANCO contributingREPORTER<<

courtesy kevin shui Members of Zeta Beta Tao participate in the human pyramid event during this year’s Greek Week. They fell short to the brothers of Sigma Epsilon, who were able to construct the tower in the shortest amount of time.

Tickets for Senior Week are now on sale. Early bird rates are available from April 15 until April 23 and after that, tickets can be purchased at full price up until the day before each event. The Senior Week Committee recommends that students buy tickets as quickly as possible, as events are already starting to sell out.

Senior week is open to students who graduated in December 2012 or will be graduating in May or August of 2013.

Unlike previous years, tickets will be available by event, allowing students to pick and choose what they want to attend, with the hope that this will make Senior Week much more affordable than it has been in the past.

This year, the number of events during senior week has doubled to 14.

“The committee has done a very good job of offering variety and offering events that complement each other on each of the days,” said Christian Wargo, senior class president and executive director of Class Officer Collective Senior Week has been an extremely successful event in the past few years, and the trend appears to be holding true this year. The week unofficially kicks off with Senior Night at the Jolly Scholar on May 3. The actual student-run events officially start with a Kick-Off Barbeque in the Village Courtyard on May 8.

Other notable events include an Indians Game on May 9, a white water rafting trip at Ohiopyle State Park on May 11, a Cedar Point trip on May 14, and a Good Times III dinner cruise around Lake Erie and the Cuyahoga River on May 15.

A full listing of events can be found on the event’s Facebook page. Tickets are available online.

Pickleball tournament benefits RHA elections begin April 24, children’s hunger alliance applications due tonight >>tanviPARMAR special.assignmentsREPORTER<<

On Sunday, April 14, from 2 to 4 p.m., 24 Case Western Reserve University students gathered at the Veale Track Area to participate in the Student Dietetic Association’s (SDA) Pickleball Tournament Fundraiser. The association offered a cash prize, which was 25 percent of the revenue, to the tournament winners: freshmen Niko Flores and Erwin Pang.

Pickleball is a racket sport that is often described as a combination of badminton, tennis, and table tennis. The court itself has the same dimensions as a doubles badminton court, but has a net mounted two inches lower than tennis nets. The rackets used are hard paddles. The ball used is essentially a smaller version of a whiffle ball.

One main difference between pickleball and tennis is that the ball travels at one third of the speed a tennis ball does and the court is one third of the size of a tennis court. As a result, pickleball is considered to be a sport that is more accessible to players.

All the proceeds from the event were donated to the Children’s Hunger Alliance.

The total amount of money raised from both the tournament and the bake sale that SDA held was $150.

“I’m really grateful for everyone that showed up to SDA’s first annual Pickleball Tournament. I think this tournament was

a great way for people to have fun while fundraising for a great charity,” said vice president of SDA, Judy Chen.

Children’s Hunger Alliance is known for providing nutritious food for children and helping teach healthy eating habits.

They do this by providing meals to childcare homes and after-school programs, increasing access to healthy food during the summer, and educating students about healthy food choices and exercising in life.

Students paid $8 for a standard team of two. They were able to compete either competitively in a single elimination bracket or just for fun separately.

“Everything went very smoothly, and it was organized,” said chief organizational officer Pranav Sarda. “The 24-person turnout was kind of expected, as this was the first tournament, along with the fact that pickleball is not yet a very common sport. I am satisfied with how it went this year and I feel we can improve on it next year.”

For next year, SDA plans to enhance the event with food for the spectators and participants, playing music during the tournament, possibly having officials regulate the game (or at least the semifinals and finals), and accommodating CaseCash as a method of payment. They are also looking into a better time for the event. While pickleball may be unfamiliar to the average student, it is the cause that SDA hope everybody will recognize.

>>brydenSPEVAK senior.newsREPORTER<<

The time has come again for community-minded students to join the Residence Hall Association (RHA). This semester marks the prominent organization’s third-annual spring elections, created as a way for council heads and members to get a head start on the next academic year’s programming. The spring elections bring in a new president and vice president to each second-year and Upper-Class Community Council, while the rest of the positions are filled in the fall.

RHA is made up of seven councils, each representing one of the residential communities at CWRU with its own governing board, budget, structure, and advisor. Each council works closely with individual students in the residence halls, student groups, and university administration to ensure that student voices are heard and communication is facilitated. They work to provide living spaces that are more than just places to sleep. RHA gives students

a voice to make tangible changes in their communities.

Executive president Mara Gallagher, a senior, thinks RHA allows residents to more deeply connect with their campus and CWRU community.

“RHA is a great way to make a large impact on campus,” Gallagher explained. “Each Community Council works as a team for their community, so the impacts you make are right where you live.”

Not only does RHA work to develop the community, it also acts as a mechanism through which members can develop personally.

“As an organization, we strive to provide leadership development opportunities throughout the year, so our leaders are always learning and applying new skills,” said Gallagher.

Applications for president and vice president can be found on the RHA website, and provide further details on each position’s duties and how students can get involved in any leadership position with the organization. Voting will take place April 24-25.

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Relay For Life sets ambitious fundraising goal >>suneilKAMATH civic.engagementREPORTER<<

Every year, millions of people die from cancer. This weekend, Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) will host Relay For Life in an effort to honor those who have lost their lives to cancer, support cancer survivors, and fundraise to help find a cure for cancer.

Relay For Life will be held at the Coach Bill Sudeck Track in the North Residential Village on Saturday, April 20, starting at 1 p.m. until 7 a.m. on Sunday, April 21. Students can register with a team to fundraise, or they can come individually the day of the event.

Throughout the night, team members will take turns walking around a track to help raise money. Last year, CWRU Relay for Life was able to raise $70,000. This year they set the bar a bit higher with hopes to raise $75,000.

In addition to walking around the track, there will be food, games, and activities to help keep participants entertained throughout the night. There will be a midnight pizza party, Zumba, and much more.

Relay For Life is not just another fundraising event. It holds a special place in the hearts of many students, including junior Alissa Prior.

“My friend Courtney was diagnosed with central neurocytoma, a form of brain cancer, our freshman year of high school.

As a result, Relay For Life has become a big part of my life,” said Prior.

“In high school, it was a way to support Courtney and celebrate how strong she is

A look at some of the fund raising events that will be featured at Relay For Life. For the complete list, and the full schedule, visit observer.case.edu.

arianna wage / observer A student buys a root beer float from Sigma Psi and Sigma Nu at last year’s Relay For Life event. Money raised this year will be donated to the American Cancer Society. and how much she has been through,” she said. “It was always one of my favorite days of the year spent with my closest friends and family, not only recognizing how amazing Courtney and other cancer survivors are, but having an unforgettable time walking (and dancing) around a track for 12 hours.”

Prior took her love of Relay For Life in high school to college. Last year, Prior was a team captain for her sorority and

USG Brief >>nooraSOMERSALO student.affairsREPORTER<<

On Tuesday, April 16, the General Assembly of Case Western Reserve University’s Undergraduate Student Government held a brief moment of silence for the victims of the Boston Marathon bombings before beginning the meeting.

The first issue on the GA’s agenda was mass funding for fall semester 2013. This year, over 140 student groups requested a total of over $367,000 in funding. The GA heard appeals from two student groups: the Case Footlighters and the water polo team.

The Case Footlighters requested that the GA grant the organization the originally requested funding of $4,600 in full. The reasoning behind the Finance Committee’s decision not to allocate full funding to the Case Footlighters was that the group was still uncertain of the show when they submitted the application for mass funding.

However, the representative of the organization assured its audience that all of the money requested was needed and will be used. This proved to be enough to convince 81 percent of the GA members to vote for the amendment of the massfunding bill, granting the Case Footlighters full funding.

The GA also decided to grant the water polo team the $1,189 the group originally requested with 83 percent affirmation. After hearing from team representatives, the GA discussed granting the funds for the team to acquire lane lines, a scoreboard, and allowing them to make some minor pool modifications. It was also reasoned that allotting the money would allow the water polo team to host tournaments and raise funds.

After the amendments were made, the sum allocated to student groups came to $189,012.73. This caused some concern among the GA as the budget for mass funding was originally planned to total at approximately $175,000. The GA was

not able to vote on the mass-funding bill because the Finance Committee still has to review some student groups for official recognition. The bill was tabled until the next meeting.

The assembly then moved into a discussion of Bill B. 22-35, a bill to amend elections bylaws. The purpose of the bill was to establish the constituency of undeclared students and to rename the position of the parliamentarian to the chief judicial officer. Both issues were on the ballot in last week’s elections. There were disagreements within the GA about the voting eligibility of graduating seniors.

The new amendment proposes that all students who are enrolled and pay the student activities fee are allowed to vote for representatives. This would exclude graduating seniors, which prompted a debate among the assembly. The GA ultimately voted on amending the section in question and decided to include graduating seniors in the amendment. This bill was also tabled.

President James Hale introduced another bylaw amendment to the GA. Bill B. 22-36, a bill to amend funding bylaws, would change the procedures under which the Finance Committee operates, giving student groups more funding flexibility.

Like with the previous bills, this was also tabled and will be up for discussion next week.

Additionally, the GA had to discuss a rolling funding bill and a recognition bill.

Since the Finance Committee still has to review recognition requests from several student organizations, the recognition bill could not be passed and will be voted on at next week’s meeting.

While most of the votes were tabled for next week, Bill B. 22-33, a bill to allocate additional funding to student organizations, was passed with 96 percent affirmation. This guarantees a total of $5,575 out of the requested $9,695.02 to student groups.

this year she is on the Planning Team for Relay for Life.

“Now in college, I still ‘Relay’ every year for my inspiring friend Courtney, but it has become such a bigger part of my life than I ever thought it would be my freshman year of high school,” said Prior. “It has been a rewarding experience to plan the event that I love so much, and I hope a lot of CWRU students come out to the event to support.”

Cultural Food Combo Sale International Club 1 - 4 p.m.

Mini-HvZ Game Case Big Game Club/HvZ 6 - 8:30 p.m.

Outdoor Games The 300 Club 1 - 5 p.m.

Walking Tacos Alpha Phi Omega 6 p.m. - 12 a.m.

Inflatables Planners for More Birthdays 1 - 5 p.m.

Fencing Lessons Spartan Fencers 7 - 8 p.m.

Engineer a Drink WISER 1 - 6 p.m.

Jail N’ Bail Phi Mu and Sigma Phi Epsilon 7 - 10 p.m.

