Volume XLV, Issue 8: Oct. 11, 2013

the

volume xlv, issue 8 friday, 10/11/2013

Observer

Tinkham Veale A view inside

pg. 2

University Center

Arianna Wage/Observer

Government A fast, a feast, a favor shutdown MSA’s Fast-a-thon to help Syrian Orphans

Anne Nickoloff Staff Reporter Last Saturday, the Case Western Reserve University community came together to support volunteer efforts in Syria at the Muslim Student Association’s (MSA) annual Fast-a-thon fundraiser.

The five dollar tickets got students, family and visitors alike into the Thwing

ballroom for a three-course meal. While tickets were sold throughout the week at Nord, MSA representatives encouraged attendees to fast before the event in order to learn more about their culture.

Though fasting wasn’t required, it seemed evident that a good amount of people had not eaten, based off of heavy

to Fast-a-thon | 15

Student researcher’s jet engine project halted

Kushagra Gupta Staff Reporter While many students know about the government stoppage, few realize the impact it’s having on campus.

Sophomore Felipe Gomez del Campo has been one of many researchers who has experienced the closure first hand as he was forced to halt his project on

jet engine efficiency due to the government shutdown.

He was trying to use NASA’s facilities to test his latest prototype.

“It’s something difficult to do at Case since it involves high voltage, fire and all that good stuff,” Gomez del Campo said.

He had met with NASA before to

to Shutdown | 7

News

A&E

Opinion

Sports

pg. 3 Veale transforms into health fair

pg. 12 World’s favorite orchestra

pg. 16 Bike lanes at CWRU: Safe?

pg. 23 Cross country: the final stretch

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A look inside the

Tinkam Veale University Center Ground floor

Stephen Campbell, the vice president for campus planning and facilities management, says that the project is on time and under budget.

Construction is expected to be finished in May. Over the summer, the university will move in all the furniture and equipment, and full operations are expected to begin in August.

LGBT CENTER

The new University Center will have space for the 160 student organizations on campus, with larger spaces for the Flora Stone Mather Center for Women, the Inamori Center, the Mather Center, Greek Life and CCEL. There will also be meeting spaces, lounge spaces, and classrooms.

The ground floor dining room of the University Center will feature four different dining options. The first will be a coffee shop with baked goods, pastries and smoothies.

The second will have a custom salad bar, with steak, chicken, shrimp and other addins available, as well as pizza, pasta bakes and lasagna. The third dining option will rotate from day to day, focusing on cuisine from various different cultures, including Mediterranean, Asian and Indian. The last option will be a soup and sandwich shop.

This area will accept Case Cash as well as regular payment options.

Second floor There will be a 9,000-square-foot ballroom for large campus events.

Located in the ballroom will be a small kitchen, which has full services for caterers to use.

Floor plans courtesy Stephen Campbell Photos courtesy Patricia Marvel Information compiled by Julia Bianco, staff reporter

The second floor of the University Center will be a local restaurant. This restaurant will have a full liquor license, and will have bar, patio and table seating options. There will also be a private dining hall that can be reserved for parties and meetings. The restaurant will have brick oven pizzas and a grill. The Case Club, which is the faculty dining room currently located in Severance Hall, will also be moved to the restaurant.

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Editor’s choice

Case for Community Day tranforms Veale Center into public health fair Mark Patteson Staff Reporter Last Friday during Case for Community Day, volunteers transformed one of the multipurpose courts in Veale Center into a health fair bristling with information desks, medical screening devices and even dental examination chairs, all available without cost or appointment.

A constant buzz of activity filled the air as a steady stream of visitors, roughly 150 in total, took advantage of the wide variety of screenings and services offered. Many went from table to table gathering information or stopped by for a specific service.

Flu shots were especially popular, with nurses giving out over 100 flu shots in the first half of the fair alone.

The fair had a cheerful and welcoming atmosphere, created by a whole host of eager volunteers willing to help anyone who might visit. The volunteers consisted mostly of nursing, medical, dental and graduate students supported by CWRU faculty and local healthcare organizations.

Dr. George Kikano, chairman of Family Medicine and Community Health and one of the event’s organizers, emphasized the strong community aspect of the fair. “They can come and get all kinds of different services under one roof,” he said.

Kikano also highlighted the educational value of connecting with the community and other organizations, a feature of the fair which student volunteer Jessica Hively experienced firsthand.

Hively, a senior nursing student who checked blood pressure and gave dozens of flu shots, enjoyed getting a chance to practice

her future career skills.

“It’s been very enjoyable getting to work with people, getting to practice my flu shot, knowing that I can do this,” she said.“It’s been a great experience working with them and learning too.”

Nurses from MedWorks, a local nonprofit that focuses on improving access to healthcare for the uninsured and underinsured, were featured prominently at the health fair.

MedWork’s licensed nurses assisted in the medical screenings and services and played a significant supportive role for the students.

Carrie Clark, executive director of MedWorks, praised the contributions of the students.