Pie a Pi Phi and Dunk a DU Pi Phi and DU 1 - 8 p.m.

Glowsticks and Hot Chocolate Whack-A-Moles 11 p.m. - 1 a.m.

Bake Sale and Dance Urban Elementz 6:30 - 9:30 p.m.

Chariot Ride Mistletoe Residential College Entire Event

Hair Cutting/ Pantene Beautiful Lengths Phi Mu 2 - 6 p.m.

Drop it Like It’s Hot (Pipette game) CWRU grads Entire Event

Summer program to help families affected by cancer >>tanviPARMAR special.assignmentsREPORTER<<

On April 15, Livestrong officially announced that it will provide funding for Case Western Reserve University and 11 other campuses to hold Camp Kesem in the summer of 2014. Each college campus across the United States will be awarded $10,000 to plan and implement Camp Kesem.

Camp Kesem is a free weeklong, student-run, sleep-away camp targeted to serve kids ages six to 16 whose parents have (or have had) cancer by providing them with support and attention in a fun but cancer-conscious environment.

Since its beginning in Stanford University, Camp Kesem has grown to 41 camps in 24 states that serve more than 2,000 children each year. This year, the camp will be expanding to 12 additional campuses.

“The application process was a very nerve-wracking experience given the logistics of our student population versus other state schools,” said Brandon Vu, Camp Kesem at CWRU founder.

About 200 hospitals, cancer centers, university students, and community organizations in eight regions across the country competed in an online voting competition to win funding to hold Camp Kesem from Livestrong.

“When I found out we had won, I was relieved and even proud of the support the CWRU community has shown for the program. I’m certain this level of enthusiasm will carry over to make the camp of the summer of 2014 a successful endeavor,” said Vu. The 11 other university award recipients are University of California at Santa Cruz, University of Colorado, Yale University, Brigham Young UniversityIdaho, Saint Louis University, Stony

Brook University, Penn State University, Rice University, College of William & Mary, and Virginia Commonwealth University.

Livestrong states that Camp Kesem is one of the four proven cancer support programs included in the company’s 2013 Community Impact Project.

“We are so appreciative of everyone who took action to bring the Community Impact Project to their communities,” said Doug Ulman, foundation president and CEO. “The Livestrong Foundation fights to improve the lives of people affected by cancer today, and by immediately implementing these proven programs that provide critical emotional and physical support to those facing cancer, we are helping more people live life on their own terms. We take great pride in this opportunity to advance our mission.”

In addition to money, the 12 campuses will receive a “toolkit” consisting of facilitator manuals, participant materials, evaluation forms, training and support from the model program’s staff, access to additional tools and resources, and a full report on the historical replication of this program upon completion.

Currently, the Camp Kesem founder team at CWRU is searching for individuals to build their team of student coordinators. The team will also be presenting applications in December 2013 for those wishing to be a camp counselor during the summer of 2014.

“We were competing against schools with much larger student populations, yet we still managed to bring in an extraordinary amount of votes,” said founder Yssra Soliman. “I think this says a lot about the level of dedication and passion that our students hold. If we put our minds to it, truly amazing things can happen on this campus.”

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Outside the Circle >>sarahGROFT national.newsREPORTER<<

President Obama’s 2014 budget proposed On April 10, the Obama Administration proposed the 2014 budget. The budget focused on education in order to help the economy, enhance the middle class, and generally give all citizens of the U.S. more opportunities. Avoiding additions to the deficit, Obama’s budget invests $71 billion in flexible funding for the Department of Education, which is a 4.5 percent increase from the 2013 fiscal year pre-sequester level.

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said, “We must continue to build on the reforms already transforming classrooms around the country.

Strategic investments in our educational system will not only provide more opportunities for millions of Americans, but they will strengthen our nation’s workforce as well.”

One specific education investment in Obama’s proposed budget is the Preschool for All proposal. This proposal

aims to make excellent learning opportunities available to four-year-olds in low-moderate income households. It would invest $75 billion over 10 years in order to create partnerships with states and ensure that all students who are entering kindergarten are prepared.

“Preschool is one of the smartest and most critical investments we can make,” said Duncan, “By getting our children off to a strong start, we not only increase their individual chances for lifelong success, but also ensure our entire nation is on the path to a strong future.”

Within the Preschool for All proposal, Obama hopes to further the K-12 reform agenda by investing in teachers and leaders, keeping schools and communities safe, redesigning the high school experience and increasing career readiness, making college more affordable and providing ladders of opportunity.

Ohio health care plan introduced State representatives Robert F. Hagen and Mike Foley introduced the Ohio Health Care Plan on April 10. The plan, known as House Bill 121, aims to provide healthcare for all Ohioans and will be coupled with Senate Bill 104, which was introduced by Senator Mike Skindell. According to a press release from the senate, the combination of these two bills will “create a single-payer health care system that will extend full and comprehensive coverage to all Ohioans.”

Hagan said, “While the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is a positive step toward greater healthcare reform, the federal legislation does not go far enough.

Only through a single-payer system can our state rein in the skyrocketing costs of healthcare and establish an equitable system that provides universal access to qual-

ity healthcare, dental care, and vision services.”

Under this legislation, all Ohioans will be able to choose their desired provider while being fully covered for necessary health services anywhere, like outpatient services, prescription drugs, medical supplies, and medical transportation. Additionally, all of the offered services will be accessible without copayments or deductibles regardless of the patient’s income or employment status.

“This bill has become more important considering the recent action by House Republicans,” said Foley. “While we’ll continue to fight for Medicaid expansion, it’s important to consider the next step in ensuring all Ohioans have access to healthcare whether they can afford it or not.”

Missouri school teachers allowed to carry concealed weapons Fairview School in West Plains, Mo. has announced that some of their staff has been trained to carry concealed weapons during the school day. For the most part, the parent reaction was positive. Fairview is not the only school that is taking an active approach after the shooting in Newtown, Conn. Other schools have hired armed guards or introduced buzzer systems at their doors.

The Fairview school employees completed a 40-hour course over spring break last month with a company called Shield Solutions. The training was paid for by the school and included both firearm lessons and situational drills. Each employee was required to complete a background check, a drug test, and a mental evaluation. These checks, as well as firearms training and recertification,

will need to be renewed annually.

The community surrounding Fairview School is well accustomed to weaponry.

The residents in the area are part of a hunting culture and often begin to pursue a variety of game such as deer and turkey at an early age. Sherri Roy, a resident of the area and mother of four children in Fairview School, said, “If I didn’t know anything about guns, if I wasn’t raised with it, I’m sure I would be more uncomfortable.

But in this area guns are pretty much a normal, everyday part of your life.” Others, however, are not as fond of the idea. Karen Moffis, the principal of nearby Glenwood School, said, “Traditionally in this area, schools have already been a very safe and welcoming community. Nobody’s ever thought about needing [guns] at school.”

New leak in damaged Tokyo nuclear plant Another leak at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Tokyo has halted the process of removing contaminated water caused by a previous leak from the plant. This second leak is located in the pipes that move the water to above-ground storage containers. According to The New York Times, Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco), the operator of the plant, found nearly six gallons of water that had leaked from a junction where pipes were supposed to be sealed together to transport water from one storage pool to another.

The nuclear waste transported in this plant comes from the attempts to cool reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, which was damaged two years ago by an earthquake and a tsunami. Tepco is currently trying to find somewhere to store

the large amounts of water while the leaks are fixed.

This newest leak will cause Tepco to postpone water removal from the second storage pool for multiple days while the pipe junction is fixed. The first leak that originally caused the water removal to be necessary has spilled over 32,000 gallons of radioactive water and continues to leak.

These problems only add to the concerns that citizens have about Tepco’s ability to safely manage the nuclear plant. As the plant has seen other incidents, these concerns do not appear to be completely unfounded. A power outage of vital cooling systems occurred last month when a rat short-circuited part of the plant’s electrical system. The damage should be repaired before any further leakage occurs.

courtesy bagainchoka.com Leftist Nicolas Maduro narrowly captured the Venezuelan presidency after the death of Hugo Chavez (pictured above).

Venezuela chooses a new president Nicolas Maduro won the Venezuelan election this past Sunday and will be taking over the last six years of Hugo Chavez’s presidential term. Chavez’s death from cancer on March 5 marked the start of the election. While Chavez handpicked Maduro to continue his legacy, the election was very close. Maduro’s opponent, Henrique Capriles Radonski, refused to accept the results, citing irregularities in the voting and demands a recount.

State Governer Capriles ran against Chavez last October, but failed to win the presidency. This time around, Capriles lost once again when he obtained 49.1 percent, compared to Maduro’s 50.6. Although some are concerned that this narrow lead will cause trouble for Maduro later in his term, others do not share this fear. Tibisay Lucena, head of the electoral council, said, “There are the irreversible results that the Venezuelan people have decided with this electoral process.”

When the results were announced, Maduro responded, “We have a just, legal, con-

stitutional, and popular electoral victory.”

Capriles, however, saw it differently and claimed, “We are not going to recognize the result until every last vote is counted, one by one. The big loser today is you, you and what you represent.”

Although Chavez strongly opposed relations with the United States, saying that his cancer was a U.S. plot to kill him, Maduro has indicated that he may not share his predecessor’s viewpoint. Maduro sent a private message to Washington through Bill Richardson, the former governor of New Mexico, who was in Caracas, Venezuela as a representative of the Organization of American States. The message, according to Richardson, was, “We want to improve the relationship with the U.S., regularize the relationship.”

According to The New York Times, supporters of Maduro have expressed concern that their newly elected leader does not have Chavez’s “sharp political instincts and magnetism.” Many are worried about his ability to lead effectively both in Venezuela and abroad.

On the Beat So we have come to the end of another academic year. Soon, some of you will be heading out into the real world to seek fame and fortune, while others will be trying to jam all your worldly possessions into the backseat of an economy car before heading home, the Laundromat, or wherever your summer plans take you. Case Western Reserve University Police Department will keep the place from burning down while you are all gone and we will be here in the fall when you return with all your worldly possessions in the back of an economy car and try and get them to the 11th floor of Clarke Tower.

We have had a pretty good semester safety and crime-wise thus far, but things aren’t over yet. Continue to use services like shuttle buses and Safe Ride to move around the campus area late at night - the return of warmer weather, while very welcome, also sometimes leads to an uptick in criminal activity so continue to be aware of your surroundings as you move about the area at night.