Sitting down for a flu shot to demonstrate the skill of the student volunteers, Carrie cooed, “I’ve had my share of shots, but that was good.”

“They have a sense of mission already,” she said. “They’ve got it down.”

In addition to the health services provided, the fair also offered a large amount of information through organizations such as the American Sickle Cell Anemia Association, the Cleveland Department of Public Health and the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences.

The informational services participated in order to connect patients, especially the underserved or uninsured, to the wider healthcare system. The screenings could lead to follow-up appointments if a problem appeared while volunteers assisted visitors in finding accessible health care providers or nearby clinics.

In response to the recently implemented Affordable Care Act health insurance marketplace, the fair included a table to assist

Charlotte Palmer/Observer A student visits one of the booths at last week’s Case for Community Day public health fair. The health fair drew around 150 people. underinsured or uninsured visitors in finding coverage on the exchanges. Gina Garrett, a graduate student at the Mandel School of Applied Social Science, staffed the table.

“We are pointing people to the website and we are just being that connector to the resource,” Garrett said. “It is very plain language, very easy to understand, but some people just want to have people talk to them face to face.”

The Cleveland Department of Public Health, which contributes to most local health fairs, also had an information table armed with dozens of fliers and pamphlets covering a wide range of public health issues from local clinics and disease management to drug treatment and HIV/AIDS testing.

David Gretick, the director of the Office of Mental Health and Substance Abuse, represented the department at the fair and worked to let attendees know about what his office offers.

“We’re a big resource; a lot of people are surprised to learn what we offer,” he said.

Gretick summed up the value of the CWRU fair, and similar health fairs across the city, as a great starting place to meet varied health care needs.

“A lot of people come up and say ‘I need to get tested, I also have kids that need immunizations, and I want information on sickle cell.’ We can usually help,” he noted.“We want to make sure we spread the public health message: We are here for you.”

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Campus police chief weighs in on new iPhone fingerprint scanner Ellie Rambo Contributing Reporter Most security alerts that Case Western Reserve University students receive seem to involve stolen cell phones. According to CWRU Police Department Sergeant Jeffrey Daberko, this is not unusual since one in three robberies in the university involve cell phones.

The iPhone 5s, which was released late last month, includes security updates intended to protect an iPhone’s content.

One of these updates is a fingerprint scanner that works as a lock screen password. The fingerprint scanner is used in addition to a security PIN, which must be entered after the phone is restarted and after 48 hours of inactivity.

Daberko says the scanner will likely make it harder for thieves to unlock and hack into stolen phones. However, he adds, as only half of iPhone owners use the password feature at all, the scanner “is only as useful as people make it.”

He encourages phone owners to use their phone’s password lock and to know their phone’s serial number, which helps

police track or trace a phone. Phone owners can also use the Find My iPhone feature (and the Lookout App on Android devices) to track a stolen phone.

Recent iPhone updates are also making it increasingly difficult for a thief to reset a phone to factory settings, as an iPhone cannot be erased without the phone’s Apple ID. Still, it is usually easier to prevent phone theft than recover a stolen phone, and Daberko advises students not to leave their phones unattended in public areas.

He encourages students to pay attention to their surroundings, especially while talking on their cell phones, and to “think about using one ear bud instead of two when listening to music while outside, just to maintain a little awareness.”

When a cell phone is stolen, CWRU police encourage the owner to report the theft as soon as possible.

“Often thieves will seek to sell or dispose of phones within hours of a theft,” noted Daberko, so early reporting is essential. Police then track the phone based on its security features.

Harsha Chandupatla/Observer The iPhone 5s, released late last month, has a fingerprint scanner as an added security feature. It acts as a lock screen password.

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Let GE invest in helping you grow both personally and professionally. Find the path that is right for you.

ge.com/university

GE Information Session October 14 at Nord 310 from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Come learn about GE businesses and co-op/leadership program opportunties!

All students welcome.

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Outside the Circle

A look at news outside of Case Western Reserve Anastazia Vanisko & Mark Patteson Contributing & Staff Reporter

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International

1. Cuba calls for condemnation of US embargo for 22nd consecutive year For the 22nd year in a row, Cuba has asked the UN to condemn the United States’ 51-year embargo of the island country. Naturally, the U.S. objects, but it may face strong opposition in the UN General Assembly. Last year, Cuba’s proposition to lift the embargo was met with approval by all but three countries— the U.S., Israel and Palau.

Foreign states are disappointed that U.S. relations with Cuba have not improved more since President Obama took office. Though he improved travel

between the two countries, he has actually strengthened the embargo by raising fines for violations.

At this point, opposition is coming from all sides. Humanitarians point out the adverse effects on innocent civilians.

Countries that disapprove of Cuba’s one party system also criticize the embargo, seeing it as “counterproductive.” Even the Catholic Church has taken a stance against it.

The UN is scheduled to debate and vote on the embargo Oct. 29.

National

2. Three Americans win joint Nobel Prize in medicine Last Monday, three American researchers were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their research into the traffic control system of cells. The $1.25 million prize will be shared by James Rothman, 62, a biomedical sciences professor at Yale University, Randy Schekman, 64, a molecular and cell biology professor at UC Berkeley and Thomas Südhof, a physiology professor at Stanford University.