We have recently had a string of thefts involving laptops and cellphones (or the backpacks they were kept in), almost all of which were unattended. It always pays to keep an eye on your stuff - thieves don’t care if your life’s work is stored on the hard drive.

Lock up your bikes when not in use.

Enough said.

The end of the year can bring stress as well as excitement as things like finals and final grades roll in. If you or someone you know are struggling with depression or other

issues, take advantage of the resources here and talk to someone. Counseling services at 216-368-5872 is a good place to start.

When finals are done, there is an understandable instinct to celebrate. This is probably why we see a spike in trips to the hospital for alcohol related issues this time of year.

So celebrate, but don’t overdo it. A visit to the ER is not how you want to end your year.

CWRU PD congratulates the class of 2013.

Have a safe summer everyone, Sergeant Jeffrey Daberko Officer Mark Chavis

>>police blotter 04/08 to 04/15

Apr. 10 - Petty theft - Unattended cell phone taken, Kelvin Smith Library.

Apr. 11 - Felony theft - Backpack containing electronics taken from classroom, Kent Hale Smith building.

Apr. 13 - Motor vehicle theft- Parked car taken between 4/6 & 4/13, Lot 57, Carlton Road.

There will be a special shuttle service available from the Kelvin Smith Library to Fribley Commons starting Tuesday 4/30/2013. The shuttle will run from 8 pm until 3 am throughout final exams.

Send feedback to On the Beat at policecolumn@case.edu.

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A little teapot in Texas >> aditya RENGASWAMY | STRANGE ARCHITECTURE Exploring the world through food and architecture has always been an interest of mine. I hope to find time soon where I can travel the world, sample cuisines from various cultures, see magnificent structures created by man, and dive deep into bizarre sensations. This desire has actually manifested itself into a long document that I constantly update with places I wish to go before I pass away.

This document has very few locations within the USA, but one particular location that recently made the list is Galveston, Texas, due to a particular teapot that has garnered my attention there.

In Galveston, near the Gulf of Mexico, a metal building that looks just like a tea-kettle stands proudly on the ground. In its vicinity there are a multitude of buildings all on stilts to protect them from floods, but the kettle sits there without any such protection.

It has been there for over 50 years and has braved a multitude of hurricanes among many other natural disasters. You may be wondering who built it, or who lives in it, but the answers to those questions bear little fruit.

Supposedly, it was built by some mysterious stranger who used to make storage tanks for oil companies. He lived in the area, but no one truly knows why he built it, or what it was built for.

Perhaps it was made to store water, or maybe it was made as neat little souvenir

that dots the state of Texas? Even neighbors of the plot of land agree that they have seen the man who built it in the past, but no one is sure why he did it or who he exactly was.

Currently, no one resides on the plot of land. It just sits there, revered by many onlookers, and occasionally explored by curious citizens. Yet, perhaps that is the way it should be. Charles Baxter once said, “when all the details fit in perfectly, something is probably wrong with the story.”

No one really knows why the teakettle structure exists, and perhaps leaving it be creates a fun sense of mystery. Sometimes in the pursuit of knowledge we forget the beauty of the unknown. When I get chance to visit it, I may take a peek inside, but I’ll leave the historical investigations alone. I’ll be there to enjoy its fantastical appeal.

Join me next time as we continue to explore the weird of our universe.

From the vast monuments erected by mankind to the peculiar discovery of scientific phenomena, there is plenty left to discover around us.

Aditya Rengaswamy is a sophomore accounting student at CWRU. He enjoys doing various service projects like Kids Against Hunger, being a part of USG, and hanging out with his brothersin ΘX.

Editor’s Note Our dirty little secret The emails I receive as a newspaper editor are sometimes relevant, usually lengthy, and always entertaining. This past week, as I was navigating press releases announcing everything from apple butter stirring festivals to nursing home trivia contests, an interesting one caught my eye.

The RecyleMania rankings had arrived. If you want to finish reading this editorial now, I’ll cut to the chase: you won’t find The Daily touting these results.

Piggybacking on the March Madness phenomena, RecycleMania brings a different kind of competition to the nation’s college campuses during the spring. The annual eight-weeklong competition began in February, ended in March, and included 523 schools across the United States and Canada this year.

Schools can compete in one of two categories: the Competition Division or the Benchmark Division. The Competition Division features formal rankings that allow colleges to see how they compare to one another. The Benchmark Division is more informal and allows participants to compete at their own pace.

Case Western Reserve University opted to participate in the Competition Division this year, but perhaps we should have called the game on account of rain. CWRU is not ready to compete when it comes to sustainability.

In the Grand Champion category, which ranks a school’s recycling rate as a percentage of its overall waste generation, CWRU came in 249th out of 274 participants in the Competition Division. The university only recycles 13.525 percent of the campus’ waste output, compared to the top recycling school, University of Missouri-Kansas City, which finished with a recycling rate of 86.016 percent.

CWRU frequently proclaims it is sustainable, but these results prove the jury is in and our green reputation is out. And I don’t think it is a difficult task to conclude why.

After all, when I think of the university and sustainability, our fancy trashcans and large windmill are the last items to come to mind.

Instead I think of the television in the Peter B. Lewis Building (PBL) that is always on, even at 3:00 a.m. I think of summer mornings, when the sprinkler system is doing a fantastic job of hydrating a thirsty rock and nothing else. I think of the trash rooms in the Village at 115, where trash bags and recycling bins become indistinguishable by midweek.

As an institution we need to stop pretending we are something we aren’t.

When prospective students tour campus, we put forth an image that CWRU puts the environment first, making these results even more embarrassing.

Campus entities that do focus on sustainability, such as the Office for Sustainability and the Student Sustainability Council, are not the problem, however. They are the working solution for a non-green campus.

To have a meaningful presence of sustainability, the university’s administration and major student organizations must become stakeholders. Where do printed publications go to die when their time on campus has passed? Who is responsible for turning off PBL’s TV when no one is watching it? How can waste management in university housing be improved?

These are the questions that must be asked before solutions can be employed. And the only sustainable option is for the university community at large to ask them.

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

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

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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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Immigration deformed: reform stalls over policy differences >> evan WILSON | FAIRLY UNBALANCED Since losing the 2012 elections, in part due to lackluster support from minority voters, the GOP has decided it needs to make immigration reform a key issue and do more than propose building a big fence.

Republican Senators McCain, Rubio, Graham, and Flake joined Democrats Schumer, Durbin, Bennet, and Menendez in months of negotiations to come up with a piece of legislation that might have a chance of getting through Congress.

Democrats had long been proponents of a path to citizenship along with some degree of amnesty for entering the country illegally. Most Republicans countered this idea, believing that transition from illegal to legal immigrants should be more difficult than following legal channels in the first place. So after all this time what have they come up with to present to Congress?

On Tuesday they unveiled this plan, which included a path to citizenship for

I

n the end, the only change is that now we’d have a way to keep using the cheap labor that undocumented workers provide while simultaneously punishing them for being here and dangling the hope of being an American in front of them.

undocumented workers. However, it seems more like an obstacle course than a path.

For a person living in the United States illegally to start this journey to legality, they would have to first pay a fine for their transgressions. After that, they would fill out the necessary applications along with paying another fee. Then, they would have to undergo a thorough background check. After however long it takes to process all this, that person may then qualify for a work permit.

In order to apply for full citizenship, someone would have to live and work in the US for at least 10 years under the work permit program. During this time, they would be ineligible to receive any federal assistance, such as food stamps, welfare, or Medicaid to make sure that these people can make it on their own and do not end up as the dreaded “moocher class” we hear so much about.

Despite the onerous barriers to this path, Republican Senators seem to believe that any path to citizenship for illegals would attract more illegal border crossing. After all, what poor immigrant doesn’t want to pay two fees to possibly be allowed to toil as a second-class, low-wage worker for years?

So to stem the tide, the right wing faction of the bipartisan group called for stricter border control to the tune of $6.5 billion in Department of Homeland Security funding for border patrol enforcement and, you guessed

Mind your T’s and Q’s >> kyle PATTERSON | FAMILY MATTERS Today marks the seventeenth year of the widely-known Day of Silence, a student-led program established in 1996 at the University of Virginia.

The day of activism, involving a 24hour vow of silence, calls to attention the silent troubles faced by countless students who are assaulted frequently by anti-lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, and queer (LGBT) sentiments. Whether this passive display of solitude aids the daily battle of an LBGT member is a question often ignored for the sake of tradition; what must not be ignored, however, are the parties that such increasingly common activism forgets.

In an online poll conducted last year, the Huffington Post found that 34 percent of the voters viewed marriage equality as the most pressing issue within the LBGT community. A mere 12 percent viewed transgender rights as the most pressing issue, even though currently only 15 states legally prohibit discrimination based on gender identity in employment and housing. While a little under a year has passed since the poll’s conclusion, the consensus seems to have shifted very little.

Last month, the Supreme Court heard arguments in two cases involving gay marriage. In Hollingsworth v.

Perry, the constitutionality of Proposition 8 is brought to the dissection table; in United States v. Windsor, the Defense of Marriage Act faces its own legal standing.

In the days leading up to and following the landmark cases, I could find mountains of information on gay marriage and the history of gay rights online. Activists congregated outside the hearings, their faces and signs plastered around the internet and news

channels as headlines and advertisements.

Less than two weeks ago, on Apr. 9, California became the third state requiring insurance companies to extend all treatments authorized for non-transsexual individuals to the transsexual community as well.

As a member of the LBGT community, I celebrate the fact that in 20 years we have brought down such a significant stigma against homosexuality to the point that federal policies, such as the infamous “don’t ask, don’t tell,” can be struck down.

I cheered when I heard of this year’s SCOTUS cases; I applauded when several political figures turned in favor of gay rights; I screamed when I learned that only three states protect transgender people’s healthcare.

The year is 2013, and many of our brothers, sisters, and genderless kin still face crimes and discrimination that should be long extinct. Let’s not forget that we only came this far by working as a family, and that much of our family still struggles for rights we’ve long enjoyed. As you take your vow of silence, remember that for some it is not a vow, but a way of life; the only way for them to survive in an unwelcome environment.

Kyle Patterson is a senior CS major looking forward to the end of cold weather and classes. He intends to help The Observer implement changes for the better from behind the scenes and can be found frequently updating the website in the early hours of the day.

You can also find him working on the upcoming redesigns for The Athenian and The Jolly Scholar in the free time he doesn’t have.

it, more fences.

Other enforcement mechanisms in the bill include the requirement that a government system is put into place to allow employers to run a photo check on perspective immigrant workers, verifying their work permits as well as a system that could track legal immigrants to make sure they do not overstay their welcome after their visa expires. These programs, along with the beefed up border security, would have to be implemented before anybody could even start to apply for one of these work permits to begin the decade-long wait for citizenship.

Basically, this proposed piece of legislation reflects the previous Republican solution of self-deportation, where the conditions that illegal immigrants have to work under are so bad that they go back home.

Senator Marco Rubio insisted that the process be more difficult than the current system which requires illegals to leave the country and wait ten years to apply for a visa.

In the end, the only change is that now we’d have a way to keep using the cheap labor that undocumented workers provide while simultaneously punishing them for being here and dangling the hope of being an American in front of them.

To top this all off, Speaker of the House John Boehner announced the same day that

S

o to stem the tide, the right wing faction of the bipartisan group called for stricter border control to the tune of $6.5 billion in Department of Homeland Security funding for border patrol enforcement and, you guessed it, more fences. this proposed legislation was revealed that he plans to move it through the House broken up into individual pieces of legislation, so don’t be surprised when nothing gets passed.

The House will probably shoot down the parts of the bill supported by the Democrats and the Senate won’t pass anything without a path to citizenship.

Not that I’m a fan of this plan, but it speaks volumes about the state of Washington; that months of negotiation will be wasted because Mr. Boehner doesn’t know the meaning of the word compromise.

Evan Wilson is a junior studying Cognitive Science and Biology. For him, politics is akin to watching a car crash... you know something awful is about to happen, but you can’t really do much now, so you might as well enjoy the show.

Letter to the Editor With the recent uproar due to disturbing responses by some to the Steubenville rape case, the knowledge of the general population about sexual assault has been called into question. As a founding member and former president of Case Western Reserve University’s Sexual Assault and Violence Educators (SAVE) student group, I have spent a number of hours discussing this topic with students and staff at our university. When I read about the response of Amherst University’s Dean to a rape survivor at Amherst - “You never took your case to trial, so you don’t actually count as a rape survivor” 1- or UNC’s former dean saying she was forced to underreport sexual assault cases 2, it makes me question the priorities of universities across the country. At this time, it would seem fair to say that most universities are far more concerned with their reputation than their students when it comes to sexual assault. While I can understand why this is the case, the reality of the situation is that 20-25% of women in college report having experienced an attempted or completed rape while in college and 90% of college women who are victims of rape or attempted rape know their assailant4. At this point, it is inevitable that there will be women on any college campus who will be raped by someone else at their college.

Based on the stories I have heard on this campus, the response to sexual assault on college campuses is not effective. The only means to bring perpetrators to justice is through the legal system and/or through CWRU’s judicial procedures. I want to be able to encourage the women and men who come to me and share what has happened to them to seek to bring the perpetrator to justice, because currently that is our only solution. Yet I have heard horror

stories about women seeking CWRU’s help and being ignored, accused of breaking other rules and in some cases being expelled. These are women who are recovering from a horribly traumatic event and our university refuses to protect them. While I have heard more positive stories with better outcomes, they are certainly not the majority – whether at CWRU or at other universities. Until the system changes to respect the rights of the survivor and make them feel safe and believed, I cannot in good conscience recommend reporting what happened to them. This, in turn, leaves the perpetrators out there to assault other individuals on campus and in the community. The current system protects the perpetrator and accuses the victim. Some of the individuals found responsible of sexual misconduct in the judicial system at CWRU are required to go through a “sexual harassment/sexual assault prevention training” where they learn about sexual assault, but do they really understand what these victims have gone through? Have they sat on the phone for hours with a friend sobbing uncontrollably after having been raped? Do they know what it is like to start hyperventilating whenever you run into the person who assaulted you or return to the dorm you lived in together?

The lack of an appropriate response to these issues leaves not only the survivors unsafe, but the entire university. If we allow perpetrators to go unpunished for their crimes, it leaves them more likely to assault again. While there is no ideal solution at this point, there can be improvements made to help support the safety of our students as a priority far more important than the reputation of our university.

Mary Theresa Jennings Undergraduate Student

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Drawn with flying colors: British masterworks-on-paper at the Cleveland Museum of Art >>christopherDWYER artCRITIC<< To this author (and who am I to disagree with the author?), England’s poetic and historical memory seems to course ineluctably through the oeuvre of one, pantheonized, stand-alone colossus: Jackson Mallord William Turner (17751851). The breadth and beauty of the Cleveland Museum of Art’s exhibition of mainly in-house, must-see British drawings, on view until May 26, persuades that Turner both stands alone and among many Georgian, Victorian, and Edwardian compatriots of astonishing, if less renowned, artistic virtuosity.

The show’s diverse landscapes, societal portraits, and literary illustrations demonstrate British drawings’ evolution from tinted graphite topographies to fullscale watercolors, chalks, pastels, and penand-inks. Their installation, however, little discusses appertaining aesthetic categories, theories, and ideologies or, relatedly, England’s historic industrial, naval, and mercantile might. This approach lets the art speak for itself, but may also leave aspiring aesthetes-in-the-know craving context.

I aim to flesh out what is arguably the exhibit’s heart: the interdependent development in England of the genre of landscape, from background setting to center stage, and the medium of watercolor, from washed to painted pigment.

Landscape watercolors comprise an unmistakably British, Golden Age corpus that flourished from about 1750 to 1850 despite most inauspicious beginnings.

When London’s Royal Academy opened in 1768, its president, Joshua Reynolds, set in painting’s hierarchy three types of landscape: “Historic,” “Pastoral” and “Topographic.” Like portraiture and still life, topography’s detailed exactitude was disdained as mere transcription of the natural world, the lowly bailiwick of the workaday draughtsman, not artist. Furthermore, the R.A. prohibited entry to topographic practitioners, i.e., watercolorists.

The R.A. stated its members were to be “Painters, Sculptors and Architects,” which at the time did not include watercolorists.

They had early mastered the difficult application of seamlessly gradated, muted, pre-engraving watercolor washes over pencil underdrawings and beneath penand-ink details; still, the R.A. viewed such work as drawing, an adjunct to painting and not, like oils-on-canvas, painting itself.

This attitude long continued, regardless of watercolorists’ bold painterly initiatives.

“Jacob’s Dream” (1720) by Joseph Goupy (1689-1720), a student of the pre-R.A., Hogarth-founded St. Martin’s

Lane Academy, echoes Baroque painter Salvator Rosa’s representation of Jacob; his ladder-dreaming, erstwhile the focus of morally elevating history paintings, falls rather subservient to prominent, vibrant craggy territory. After Goupy, landscape increasingly transitioned via watercolor from setting into independent subject matter, in part because of two rising vogues.

The first vogue, given the discoveries of Herculaneum in 1738 and Pompeii in 1748, was Antiquarianism. In its wake, archaeologically precise renderings of ancient buildings became vehicles for luminous, sometimes louring atmospherics.

The second vogue, codified by the minor artist Revered William Gilpin in the 1770s and the landscape designer Sir Uvedale Price in the 1790s, was the Picturesque.

Distinct from the Burkean sublime, rooted in awe and terror, and from the Burkean beautiful, rooted in comfort and love, the picturesque provokes curiosity and surprise.

England’s smooth, manicured gardens yielded on the ground and on paper to carefully composed yet “wild” picturesque vistas that merge rough textures with sudden, broken, varied, and irregular forms to intriguing, striking effect. Thereby “improving” nature or, as painter-teacher John Varley (1778-1842) quipped, “cooking” it, the picturesque countered unfeeling, mechanistic Enlightenment empiricism with emotional, intuitive Romantic individualism. The solitary figure in “Traveler in a Woodland Landscape” (1805) by John Sell Cotman (1782-1842) personifies this ethos.

Like John Constable (1776-1837), Cotman endowed commonplace sites with lofty import. Other British watercolorists employed to depict the estates of aristocrats turned collector-connoisseurs often accompanied them to sketch-record à la picturesque their Grand Tour. By this edifying passage through Italy and the Continent, artists encountered seventeenthcentury landscape paintings ennobled by biblical, mythological and historical reference, such as Rosa’s gripping terrains, Poussin’s arcadian idylls and Claude’s serene campagnas.

In 1772, the leading picturesque painter John Robert Cozens (1752-97) joined the wealthy, wildly extravagant landowner William Beckford from Paris to Naples via the Alps. Rapt by mountains, as was his painter-father Alexander, Cozens poetically bathes hills, valleys and meadows with his signature subdued grays, greens, and blues in “Italianate Landscape” (1790-92). Less historical documentary or topographical accuracy than fanciful haze, the picture adopts the Claudean framing device of a large foreground tree, which dwarfs a cottage suggesting human presence.

Miniaturized people amid vast, resplendent nature appear in “Waterfall between Chiavena and Mont Splügen” (1784) by Francis Towne (1739-1816).

His diminutive pedestrian and horseman advance into monumental alpine splendor characterized by progressive techniques. A Cozenesque blue-green monochrome layers modulated grey and sepia, undetailed, robustly outlined and geometrically structured.

Such spare, proto-abstract design, dramatizing the vertiginous precipices’ crashing cataract, likewise governs “Leigh Tor Rocks at Poundsgate, near New Bridge on the Dart, Devon” (1800) by Towne’s friend and mentor, John White Abbott (1763-1851).

Abbott’s granite monoliths tower over cows in an austere composition of pure watercolor.

This sensibility radically departs from that of lush, painterly watercolors once varnished to mimic oil, such as “A Herdsman with Three Cows by an Upland Pool” (mid 1780s) by portraitist Thomas Gainsborough (1727-88). Proud of their pastoral countryside, British artists identified ever more patriotically with their homeland’s pelagic and fluvial waters.

Active during the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars, the marine painter Samuel Atkins (c. 1790-1805) exalts England’s highest chalk sea cliffs and globe-dominating navy in “Fleet off the Coast, Beachy Head” (1790-1805). Its ships in splendid full-sail, reminding of British command in battle, colonizing and trade, find counterpoint in the simple shoreskimming skiff of “On the Thames” (182729) by Varley student David Cox (17831849). Symbolizing national pride, the river’s muscular ebbs and flows distill into gentle reflections in soft-edged, flowing hues that glisten, in part, from being scraped to reveal white paper beneath.