Their work has an immediate impact on medicine. Disturbances within the control system may lead to diabetes or

neurological and immune disorders. By revealing the intricacies of the cell’s control system, they have opened up research possibilities for the treatment of all three diseases.

The researchers warn, however, that future discoveries such as theirs may become rare without proper funding. All three men worry that the current economic climate will discourage young scientists from pursuing difficult research propositions. Initially, their own research would not have been possible without the generous grants they received.

3. Delta Airlines reviewing procedures after stowaway found on board

Online education company to offer credit-earning classes Tanvi Parmar Staff Reporter Busy students at Case Western Reserve University now have another opportunity for online schooling besides the free massively online open courses CWRU offers— albeit a pricey option.

However with the $1,400 per credit cost comes a major benefit: The chance to earn college credit.

Education company 2U, founded in 2008, wants to revolutionize higher education by offering worldwide, stateof-the-art online courses to top university students. The corporation founded the Semester Online program that offers 19 courses in the spring 2014 catalog. Courses range from Introduction to Bioethics to Power, Politics and Religion in America.

This program allows students to take classes from professors at universities like University of Notre Dame, Northwestern University or Emory University.

Each live online course will have fewer than twenty students per class. After completing the course, students will receive 3 hours of credit from the university the professor is from.

“I’d like these courses to expand the college experience for students, allowing undergraduates to take courses that aren’t offered by their home school,” said Andrew Hermalyn, executive vice president and general manager of Semester Online.

The program is accepting applications on their website from students with a good academic standing, enrolled in regionally accredited fouryear institutions. “[The program is targeted at] a student that wants to take a full semester off campus, to travel, to work and make

Bicycles continue to grow in popularity, and why not? They are cheap, give you a good workout while transporting you to your destination and don’t cost much to fill up. In a crowded urban environment like the one here at Case Western Reserve University, however, they can cause their own sets of problems, some of which are addressed below. They tend to fall into three categories: accidents, parking and theft, which are remarkably similar to the issues faced by car drivers here on campus.

4. Step aside Puerto Rico, North Colorado may become the 51st state

9/30 to 10/7

Eleven counties in Colorado have decided to vote on state secession on Nov 5. The secession movement’s members, from predominantly rural counties, feel alienated and underrepresented in an increasingly urbanized Colorado. Possible names for the state include North Colorado, New Colorado, Lincoln and Liberty, but even if the votes succeed, nothing guarantees that the state or federal governments would allow secession.

Only one state has ever successfully seceded from another state: West Virginia broke off of Virginia because of the Civil War. However, dozens of would-be states have tried. Some of the persistent agitators include Superior (the north peninsula of Michigan), Long Island, Delmarva (a peninsula split between Delaware, Maryland and Virginia) and Lincoln (the southwestern half of Texas).

money, or to deal with a family situation and not fall behind for graduation, or someone who wants to remain on campus,” Hermalyn said.

The deadline for application is Monday, December 23, 2013 with an early deadline of Friday, November 22, 2013.

All the three credit Semester Online courses meet for 15 weeks and cost $1,400 per credit. Students are encouraged by 2U to contact their school’s registrar office to verify that the credit will transfer.

Go, speed racer, go

What in the world?

an adult with him. When the plane landed in Las Vegas, the boy was taken into custody and his parents were notified.

They told authorities that the boy had not been seen since Thursday morning, the same day as the plane ride he took.

The TSA says the boy was screened along with other passengers to be sure he is not a security threat. Delta is reviewing its procedures to ensure that nothing like this happens again.

Boston College • How to Rule the World • The War that Never Ends Brandeis University • Psychological and Socio-Cultural Perspectives on Health • The Hebrew Bible/Old Testament: Then and Now Emory University • Baseball and American Culture • Drugs and Behavior • Power, Politics and Religion in America Northwestern University • Differential Equations for Engineers and Scientists • Electronics Out of the Box Wake Forest University • Introduction to Bioethics University of Notre Dame • Shakespeare and Film Washington University in St. Louis • Critical Earth Issues • Introduction to Psychology • Environmental and Energy Policies

On the Beat

Accidents The most common type in this area is fortunately not bike versus car, but bike versus pedestrian. Bikes are quiet, which is good for noise pollution levels, but it also means pedestrians can’t hear them coming up from behind them at Warp 7. Use of bells or a simple “on your left” can be helpful, as can keeping your speed below Formula One levels when travelling across a pedestrian heavy and often congested campus. Remember to dismount in posted areas like the binary walkway and the visitor lot off Euclid Avenue, where pedestrian and vehicular traffic make it unsafe to ride. If bike lanes are available, like on the South Quad, use them.

Last week, a 9-year-old boy managed to evade airport security and stow away on a Delta flight from Minneapolis to Las Vegas. He made it past a Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) checkpoint and a Delta gate agent, and then boarded the plane.