In his later years, Cox lifts pigment less completely amid deeper shades worked wet-into-wet on rough brown paper, as in “Bolton Abbey” (1840s-1857). That title notwithstanding, the twelfth-century ruin serves not as the painting’s subject but as a prop for its subject: landscape. Overrun by vegetation at viewer’s left, the recessed priory’s columns appear to morph at viewer’s right into trunks of yellow-leafed trees as the arcade melts into a sweeping crepuscular valley.

Exemplifying the Romantic trope of decay engendering natural growth, the ecclesiastical turns botanical or, as in topographies by Samuel Prout (1783-1852), invokes it.

Prout was friend to Cotman; teacher to Gainsborough, Constable and Turner; and watercolorist to George IV and then to Queen Victoria. In 1819, Prout visited Europe; there, his fascination with aged cityscapes cemented his destiny as a master architectural watercolorist. In his

grey-and-brown washed “Interior of a Cathedral” (1820s), worked with point of brush, white gouache glints on foliated capitals and tree-trunk-like columns before cool, shaded vaults. Despite objectively meticulous stonework, the whole conjures a subjective sylvan paradise. No wonder that in his ¬¬treatise “The Stones of Venice” (1851), Prout’s art-critic protégé, John Ruskin, praised the Gothic’s restless organic vitality, its “strange ‘disquietude.’”

Ruskin’s impassioned antiquarianism excluded Greek art, which he thought monotonous, “dead, and dark.”

Nevertheless, excavations triggered a vogue for the classical, which, like the medieval, inspired Ozymandian meditations on the eternal natural world and ephemeral human glory. In this connection, nothing compared with the fall of imperial Rome. In “Temple of Vesta and Falls at Tivoli” (1859) by William Callow (1812-1908), large lichen-rich boulders and long rushing torrents capture the vigor absent in distant, deteriorated remains. In “Arch of Titus and the Coliseum, Rome” (1846) by Thomas Hartley Cromek (18091873), the ampitheater’s collapsed outer wall similarly conveys man’s transience.

Temporality refused Turner, or he it. Early in his career, when Napoleonic conflicts forestalled his compulsive Continental peregrinations, Turner copied Cozens’s monochromes - like several artists mentioned here - in the Academy of Dr. Thomas Monro (1759-1833). An active London patron who invited artists to study his private collection, Monro through his home-based Academy spurred the genesis of London sketching groups and provincial watercolor societies. These offered especially welcome instruction to artists unaffiliated with the R.A., and they encouraged imagination - soulsaving imagination given the industrial revolution’s age of the Gradgrinds.

Turner had imagination in spades. In his late watercolor “Flüelen, from the Lake of Lucerne” (1845), he summons his roots in R.A.-scorned topographical recording and whips it into the kind of sublime, visionary ode to multi-colored air that made him, at age twenty-five, the R.A.’s youngest fullblown Academician. White pigment adds the richness of oil but supports ethereally translucent watercolor in yellow, blue and mauve. Yet all is not sweetness and light.

Its paper animated with scratch-away, Turner’s hallmark sky vortex presents potential for catastrophe, as in CMA’s Turner oil, “The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons” (1835).

The abstract painter Sean Scully observed, “The only real thing you can do in the end with a Turner is submit to its beauty.” The same may be said of CMA’s show.

( Top L-R) “Italianate Landscape” 1790-92 by John Robert Cozens, “Bolton Abbey” 1840s-1857 by David Cox, “Fluelen, from the Lake of Lucerne” 1845 by Jackson Mallord William Turner. All courtesy CMA

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Autre Ne Veut by Anxiety >>jasonWALSH musicCRITIC<< Autre Ne Veut, a.k.a. Arthur Ashin, is part of a current wave of musicians clearly influenced by pop and R&B and who want to make music that sounds like pop and R&B without quite being pop and R&B. His closest contemporary (and sometimes collaborator) is How To Dress Well, but projects like Jai Paul, Rhye, and to a lesser extent Purity Ring, all operate in similar ways. They take the tropes of pop and R&B, alter them slightly or significantly, and make something new with it.

This is how music critics can label someone like Jai Paul a pop mastermind, while “pop” is the last thing most people would call it when they hear his music.

On the other hand, bands like Rhye and Purity Ring make more straightforward and accessible music, with their pop and R&B influences hanging on their sleeve.

Autre Ne Veut’s sophomore album “Anxiety” listens like an experiment in this current trend. Ashin stays close to his

source material while still adding his own twist, making “Anxiety” excellent. When he ventures too far afield, the record takes a serious turn for the worse.

Opening track and first single “Play By Play” builds for a minute and a half with Ashin singing slightly off beat, building tension slowly. Two beat changes and another minute and a half later, we finally get to the huge chorus: “I just called you up to get that play by play / don’t ever leave me alone.”

The last two and a half minutes of the song are nothing but chorus, and it’s such a good chorus you don’t even notice.

“Play By Play” is Autre Ne Veut at his most promising, and one of the best songs of the year so far.

“Counting,” the other single, is in the same league if not quite at the same level. Ashin shifts smoothly in and out of his falsetto, incorporates saxophones that sound like they’re honking without it being grating, and the hook (“I’m counting on the idea / that you’ll stay”) is almost as catchy as “Play By Play.”

The Observer’s app of the week

New Facebook

>>sheehanHANNAN arts&entertainmentEDITOR<< Facebook, once the stomping grounds of your friends, has now become your doddering grandpa. Aware their current place as a largely mechanical social network, rather than a place to find cool things, Facebook is making drastic changes to their mobile presence.

Specifically, the folks at Facebook have developed a brand new mobile launcher for Android known as Facebook Home.

Though this is not a review of that piece of software, as I do not own an Android device compatible with it in its current state, Facebook Home is a definite step forward for the company.

Along with the still-beta Graph Search, Facebook Home has the potential to put forth a beautiful, easy to use Facebook experience that is integrated with your phone usage on every level. Given, there are several definite problems, like Mark Zuckerberg’s nonchalant promise that ads will appear on the feed with a frequency I consider excessive. So too is the generally less than photogenic nature of the average person’s newsfeed, which will now be hurled in all its ugly glory across your innocent device.

Along with Facebook Home, Facebook has recently revamped its mobile apps, incorporating some significant design changes. Perhaps the most immediately obvious change is the incorporation of their “chatheads” feature.

This oddly named messaging option is a large part of Facebook Home, but is also being rolled out on their mobile apps.

Rather than opening a separate view to start a Facebook chat, chatheads enables inline chats by way of a floating bubble displaying your conversation partner’s

profile picture. While on a Home-enabled device, these chatheads would be not tied to any particular area of the screen and can lay over other apps. On a normal device, however, they are restricted to the upper right corner of the screen.

Despite this restriction, they stay present while doing other things in the Facebook app, with the option to maximize or minimize with a tap. While initially offputting, they are actually quite functional and provide a more organic way of sending Facebook messages. That being said, the fact that they are restricted only to messages within the app minimizes their practical usefulness for all but the most habitual Facebook users. Chatheads are interesting, but essentially useless unless used in conjunction with Facebook Home.

Along with the addition of the chatheads feature, Facebook’s recent update has tightened up the app with small but substantial design changes. The sidebar, in which categories were previously the same color as subcategories, now has a differentiated color scheme and is instantly more readable. In addition, a category for group management has been added, fixing a sizable loophole in previous iterations of their mobile app. Also added is an option to select what type of News Feed you’d like to see on your phone, including photos-only, close friends, people you’re following, and workplaces.

Along with upcoming changes to their web presence, Facebook’s changes to their mobile apps represent a decided effort to exploit their substantial user base to try something truly experimental. While there are definite drawbacks to Facebook Home, the very fact that it exists indicates a definitive attempt within the company to reestablish themselves as the social network of will, rather than necessity.

“Promises” continues on the same themes: “it’s the last heartbreak that’ll ever have to do with us.” It feels oddly short at only two minutes, but it’s better to be left wanting more than wanting it to be over.

Things continue smoothly with “Ego Free Sex Free.” If the lyrics were a little bit more explicitly sexual (instead of “I can’t feel my body”), it could practically be an Usher song. Fifth track “A Lie” reinforces Autre Ne Veut’s skills; it’s a slow ballad that showcases Ashin’s singing, producing, and gift for melody.

These first five songs could be the best EP of the year. Autre Ne Veut does Prince-style R&B, club jams, and a ballad, all equally well and with his own twist.

Unfortunately, things can’t stay this good.

The sixth track, ironically-titled “Warning,” is all the elements of Autre Ne Veut gone wrong. The beat is too offkilter to be fun- it’s just abrasive. Ashin’s falsetto turns into near-screeching. At only two and a half minutes, you want it to be over sooner.

“Gonna Die” and “Don’t Ever Look Back” recover on the production; the former is a solid slow-jam, and the latter features Ashin singing over well-done, glam-rock guitar solos. Unfortunately, he continues to overstretch his voice. He switches in and out of falsetto too rapidly and too frequently, and tries to go too high. His touch for melody and ability to write great hooks get lost in the mix.

The last few songs on the album rein things back in, and the record ends on a much better note than the mid-section.

The damage has already been done, though.

“Anxiety” has a couple of the best singles yet of 2013, some very promising tracks, and some truly painful moments.

If you’re really into the current wave of experimental-bedroom-post-R&B, pick yourself up a copy. If you’re really into great songs, make a YouTube playlist of “Play By Play” and “Counting” on repeat and call it good.

Rating: 3 / 5

CWRU CHESS TOURNAMENT!!!

- Friday, A p r i l 2 6 t h , i n Thwing Center* (10900 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland OH 44106) -­‐ 4 rounds, G/30. Open, u -­‐ 1400 and unrated sections (subject to change) -­‐ First round at 7:00, 6:30 -­‐ 6:50 registration -­‐ $10 Entry Fee, 25% proceeds go 1st place, 15% and 10% to 2nd and 3rd place respectively -­‐ Contact Roman Kowalysko (rbk33@case.edu) or Dan Jones (dlj20@case.edu) for more Information

*Second floor of Thwing West, directly above the Hart Crane reading room. Space may be limited, so contact a club officer for guaranteed registration!

Come write for The Observer!

smh132@case.edu

a&e 11

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Holi brings color to CWRU >>anneNICKOLOFF musicREPORTER<< What could possibly be better than getting a handful of chalk thrown at you?

On any other day, it might not be so appreciated, but for Holi, it is just what people expect.