Flight attendants suspected the boy was not supposed to be there when they realized the boy was not on the list of unattended minors and that he did not have

The classes semester online offers and their host universities:

Parking Bike racks have been provided for use in multiple areas of the campus. The parking of bikes on stairwells or chaining them to railings near building entrances creates a safety hazard, especially for the visually impaired— so show a little courtesy and park at the racks. Interior stair wells and landings are also not appropriate places to chain bikes for the same reasons.

Theft Bikes remain a prime target for theft, and will from now until Old Man Winter arrives in full force. Lock your bike when it is not in use— even in an area like a bike room. Get a U-lock or other solid metal lock-cable locks, as these tend to do a little more than slow thieves down a bit.

So in conclusion— please lock your bike up (at a bike rack) when not in use, respect the rules of the road (pedestrians, this includes you) and let’s enjoy these last few weeks of beautiful fall weather— hopefully minus the collisions.

On the Beat is a weekly safety column written by Sergeant Jeffrey Daberko & Officer Mark (The Crossing Guard) Chavis of CWRU PD. Send feedback to this or other columns at policecolumn@case.edu.

police blotter

9/30 — Bicycle theft — Bike taken from storage room, Clarke Tower 10/1 — Petty theft — Cash taken from wallet, Leutner Commons 10/2 — Bicycle theft — Unsecured bike taken from rack, NRV-6 10/3 — Criminal damage — Tire slashed, Lot 55.

On the Beat can be contacted at policecolumn@case.edu.

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news

International Friendship Family Program aids the adjustment for international students Talia Gragg Staff Reporter

Courtesy middletownusa.com

Primetime television anchor kicks off Power of Diversity Lecture series

Students coming to Case Western Reserve University from around the globe can start the year a little more disarranged than the rest of us. Everyone feels the chaos of the start of a new year as they begin to settle into new housing, a change in climate and the start of classes, but international students have the added confusion of being in a whole other country. Even students who have been at CWRU or the U.S. for a year or more are still living with the adjustment of a different place, language and culture.

Luckily for them, CWRU has the International Friendship Family Program.

International students are matched up with school faculty, alumni, staff and friends.

These matches provide another way of

helping international students adjust and thrive at CWRU. The term “friendship family” is used because students do not live with their matched family. Rather, the family becomes a friend to the student, giving them another taste of living in the United States, like having meals at the family’s house or taking local trips around Cleveland. In this way, both students and families get to experience aspects of another culture.

Applications for both interested students and friendship families can be found on online. Anyone interested in applying should make haste, as it was recommended that applications be in no later than Oct. 1.

Applications can be completed and turned in (for both students and families) yearround, but matches are only made in the fall.

John Quiñones shares story about overcoming racial roadblocks to become first Latino correspondent for ABC News Suneil Kamath Staff Reporter Born to a janitor and a maid, ABC News correspondent and host of “Primetime: What Would Do?,” John Quiñones grew up in a poor household in San Antonio, Texas.

As a young Hispanic child, Quiñones says his world was woven with racial injustices against people of color; however, with hard work, seizing opportunities when they arose and a bit of luck, Quiñones was able to overcome the racial roadblocks and become a seven-time Emmy Award winning author. He shared his story as the keynote speaker for Case Western Reserve University’s Office of Inclusion, Diversity & Equal Opportunity Lecture Series 20132014 Power of Diversity lecture series.

After a welcome from CWRU President Barbara Snyder, Dr. Marilyn Mobley, vice president for Inclusion, Diversity, and Equal Opportunity at CWRU, introduced the lecture series and Quiñones.

Mobley explained how the Power of Diversity series started in 2009 to highlight CWRU faculty whose work focuses on various aspects of diversity. The mission of the series is to help spark dialogue and engagement about diversity and inclusion in our culture today.

Quiñones’ speech, titled, “20/20 Vision of Diversity,” walked audience members through his life and how his Hispanic heritage played a role in his development, as well as his work today.

As a child, Quiñones stated that he knew his family was always poor; after his father became unemployed, his family migrated across America going from job to job. As a child, Quiñones can remember earning only 75 cents for a bucket for cherries, after picking them for two hours. He also remembers when, after picking cherries, his family tried to eat at a local restaurant and were thrown out for being Hispanic farm workers.

Even though his parents were migrant workers, they understood the importance of education and the necessity for Quiñones to break the cycle of poverty.

One day while farming, Quiñones’ father told him “Do you want to do this job for the rest of your life, or do you want to go to college?” And from that moment, Quiñones had a spark that he was destined for greater accomplishments.

Even though he wanted to go to college, Quiñones explained how the odds were stacked against him and other Hispanic students at his school. When talking with his guidance counselor, Quiñones remembered how she told him he should consider going to vocational school, and implied that college was not an option for Hispanic students like him.

Quiñones’ English teacher, however, noticed his passion for writing and inspired him to become involved in the high school newspaper and pursue it beyond grade school. Eventually, through the U.S. government’s Upward Bound program, Quiñones was able to pursue a post-secondary education.

After college, though, life was challenging for Quiñones. Quiñones knew he wanted to go into broadcasting, but could not find a job at any of the television stations due to his ethnicity. Almost giving up, he decided to get his masters degree at Columbia University to further his knowledge and career.

After graduating from Columbia, Quiñones eventually landed a job at ABC News, and covered issues mainly dealing with Central and Latin America and immigrants in the United States.

Because of his heritage and his ability to speak Spanish, Quiñones was able to connect with Hispanics unlike many other journalists at the time and use his media power to highlight some of the atrocities they endured.

For example, he once got a job as a dishwasher and worked with other illegal immigrants. In short, Quiñones stated that the boss refused to pay them and threatened to call immigration every time they asked for their wages. The boss also forced them to sleep in the basement of the restaurant.

Quiñones was able to secretly record the events and bring national attention to the issue. Immigration eventually closed the restaurant down and gave the immigrants visas to stay in the country.

Quiñones stated that, as a journalist, his job is to “Give a voice to people who don’t have a voice.” And because of his Hispanic heritage, he claims, he is able to do that.

As Quiñones opened, “America is changing right before our eyes, and we have to do a better job of integrating our communities….We all can be destined to great things if we simply believe.”

Got ideas? Want to write?

Contact mrm41@case.edu

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Government shutdown hits CWRU, slows student researcher’s project [My jet engine project is] something difficult to do at Case since it involves high voltage, fire and all that good stuff.”

from Shutdown | 1 propose the project and to begin working out the details. They had planned to meet again. However, since the shutdown began NASA wasn’t allowed to even respond to its e-mails.

Gomez del Campo was hoping to be able test a second prototype, one that he believes may hit the mark, or at the least provide him with valuable insight.

Of course, his design is a lot more complex and time-consuming to create than he makes it sound.

“I’m trying to modify the way fuel burns, using plasma,” he stated simply.

The design would make jet engines more efficient, as they would end up using a smaller amount of fuel. Additionally, the method would make engines safer since the output from them would be steadier.

He elaborated, “[the combustion inside the engine] is less likely to extinguish, which is good if you’re flying.”

Gomez del Campo’s research originated from a high school science fair project in his junior year. He ended up competing at the international level and has kept working with the project ever since. Intel sponsors the international science fair, and many of the projects presented give fruit to discoveries and research.

“It inspired me to continue on,” he said.

Originally from Mexico, Gomez del Campo moved to Miami, Florida, when he was young. He spent a large amount of his time there, including his high school career. Afterward, he came to Case Western Reserve University,

- Felipe Gomez del Campo, sophomore researcher bringing his high school project with him.

He joked about the weather in Cleveland. “It’s a pretty big step down, I’m not going to lie.”

Despite being an Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering major, a majority of the science behind his work is above his curricula, and he’s had to learn it on his own. He hopes to continue working in aerospace engineering, but also said he needed the mechanical engineering background, too.

When he’s not swamped with work, he spends his time swimming laps in the pool for the varsity swim team.

Otherwise, Gomez del Campo spends his time working for the club he founded and is currently president of, the Case Society for Hispanic Professional Engineers. He also serves as secretary for the Newman Catholic Student Association.

He’s not sure what he wants to do in the future, as there are many options for him that involve a mix of industry, research and graduate school. He does, however hope the shutdown ends soon, giving him a chance to see how well his prototype functions.

Friday, September 20 The Republican-held United States House of Representatives votes to fund the government through Dec. 15. The bill included language to defund the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The bill is rejected by the Democratic-held Senate later in the week and goes back to the House.

Tuesday, October 1 As the clock struck midnight, and the government’s fiscal year began, the shutdown went into effect since a budget bill was not passed.

14

been

9 so far in 2013

Forcible sex offenses jumped from 2 in 2012

3 cases of motor vehicle theft were

Kyle Patterson/Observer

reported in 2012.

11 liquor law violation arrests from 2010-2012, and 865 disciplinary referrals.

32 reported cases to 17

1 case of arson was

0

reported from 2010-2012.

received reports of hate crimes from 2010-2012 Compiled by Gabrielle Buffington

A look at crime on campus

There were

nearly 50 percent, from

The university

After the bill is again sent to the Senate with the anti-ACA language, the Senate votes 5446 to remove the anti-health care language from the bill.

The bill is sent back to the House which again adds the language back. It is rejected by the Senate again with 54-46 votes.

Washington Monument

From 2011-2012, burglary in on-campus facilities dropped

to 12 in 2011

Monday, September 30

Government agencies, including the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Center for Disease Control, close as they remain unfunded.

By the Numbers: Typically there are security alerts issued per year. There have

In brief:the government shutdown

4 robberies occurred on campus in 2012, 1 in 2011, and

3 in 2010.

There are 300 emergency phones on campus

Most crime figures were taken from the 2013 Annual Security Report, available online at police.case.edu. The document provides statistics on reports made to Case Police, University Circle Police, Cleveland Police and Cleveland Heights Police Departments from 2010-2012.