Tomorrow, Case Western Reserve University’s undergraduate Indian Students Association (uISA) is hosting an event that uISA president Sagar Patwardhan believes is “by far the most fun spring event of the semester.”

Holi, an event that stems from Hindu religious tales, celebrates the arrival of spring. Though it initially had strong religious ties, the event has adapted into a mostly cultural festival open to people of any race or background.

Simply put, Patwardhan’s definition of Holi is an “event where you get colored and get other people colored.”

Participating students throw bright powder at each other and themselves, resulting in chaotic bursts of color through

the crowd. Such a strange and exciting event is certain to gain a following, and as an event that is put on annually at CWRU, Holi has steadily grown over the years.

Last year’s festival attracted between 70 and 80 students, according to Patwardhanthis was already a mighty increase from years before it.

However, this year’s turnout should easily surpass past years, with over 150 students having shown interest on through the Facebook event already.

“Every year we keep getting more and more students,” said Patwardhan, who appreciates the event not only for its tremendous fun, but also for its welcoming attributes.

“For students who grew up celebrating Holi every year, they really like having it here too,” he said. “A lot of students don’t expect that... It’s a special thing for not only me, but everyone who goes.”

Holi at CWRU helps those with a background in the Indian festival feel more at home, but it also helps educate students who are unfamiliar with the

Hindu celebration.

Just a few weeks ago Satrang, the Indian Graduate Students Association, hosted a Holi event of its own that a smaller group of students attended. This group included undergraduate students Thomas McKenna and Adhithya Bosskar, and was the first Holi that either of them had been to.

“It was an amazing experience,” said McKenna. “It was very interesting to hear some of the background of the event.”

“I thought it was fun,” said Bosskar.

“Not everyone there was Indian, and we were all just throwing colored powder around and eating Indian food.”

Refreshments at tomorrow’s event include samosas and other Indian dishes, along with soft drinks.

Also included with the paint throwing will be water balloons and a slip and slide.

CWRU’s Holi is being held later than the traditional Holi, but it is easily explained by the campus’s erratic weather. This year’s Holi was carefully chosen in the hopes of landing on one of Cleveland’s elusive sunny days so that the water

throwing could be refreshing and not unpleasant.

“Typically in all Holi programs, water has been a part of it too,” said Patwardhan.

McKenna warns that water makes the paint stick more, but that when it was dry, “it wasn’t hard to get the paint off.”

Despite the fact that tomorrow’s Holi includes more water than the graduate version, he still plans on attending.

The event has been highly anticipated across CWRU’s campus. Since becoming the President of uISA, Patwardhan has been both congratulated on past Holi successes and asked about future Holi festivities. “The campus is very excited for event,” he noted.

Every year, the event draws in all types of students, whether they know the roots of Holi’s meaning or not. “In addition to more people, we get bigger diversity too,” said Patwardhan.

Any student is welcome to celebrate the beginning of spring with uISA tomorrow.

The event begins at 10:30 a.m. in the Leutner Pavilion.

Bitcoins: The internet’s ABC bets on babies mystery currency >>owenBELL games&techREPORTER<< Bitcoins have been appearing a lot in the news lately. As the security of the Euro seems caught in the balance, many people and organizations are starting to look for alternative currencies to save their earnings.

For some investors, Bitcoins looks like they just might be that currency. It is independent of any nation or government, meaning that there is much less risk of the currency suddenly becoming worthless.

All this talk about bitcoins has left many people asking an important question, though, “Just what is a bitcoin anyway?”.

The bitcoin is an entirely digital currency.

Each user of the currency has what is called a wallet that contains addresses.

In each address are a number of bitcoins.

Users trade bitcoins by sending these coins from one address to another. The entire process takes place over the internet, and is conducted without the control of a company of government, as the currency is entirely independent.

The idea for digital currency, or as it is technically known, crypto-currency, has been around since 1998 when it was first described by a cryptographer named Wei Dai. Over the years, there have been a number of attempts to make such a currency, but without success.

The problem was how to prevent the users of the currency from cheating by just copying their money over and over again like any other file on a computer. The only viable currencies created required a thirdparty, whether that be a company, non-profit or a government, to oversee the entire system and make sure that nobody was cheating.

That system was risky, though, since if that third party stopped administering the system, the entire currency stopped working.

Then, in 2009, someone operating under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamota sent out a research paper to a cryptography mailing list in which he described a currency called the bitcoin. His idea was simple: rather than have a third party administer the bitcoin, let the users do it. Everyone that wanted to use bitcoins would have to install a piece of software on their computer. This software would track every exchange that they made and transmit that data to other computers running the same software. Within seconds, a record of that transaction would be saved on thousands of computers around the world

preventing users from lying about how many coins they traded or how many coins they had in their wallet.

Nakamota also laid down a system for how new bitcoins could be created. The approach is called mining. Every 10 minutes, any user that wants to mine bitcoins is given a block. Their computer then combines this block with a random number called a nonce.

If the right nonce is combined without the block, they would create the correct output and be awarded with a sum of bitcoins. Only the first user to find the correct nonce would get the bitcoins. After 10 minutes, the correct result from the last block would be combined with a new block and the entire process would start again. The award for solving the block started at 50 bitcoins, but every 4 years that amount is halved (it is currently 25) until in 2140 the currency reaches a hard cap of 21 million total bitcoins.

It was brilliant. In that one paper, Nakamota cracked the crypto-currency problem and created a system that would allow the bitcoin to operate without any form of oversight.

Now, several years later, the market for bitcoins has grown dramatically. Many businesses around the world now accept bitcoins in payment, and there are entire black market websites on the internet that deal purely in the currency.

Competition to mine bitcoins is fierce.

At the time of writing, the average exchange rate for a bitcoin is about $84, meaning that successfully mining a block is $2016 of profit.

Miners fight tooth and nail to be the lucky one to find that block. Specialized bitcoin mining computers costing over $100,000 are common. There are even companies that make computers specialized for mining bitcoins. A few months back, a company called Avalon started an Ebay auction at $500 for nothing more than a place in line to buy one of their latest models when it was released. The auction closed at $20,600.

Even with the obsession centered on mining the coins, though, there are still a lot of people that question their value. They have become especially notorious for huge volatility. In just a week, the value spiked capping out at $266 on April 10th, before crashing down to $105 and then rebounding to $160 within six hours.

Regardless of bitcoins’ future, they have proved a point. Digital currency is possible.

It’s a glimpse of what our financial futures may look like.

Watershed Down >>drewSCHEELER film&tvCRITIC<<

Gambling is illegal in most states if you’re under the age of twenty one. But this doesn’t mean you can’t wager on toddlers!

The American Broadcasting Company’s most recent game show is “Bet On Your Baby,” a mistake on so many levels that you can tell that it already has become the black sheep in that channel’s family of programs.

“Bet On Your Baby” was probably conceived in the same way most bad game shows are. A couple of producers get together for a one-night stand, hash out some ideas and nine months later, they’re left with a terrible idea about to go to series that they are now unable to terminate.

If you love betting on greyhounds or horses, then you’re sure to love betting on preschoolers like Sky or Bladerunner or Lazer or Kumquat!

“Bet On Your Baby” is a harmless series, but it lacks any sort of fun or entertainment or redeeming quality that might actually make people tune in each week. There is no tension. There are no stakes. This isn’t a feel good show; this is a feel boring show.

One parent and their toddler are sent into the “Babydome” where the child is asked to perform a simple task like stacking Oreo cookies or identifying basic foods.

The other parent, wait for it, bets on their baby. Parents can earn $5000 by just guessing the correct answer to an either/or question. All of the parents return later for a crapshoot of a second round where the

children clean up the Babydome, revealing a word puzzle that must be solved to choose the parents to play for the big money.

The final round sees the winning parents smash piggy banks containing between $500 and $50,000. If they like the amount they find they can keep it or choose to throw it away and try for the top prize.

With the steep money cliff between the top prize and the second place prize of $25,000 most families will leave with somewhere between ten and twenty thousand.

That sounds like a great payday until you realize that by the time these children make it to college in fifteen years each degree will probably cost at least $500,000.

Maybe this money can pay for a year’s worth of books.

Melissa Peterman is a solid if forgettable host. Peterman has prior experience in this genre, hosting the CMT version of “The Singing Bee,” which provided solid entertainment for its couple of seasons on basic cable. But, like her sitcom character on “Reba,” Peterman sometimes thinks that she is funny and hams it for the camera and this is a mistake.

Outside of a certain live program on NBC, Saturday night programming on network television has been a deadzone since the glory days of the early 1990s.

Networks use Saturday night’s primetime as a graveyard to bury the festering corpse of whatever elephant is decaying in the queue of new programs. Television has an issue appealing to younger viewers. But the executives really missed the target demo this time around by twenty-some years.

Tech brief: CWRU team transforms cells >>owenBELL games&techREPORTER<< In a work of breakthrough research, a team at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine was able to transform skin cells into brain cells. Using transformed mouse skin cells implanted into mouse brains, the team proved they could reverse the damage caused by diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS), cerebral palsy (CP), and rare genetic disorders called leukodystrophies.

These conditions permanently destroy the cells that produce the myelin sheath that surrounds nerves in the brain. Without the sheath, the brain cells cannot properly transmit commands to the rest of the body.

Using a process described as “cellular

alchemy” by Paul Tesar, senior author and assistant professor of genetics and genome sciences at the medical school, the research team was able to change skin cells into new brain cells.

Their technique worked by manipulating the levels of proteins within fibroblasts, cells common in human skin and organs, which transformed them into oligodendrocytes, the cells responsible for myelinating the brain.

Previously, this process could only be done in limited quantities using fetal tissue or pluripotent stem cells as the base material. As part of the study, the CWRU teamed proved they could produce billions of new cells, overcoming this issue.

The study was published in Nature Biotechnology.