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IN A CLASS OF 78 STUDENTS 41 ARE TAKING FRENCH, 22 ARE TAKING GERMAN. OF THE STUDENTS TAKING FRENCH OR GERMAN, 9 ARE TAKING BOTH COURSES. HOW MANY STUDENTS ARE NOT ENROLLED IN EITHER COURSE? A

6

B

15

C

24

D

33

E

54

If you have an answer for this, we may have a scholarship for you.

The MSM Finance program is offering substantial scholarships to CWRU undergraduates. In less than one year, you can prepare yourself for rewarding careers in banking, private equity, corporation finance, risk management, investment management, and consulting. In many cases, financial firms are hiring top-performing STEM graduates at much higher salaries than those offered by STEM employers.* Starting salaries range from $60,000 to $90,000. No work experience is required.

The Master of Science in Management-Finance (MSM-Finance) program is led by the same world-class faculty who teach in our undergraduate finance program, which was ranked #1 by Businessweek 2 out of 4 years. To find out more, contact Karla Crucke at 216.368.3254 or KLC70@case.edu. Or visit: weatherhead.case.edu/finance *Kauffman Foundation Research Series

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fun page | 9

fun

Crossword Puzzle Across 1. Steals 5. Celebrates 10. A Maori club 14. Hodgepodge 15. Portents 16. How old we are 17. Resolve 19. Tall woody plant 20. Prefix meaning “Modern” 21. Overweight 22. Property claims 23. Cuddle 25. French for “Queen” 27. Get prone 28. Pennant 31. Creepy 34. Groans 35. Before, poetically 36. Generous slice of the pie 37. “Holy cow!”

38. A Freudian stage 39. Short sleep 40. Seminal fluid 41. Pretentious 42. Bewitched

44. Consumer Price Index 45. Religious law 46. Panes of glass in buildings 50. Churns 52. Yours (archaic) 54. Suffering 55. False god 56. Basis 58. Pout 59. 1/16th of a pound 60. 1 1 1 1 61. At one time (archaic) 62. Glacial ridge 63. Monster Down 1. Anagram of “Arson” 2. Bygone 3. Type of jewelry 4. Former French coin 5. Idiosyncrasy 6. Master of ceremonies 7. Orange pekoe 8. Amuse 9. South southeast 10. Verdigris 11. Concord 12. Adolescent

13. Applications 18. Motherless calf 22. Untruths 24. Smooth-tongued 26. Sea eagle 28. Scattered, as seed 29. Historical periods 30. Depend 31. Feudal worker 32. Distinctive flair 33. Voracious 34. Significant 37. Nil 38. Dry 40. Male offspring 41. Breathing problem 43. Hammer 44. Clinker 46. Cringe 47. Unpaid 48. Tempter 49. Feel 50. Frost 51. Smell 53. A large piece of something 56. Enemy 57. Also

COM ICS

Clock Tower

FYI: If you get curious and start trying to calculate the time adjustment function that minimizes the gap between the most-used and least-used digit (for a representative sample of common cook times) without altering any time by more than 10%, and someone asks you what you’re doing, it’s easier to just lie.

‘Drama’ is just ‘people being upset,’ when someone says they’re always surrounded by drama and they just ignore it, it starts to make sense that their strategy might be backfiring.

by Kevin Yong

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10/11/13

Philosofish

Horoscopes

Kate Hart Go grocery shopping. Finish late software craftsmanship assignments.

Call Ray Krajci home. Update resume. Study for compilers midterm. Go to class. Do laundry. Organize group work meeting. Program LCD screen for senior project. Go to career fair. Follow up with company representatives. Cope. Do current software craftsmanship homework. Eat a healthy meal. Call electric company about bill. Go to Veale and work out. Finish SAGES portfolio to satisfy graduation requirements. Do online job applications.Tune up bike. Buy new laptop battery. Hope the current battery doesn‛t explode.

Go to work. Send e-mails to friends. Update group project to-do board.

Arrange meeting. Program media player for senior project. Pay rent. Draw a comic for the week. Don‛t mess up. Learn better habits. Create a Linked In. Go grocery shopping. Finish late software craftsmanship assignments.

Call home. Update resume. Study for compilers midterm. Go to class. Do laundry. Organize group work meeting. Program LCD screen for senior project. Go to career fair. Follow up with company representatives. Cope.

Do current software craftsmanship homework. Eat a healthy meal. Call electric company about bill. Go to Veale and work out. Finish SAGES port-

Aries

Seek knowledge; you’re ready to foster intellectual growth this week. And to be frank, you’re going to need it and then some on that Physics midterm.

Taurus

Reevaluate your current interests; you’ll find passion in new subject areas. Who would have thought underwater basket-weaving would be so therapeutic?

Gemini

Life may feel like a box of jumbled puzzles pieces right now. Turns out it’s actually a puzzle with no flat edges and a few pieces that don’t even fit.

Who said anything about fair?

Cancer

It‛s all going to be just fine.

Take care of yourself.

This will all pass.

Do your best.

Look to meet a new face; there’s someone waiting to surprise you. Just don’t venture too far off the beaten path, because those are definitely not the kind of surprises you want.

I know I need to hear that every so often.

Leo

Good luck!

PhilosofishComics@gmail.com

Life shouldn’t be told in pixels.

Yes, your Twitter feed might bring you a few chuckles here and there, but those 89 followers are probably just gonna scroll past your tweets anyway.

xkcd

Virgo

Love is in the air! Hold on tight, because you and I both know it’s not very abundant around here.

Libra

Remember not to get too caught up in toys or objects this week.

You have far higher priorities to focus on. Like how you can grow up and fix the government shut-down one day, or becoming the first football playing king in space… with a moustache.

Scorpio

The most brutal way I’ve ever seen someone handle this was ‘Oh, you have a girlfriend. Are you going to get married?’ ‘I, uh, don’t know—’ ‘Well, do you love her?’ ‘…’ ‘Anyway, what were you saying about the movie?’

You’re in for an action packed week. Be fully prepared to rise and grind 5 days straight this week. In the end, that Saturday night jungle juice will taste all the sweeter with a couple good grades in your back pocket.

accord articulate blend boring civic early evening general group guild heard inadvertent inside investigate junction locales major

merger month piece police relent remove right rile roan scene single sound suet tend train under unity

Wordsearch

Sagittarius

Dolla dolla bills, y’all. You’re in for a little money surprise this week.

It’s about time you started saving for retirement anyways, that six-figure Case Western Reserve debt can wait until AFTER graduation.

Capricorn

It’s time to let go of old conventions and let college start to mold you. Do something radically new and unexpected.

You can always go back to your old ways after you feel like everybody judges you super hard.

Aquarius

Confusion is on the horizon. A new development may cause you to question your position or motives. Just don’t get caught up in the petty stuff and make the best decision for you.

Pisces

Good news, everyone! Your week will get a little brighter with positive words from a friend. Just make sure to pass it on; we could all benefit from a smile.

arts & entertainment

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Despite the name, “Sleepy Hollow” bears little semblance to the original

Courtesy Ewinsidetv.files.wordpress.com

“Sleepy Hollow” is Fox’s newly renewed fantasy thriller. It airs Fridays at 9pm.

Lily Korte Staff Reporter Every autumn the ritual begins anew: All the major television networks debut a slew of new shows alongside new seasons of old standbys, and every week they obsessively monitor Nielsen ratings, ready and willing to axe an underperforming beginner at the earliest possible opportunity.

In many ways, this system seems fundamentally flawed— most of the numerous new programs typically show no promise to begin with, and those that might blossom into something more interesting later on don’t get a chance to redeem themselves if they’re cancelled after their second week on the air. For some shows though, a big break comes early and buys them some time to try to cultivate an audience and develop their plots and characters. The first big winner of the fall season appears to be Fox’s “Sleepy Hollow,” which was renewed for a second season last week after only three of its episodes aired.

At face value, the audience appeal is somewhat easy to understand, as it is an adaptation of a recognizable and oftadapted work, brought into the modern era with supernatural elements added.

Very few aspects of Washington Irving’s original story have made it into this version of “Sleepy Hollow” though. Even Ichabod Crane is essentially a borrowed name, rather than a borrowed character— this incarnation of Crane is a visiting Oxford professor whose allegiance switched to the side of the colonists while he was living in America.

While fighting for the American cause on the battlefield during the Revolutionary War, he beheaded a mysterious masked man who had seemingly fatally wounded him. As one might expect, this beheaded mercenary later surfaces as the Headless Horseman after Crane mysteriously bursts from a shallow grave in a cave and wakes up in 21st century New York. The bulk of the story in the television show focuses on the modern day police department in Sleepy Hollow, New York, which has suddenly found itself having to deal with beheadings, witch-

craft and a lot of pseudo-biblical warnings about the apocalypse (the Headless Horseman here being Death, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse; a definite upgrade from his status in the original story as merely the alleged ghost of a Hessian beheaded by a cannonball).

One wonders why the show’s creators even bothered with the trappings of the original short story, as the show is essentially nothing but an odd couple/buddy cop supernatural detective show, focusing primarily on Lieutenant Abbie Mills (Nicole Beharie) and Ichabod Crane (Tom Mison). The interactions between Mills and Crane are easily the best part of the show, as she helps him come to terms with the 21st century, and he helps her understand the world of demons, with some help from his witch wife and George Washington’s annotated bible.

An actual time-traveler from more than 200 years ago would likely take much longer to adjust than Crane does here, but the show makes the correct decision in not wasting a lot of time on that. It’s got enough to explain in a very short amount of time as it is. There is an awful

lot of use made of dream sequences and characters otherwise having “visions” to impart information to them that they wouldn’t otherwise have, which feels like a bit of an easy way out, plotwise.