Page 12

fun page 04/19/13

easy

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Sudoku

hard(er)

<<Crossword>>

ACROSS 1. Look at flirtatiously 5. Mixes 10. Taxis 14. A giver or sender 15. Grows weary 16. Arch type 17. Not literal 19. District 20. French for “Friend” 21. Delete 22. Seize 23. Speaker’s stand 25. Increase 27. Old World vine 28. Diminish 31. What something costs 34. Backside 35. Short form of Robert 36. Connection 37. Cease-fire 38. Slovenly person 39. Choose 40. Pig 41. Encounters 42. Abandoned 44. A parcel of land 45. Greek last letter 46. Renowned 50. Fund 52. Drudge 54. Goddess of the dawn 55. Defeat disastrously 56. A system of musclebuilding exercises 58. A single time 59. Not at any time 60. Chills and fever 61. Notices 62. Requires 63. Untidyness DOWN 1. The viscera of a

butchered animal 2. Dirt 3. Reasoned judgment 4. Relative of an ostrich 5. A clear night sky 6. Moon of Saturn 7. Colored part of an eye 8. Venerate 9. 180 degrees from NNW 10. Rough 11. Conforming to your own liking 12. Honey insects 13. Chair 18. One of the Canterbury pilgrims 22. Lean and sinewy 24. Small parasitic arachnid 26. Pimples 28. Intimidate 29. Carbon black 30. Declines 31. Trudge 32. Pickable 33. Acquaint 34. Chicken stew 37. Branchlet 38. Stiff hair 40. Killed 41. Choral work 43. Gives expression to 44. Paramours 46. Appointed 47. Ecru 48. Locale 49. S S S S 50. God of love 51. Not a single one 53. Passion 56. Motel 57. Male sheep

sports

observer.case.edu from SOFTBALL | 15 when freshman designated player Kristen Klemmer hit an opposite field double to left center and eventually came around to score following a pair of passed balls.

Mount Union’s Rachel McAninch (86) was the tough-luck loser with only two earned runs allowed and seven strikeouts in six innings.

For the game, Komar was 3-for-4, while Roberts and Klemmer were each 2-for-3.

In game two, both sides went scoreless in the first, and Amy Taylor picked off a

shannon snyder / observer Freshman Rachel Komar picked up UAA co-Hitter of the week honors for the first time in her career.

Komar batted 9–for–15 in the past four games with four RBIs and a stolen–base.

pair of Mount Union runners from second to end a second-inning threat for the visitors. In the bottom of the frame, Rebecca Taylor and junior shortstop Makenzie Lein hit back-to-back doubles to set up a sacrifice fly by sophomore leftfielder Ashley Parello giving Case a 1-0 advantage.

The Purple Raiders answered in the following inning with a run via a Kristen Gromes single, but Amy Taylor once again ended the visitor’s rally when she threw out a runner attempting to steal second.

Riding that wave of momentum, the Spartans put three runs on the board in the bottom of the third as a Mount Union error left the door open for a two-run double

by Roberts, who later scored on a double steal with Rebecca Taylor.

In the fourth, the Raiders cut one off of their deficit with a double steal of their own, but Amy Taylor and sophomore second baseman Molly O’Brien connected to foil a second double steal try in the inning.

Then in the fifth, the Spartans put the game away with two runs on five hits.

Rebecca Taylor and Lein each hit RBI singles in the frame to make the score 6-2.

Lein capped the win with the second of her two spectacular diving plays at shortstop in the next inning.

On the mound, freshman Marisa Kohley started and threw the first four innings to improve to 3-0 for the season. Classmate Rebecca Molnar recorded the final nine outs without allowing a run for her second save.

Offensively, Rebecca Taylor was 3-for3 with a double. Amy Taylor, Lein, and Roberts were each 2-for-3 as the Spartans totaled 12 hits.

Michelle Stiltner (6-2) suffered the loss for Mount Union with three earned runs in 4.1 innings.

13

arianna wage / observer

Sophomore Will Meador scores one of his team-leading 25 runs. The centerfielder has batted exceptionally well as the team’s leadoff man, leading the team with a .358 average.

from BASEBALL | 15 ed the bases with no outs in the second but were only able to put one run across as lefty starter Hora sandwiched a strikeout with two fly outs. The Spartans then tied the score in the third when sophomore centerfielder Meador reached on a fielder’s choice to plate Frey.

An inning later, Ossola gave his team its first lead of the game with an RBI single that drove home second baseman Paul Pakan. Pakan set the score up with a single and a stolen base.

In the fifth, Meador delivered his second run with a single that drove home sophomore leftfielder Kerrigan Cain. St. John Fisher rallied and tied the score in the bottom of the inning with a two-run single by Brad Rush. The

Spartans regained the lead and put the game away with a five-run sixth-inning. Frey drove home the first run with a single before catcher Winemiller scored on a balk. Meador picked up another RBI single two batters later, and Keen put the icing on the cake with a two-out, two-run single. Freshman Connor Tagg would allow one more run in the bottom of the sixth on a Ben Bostick RBI single, but he got out of the inning with a groundout to set up sophomore right-hander Daniel Sondag for the final inning.

The Spartans will host a back-to-back doubleheader with DePauw University coming to town on Saturday and Sunday, April 20-21.

The first pitch on Saturday will be at 1 p.m. and on Sunday the game will be at noon.

Englander annouces changes to end of season schedule

Case hosts ONU at Progressive Field, Wednesday April 24, at 2 p.m. >>compiledFROM staffREPORTS<

With a very busy week on the horizon for his team, Case Western Reserve University baseball Head Coach Matt Englander has announced several changes to this week’s schedule.

Overall, the team will play six home games this week, beginning with a Wednesday, April 17, home doubleheader versus Oberlin College at 1 p.m. The games were originally scheduled for last Wednesday, April 10, but postponed due to rain. The initial make-up plan had been for Tuesday, April 16.

As a result, Wednesday’s originally scheduled single game at home versus local-rival John Carroll University will be played as part of a doubleheader on the road next Tuesday, April 23.

The Spartans have also locked down the details of their annual game at Progressive Field. Case will host Ohio Northern at the Cleveland Indians home stadium on Wednesday at 2 p.m. Tickets are free, but must be acquired ahead of time. Tickets can be downloaded from the Case Athletics website.

In addition to this Wednesday’s DH with Oberlin, the Spartans will still play a four-game weekend series with DePauw University on Saturday and Sunday, April 20-21 at Nobby’s Ballpark.

The reigning University Athletic Association Champion Spartans (17-8) are fresh off a series win at St. John Fisher College this past weekend and have won 8-of-10 overall. With 17 games remaining on the schedule, the team will look to continue its winning ways and land an at-large berth to the NCAA Mideast Regional in mid-May.

Sat Apr. 20

DePauw

1 p.m.

Sat Apr. 20

DePauw

3:30 p.m.

Apr. 21 DePauw Noon Sun Sun Apr. 21

DePauw

2:30 p.m.

Tue Apr. 23

at John Carroll

1 p.m.

Tue Apr. 23

at John Carroll

4 p.m

Wed Apr. 24

Ohio Northern*

2 p.m.

Sat Apr. 27

Wash. & Jeff.

Noon

Sat Apr. 27

Wash. & Jeff.

2:30 p.m.

Sun Apr. 28

at Denison

Noon

Sun Apr. 28

at Denison

4 p.m.

*Game to be played at Progressive Field

sports

14

04/19/13

Brandon Bianco tapped to become men’s soccer head coach Former Ohio Wesleyan assistant is program’s fourth ever head coach >>courtesyCASE sportsINFORMATION<

Case Western Reserve University Director of Athletics Dave Diles has announced the hiring of Brandon Bianco as just the fourth head coach in the history of Spartan men’s soccer. A National Soccer Coaches Association Great Lakes Region Assistant Coach of the Year, Bianco spent the past five seasons at Ohio Wesleyan University where he helped the Battling Bishops to the 2011 NCAA Championship.

“To say that we are excited to have Brandon join our department and university would be an understatement,” said Diles. “Brandon’s experience at Ohio Wesleyan as a player, assistant coach, and associate head coach provide exceptional preparation. Brandon detailed a comprehensive plan for advancing our program, and his vision for CWRU men’s soccer was compelling.

I’m looking forward to working with him, and I know he will be a great fit for our university and the University Athletic Association.”

Bianco takes over for ninth-year head coach Dan Palmer who stepped down to become the women’s head coach at Oberlin College. At Case, Palmer compiled an 87-65-16 record with two University Athletic Association Championships and a pair of NCAA Championship Tournament appearances. His program produced four All-Americans and a two-time University Athletic Association Most Valuable Player.

Bianco joined the coaching staff at his alma mater in 2008 and was promoted to associate head coach by legendary Head Coach Jay Martin in 2012. Bianco assisted with all facets of the program, including recruiting, scouting, travel, budgeting, and training preparation.

During his tenure, Ohio Wesleyan compiled an unbelievable 91-14-20 overall record with five North Coast Athletic Conference Championships and two NCAC Tournament titles. In addition to winning the 2011 Division III National Championship, the team also qualified for the NCAA Tournament in all five seasons and achieved an NSCAA No. 1 national ranking.

“First and foremost, I’m extremely humbled and excited to be the next head coach for Spartan men’s soccer,” said Bianco. “I want to thank Dr. Diles and the search committee for all of their hard work and diligence throughout the hiring process. Everyone I’ve talked to has been a great representative for Case Western Reserve, and it’s clearly a great time to be at Case. I’m looking forward to working with our student-athletes, both current and future, to build one of the best academic and athletic environments in Division III.” As a player at OWU, Bianco was a four-year letterwinner at midfielder and an All-NCAC Second Team selection in 2006 for a squad that advanced to the NCAA Championship Final Four.

He graduated in 2007 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Health and Human Kinetics then coached for one season at

Trio of Komar, Gish, Weintraub name UAA Athletes of the Week >>compiledFROM staffREPORTS<

Case Western Reserve University saw three of its student athletes named University Athletic Association Athletes of the Week as freshman Rachel Komar and seniors Jarrett Gish and Harry Weintraub were honored.

The weekly honor marks the second time this spring and third time in their careers that Weintraub and Gish have been recognized by the association. It was a first-time honor for Komar, a rookie third baseman for the softball team.

Gish, a left-handed pitcher for the Spartans, was named the University Athletic Association Pitcher of the Week following a dominant performance on the mound versus St. John Fisher College during Saturday’s 3-0 victory at Dugan Yard.

The Spartans (17-8) have won 10 of their last 14 contests including two out of three in a weekend series at St. John Fisher on Saturday and Sunday, April 13-14.

Gish turned in his strongest outing of the season Saturday and upped his record to a perfect 4-0. He allowed just five base hits and only three Cardinal runners to advance to second base in nine innings of work. The southpaw struck out five, surrendered just one walk and lowered his earned run average to 1.92 in a team-best 51.2 innings pitched.

Of note, Saturday’s complete game was Gish’s third this spring and sixth of his career.

The Spartans will now play six straight games against a pair of regional foes at home, starting with a rescheduled doubleheader versus Oberlin College on Wednesday, April 17, slated to begin at 1:00 p.m. Following a few days off, the Tigers of DePauw University (Ind.) will come to Nobby’s Ballpark for a four-game weekend series set for Saturday and Sunday, April 20-21. First pitch Satur-

day is 1:00 p.m., while Sunday’s games will begin at noon.

In four games last week, Komar batted a whopping .600 (9-of-15) with a triple, a homerun, four runs batted-in, and a stolen base. Over the last 10 games, the first-year Spartan is batting .513 (20-for-39) with 12 runs scored and six RBI. For the season, Komar is batting a teambest .410 with a pair of homers, six doubles, two triples, 11 RBI, 23 runs scored, and is a perfect 6-for-6 in stolen base attempts.

Playing their best ball of the season, Komar and the Spartans (18-13) have won nine of their last 10 contests and will continue a season-long eight-game home stand this Friday, April 19, versus Hiram College at 3:30 p.m.

Weintraub was named an UAA Athlete of the Week on the heels of a school recordsetting performance.

Competing in the hammer throw during the Division III All-Ohio Championship hosted by Ohio Wesleyan University, Weintraub posted a record-setting toss of 188 feet, nine inches to eclipse the previous school record of 185’3” set by Erwin Grabisna in 1988. Weintraub’s throw earned a third-place finish in the event and currently ranks tied for seventh in the nation.

Last spring, Weintraub won a UAA Championship and broke Grabisna’s 24year old UAA record in the hammer throw with a heave of 184’2”. That mark was good enough to qualify for the NCAA DIII Outdoor Championship Meet in California, where Weintraub placed 16th overall.

Weintraub and the rest of the Spartans will return to the track for a pair of local meets this weekend starting with the John Carroll University Invitational on Friday, April 19. The Sparky Adams Invitational hosted by Baldwin Wallace University follows in Berea on Saturday, April 20.

courtesy ohio wesleyan ohio university

Brandon Bianco will take over as the men’s soccer program’s fourth head coach. the club level with the Olentangy Classics.

Bianco and his wife, Brittany, plan to relocate to the Cleveland area. Bianco is also expected to begin his duties at CWRU in early May. Over the past nine seasons, the CWRU men’s soccer team has posted an

87-65-16 record with two UAA Championships and a pair of NCAA Tournament berths. The Spartans also excel in the classroom with six Capital One Academic All-Americans® during that span and the NSCAA Team Academic Award in each of the past nine seasons.

Track and field finishes 10th at All-Ohio Championship

Weintraub breaks 25–year–old record in hammer throw >>courtesyCASE sportsINFORMATION<

A trio of third-place finishes paced the Case Western Reserve University women’s track and field team to a 10th-place finish of 18 teams competing at the 2013 Division III All-Ohio Championship on Saturday at Selby Field. Meanwhile, junior thrower Harry Weintraub broke a 25-yearold program record in the hammer throw to lead the men’s to a 10th-place finish as well.

On the women’s side, the University of Mount Union claimed the team title with 145.50 points, while host Ohio Wesleyan was a distant second with 98 points. Baldwin Wallace University (65) was third, Denison University (53) finished fourth, and Heidelberg University (51) rounded out the top five.

For the men, Mount Union claimed the team title with 98 points, while Baldwin Wallace was second with 75 points. John Carroll University (69) was third, host Ohio Wesleyan University (67) finished fourth, and Otterbein University (56.50) rounded out the top five.

Two of the third-place showings came during field events. Senior Emily Tran was third in the javelin with a toss of 109 feet, one inch. Sophomore Sophia Herzog tied her school record by clearing the bar at 10 feet eight inches in the pole vault, while freshman Christen Saccucci was eighth at 10’2”.

Additionally in field events, scoring came from junior Thenessa Savitsky in the triple jump with a sixth-place effort of 34’8.25”. Senior Jenna Pansky was eighth in the javelin with a throw of 100’1”.

On the track, junior Brooke Simpson se-

cured the Spartans’ other third-place showing in the 3,000m steeplechase with a time of 11:25.40. Additional points came from freshman Kelsey Aamoth in the 5,000m run (6th, 18:00.35) and senior Megan Milne in the 10,000m run (7th, 41:12.34).

In the final event of the evening, the 4x400 relay quartet of freshman CeCelia Hanline, sophomore McKenzie Braun, freshman Taylor O’Neil, and junior Gavriella Pora crossed the line with a combined time of 4:12.41 for sixth place.

Weintraub saved his best throw for last via a record-setting toss of 188‘9” to eclipse the previous mark of 185’3” set by Erwin Grabisna in 1988. Weintraub’s record throw garnered a third-place finish in the event. That mark currently ranks tied for seventh in all of NCAA Division III. In other field events, sophomore Mark Kulinski scored a fifth-place finish during the pole vault with a height of 14’6.25”, while sophomore Joshua Malone tied for eighth in the high jump at 6’0”.

Point-scoring performances during track events came from senior Chris Kelly in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a runner-up time of 9:13.03, and junior David Dixon in fifth in 9:38.32. Of note, Kelly’s mark is the sixth-best time in Division III nationally thus far this spring.

Additionally, freshman Timothy Travitz was third in the 5,000m run (15:13.30), while classmate Benjamin Davis produced a fifth-place performance in the 10,000m run in a time of 32:24.89.

The Spartans will return to the track for a pair of meets next weekend starting with the John Carroll Invitational on Friday, April 19. The Sparky Adams Invitational hosted by Baldwin Wallace follows in Berea on Saturday, April 20.

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Pitching gems lead Spartans to wins in New York

Hora ties career records as Case goes 2–1 at St. John Fisher >>shinichiINOUE asst.sportsEDITOR<

Over the weekend, the Case Western Reserve University Spartans made a road trip to Pittsford, NY to take on St. John Fisher College on Saturday and Sunday afternoon at Dugan Yard. Senior pitcher Jarrett Gish recorded his first career shutout on the mound and improved to a perfect 4-0 this spring as the Spartans earned a 3-0 victory during the first of a three-game weekend series. On Sunday, senior first baseman Brett Ossola went a combined 6-for-8 at the plate, and senior pitcher Jamie Hora tied the program’s career wins record as Case split the doubleheader. With the split, the Spartans move to 17-8 overall heading into a season-long home stand.

The Cardinals sit at 15-9.

In game one, Gish turned in his strongest outing of the season, allowing just five hits and only three Cardinal runners to advance to second base in nine innings of work.

The lefty struck out five, surrendered only one walk, and lowered his earned run average to 1.92 in a team-best 51.2 innings pitched. The complete game was also Gish’s third this spring and sixth of his career.

On offense, Case scored early and put a run up right out of the gates

in the top of the first. Sophomore centerfielder William Meador led off the game with a single to center, moved to second via a walk drawn by senior shortstop Matt Keen, advanced to third on a groundout, and came around to score on a RBI single through the left side off the bat of senior second baseman Paul Pakan.

The Cardinals threatened Gish’s shutout bid in the bottom of the eighth, but the left-hander worked around a leadoff walk and a sacrifice bunt with a fly out and a swinging strikeout. The Spartans put on a pair of insurance runs in the top of the ninth. Pakan started the inning with a leadoff single to center, advanced to second thanks to a sacrifice bunt, and moved to third on a single to center by sophomore catcher Robert Winemiller. Pakan would then score Case’s second run on a wild pitch, and Winemiller scored the final tally on a single to center off the bat of junior third baseman Andrew Frey.

In the second game of the series, the Spartans picked up a run in the second as third baseman Frey singled and came around when shortstop Keen drew a bases-loaded walk. However, the Spartans left a combined five runners on base in the first two frames, and the Cardinals responded with three runs in the bottom of the second on a Matt Creen-

arianna wage / observer Senior Matt Keen launches one of his team-leading 27 hits. Keen leads the team with 11 doubles and 25 RBIs. an RBI double and back-to-back RBI singles from Cody Wiktorski and Ben Bostick. The hosts got off to their first lead of the series in the fifth, but Spartan junior left-hander Ray Kelly came out of the bullpen and induced a fly out to strand runners at second and third. The Spar-

tans attempted to cut into the Cardinal lead in the sixth and seventh but left two runners on in each inning as the game ended 3-1 in favor of the hosts. Combined, the visitors stranded 11 runners in the game. Case finished with six hits and four walks, but St. John Fisher All-American

pitcher Justin D’Amato (5-0) was able to dance out of trouble on several occasions in his six innings.

Shawn Corrigan recorded the final two outs for his first save.

In game two, the Cardinals load-

see BASEBALL | 13

Spartans sweep Mount Union, have won 9–of–10 Improve to 4–0 at home in midst of eight game homestand >>peterCOOKE sportsEDITOR<

shannon snyder / observer Freshman Rebecca Molnar is second on the team in pitching with 3.45 ERA. Molnar picked up her second save of the season with a three inning no-hit relief effort against Mount Union.

A second-straight dominant outing on the mound by sophomore pitcher Rebecca Taylor highlighted the Case Western Reserve University softball team’s sweep of the University of Mount Union on Monday afternoon at Mather Park. The Spartans won by scores of 4-2 and 6-2 in a make-up twinbill that had been postponed twice in the last month due to inclement weather.

Playing their best ball of the season, the Spartans (18-13) have now won nine of 10 and will continue a season-long eight-game home stand this Friday, April 19, versus Hiram College at 3:30 p.m.

The two losses dropped the Purple Raiders to 16-9.

Taylor (14-10) recorded her 14th complete game of the season in the opener and allowed only one earned run on three hits, no walks, and nine strikeouts. The sophomore right-hander now has 20 strikeouts versus just two earned runs in her last

14 innings.

In a day where the Spartans generated a majority of their runs with “small ball” and aggressive base-running, freshman third baseman Rachel Komar continued her torrid pace at the plate with a combined 4-for-8 performance and is now 13-for23 (.565) over the last six games.

In game one, the Spartans took advantage of a first-inning error and scored twice as junior catcher Amy Taylor and sophomore right fielder Gena Roberts hit back-to-back RBI singles.

The Spartans tacked on another score in the second when freshman first baseman Erin Dreger drilled an RBI single through the middle of the infield, but Mount Union got the run back in the third thanks to a Spartan error.

That error would not prove to be very costly, however, as Rebecca Taylor only allowed one other Purple Raider run on a solo homer in the seventh by Megan Okuda.

The Spartans picked up one more insurance run in the sixth

see SOFTBALL | 13

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