Indeed, there almost always seems to be too much plot going on relative to how much action actually occurs; the show will go to great lengths to set up an interesting concept for the “monster of the week,” only to have the actual confrontation take less than four minutes. Three episodes into the season, the amount of information and backstory crammed into the early episodes finally starts to give way to a larger plot, but it still remains to be seen whether the show can fashion itself into something a bit more coherent. As it stands, the show can be mildly entertaining as mindless fun if you don’t stop to think about how unbelievable it all is, and it’s really saying something when a bunch of ghosts and demons manage to come off as more believable than a low-ranking police officer who is given free reign to run around solving crimes with a man who told police he fought in the Revolutionary War.

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10/11/13

Editor’s Choice

Cleveland Orchestra voted “favorite orchestra in world” ...but don’t confuse it with the “best”

Katy Witkowski Arts & Entertainmant Editor On Oct. 8, online classical concert finder bachtrack.com announced that the Cleveland Orchestra is the world’s favorite orchestra, based on an international online poll. For an orchestra that also calls University Circle home (and is currently celebrating Student Appreciation Week), Case Western Reserve University has reason to celebrate alongside its neighbor.

Bachtrack.com’s month-long poll recorded over 11,000 votes from 97 countries. Many fans also rooted for their favorite or hometown orchestras over Facebook and Twitter, encouraging the friendly competition. On Oct. 1, Cleveland Orchestra’s Twitter called out to fans to “vote [them] to no. 1!”

“We’re lucky to have fans not only here in Northeast Ohio but also around

the world,” said Ana Papakhian, director of communications at the Cleveland Orchestra. In November, the orchestra will begin a three-week tour of Europe, performing mostly Beethoven and Shostakovich.

However, bachtrack.com is not well known for its polls; rather, it boasts the Internet’s largest number of classical concert listings. The results may have been skewed to favor orchestras who appear on the website more frequently, and from the small sample of music lovers, it may be too soon to be too proud of the title.

Despite the international attention, the Cleveland Orchestra continually appeals to younger audiences in Northeast Ohio. Papakhian noted that regularly, one in four patrons at Severance Hall is a student.

The Division of Student Affairs’ Sanford Record Library endowment encourages these statistics. Every week,

15 pairs of tickets to Thursday performances are raffled off to all students who submit their contact information.

According to Doreen Thibodeau, executive aide to the vice president of student affairs, sometimes raffle tickets are left unclaimed and are available to all students on a first-come, first-served basis on Thursday afternoons.

These free tickets, according to Thibodeau, have only become more popular with time. However, she noticed that more graduate and professional students take advantage of this service than undergraduate students. Any student who is not on CWRU staff can win a pair of tickets.

Tickets to the Oct. 12 and 13 performances of Franck Symphony are only $5 when purchased before 7 p.m. on Saturday and 2 p.m. on Sunday. More information about Student Advantage Cards and about future performances can be found at Cleveland Orchestra’s web site.

Mary Kate Macedonia/Observer

MGMT 315: International Management Institute Travel to Frankfurt, Germany in May , 2014!

CWRU students can get to know more about business in Europe & earn 3 credit hours! All majors welcome & no prerequisites!

The program begins with pre-sessions held during the spring semester at CWRU before departure for Germany following the completion of spring final exams. We purposely run the program the two weeks following spring finals so that students are able to return in time to participate in full summer internships. The programs are conducted entirely in English, but students have the opportunity to learn a little of the language while abroad.

Possible professional & cultural visits: European Central Bank, Frankfurt Stock Exchange, Deutsche Bank, Lufthansa, Rhine Valley boat ride, weekend trip to Berlin Contact Tiffany Welch at tiffany.welch@case.edu for more information.

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observer.case.edu

Haim’s “Days Are Gone” leaves listener wanting more

The Observer’s

Playlist of the Week Jason Walsh Staff Reporter Major Lazer & Zeds Dead — “Turn Around (ft. Elephant Man)” This is basically your standard Major Lazer song, except that it doesn’t seem nearly as good as the great stuff on “Guns Don’t Kill People” and “Free the Universe.” “Free the Universe” just came out earlier this year, no word yet on whether or not “Turn Around” is in promotion for another new album or just a one-off collaboration for Diplo.

Artist: Haim Album: Days Are Gone Rating: 4/5

Tyler the Creator, Hodgy Beats, Domo Genesis, Earl Sweatshirt — “Look” Courtesy Spin.com

Jason Walsh Staff Reporter Haim consists of three sisters from Los Angeles in their mid-twenties, all within a couple years of each other, whose last name is Haim. Emerging with a string of singles over the last year, Haim has finally released its debut album “Days Are Gone,” and it does not disappoint at all.

A couple of weeks ago saw the release of CHVRCHES’ debut album “The Bones Of What You Believe.” Similar to Haim, CHVRCHES rose to prominence over the last year or so by releasing a string of great pop songs. Whereas CHRVCHES’ album failed to rise above its singles and felt like little more than filler around the songs we already knew, “Days Are Gone” shows exactly what a pop album should be: All the great singles are here, but the album as a whole is more than the sum of its parts and outshines the singles.

Haim frequently gets compared to Fleetwood Mac, and there’s good reason for that.

Female vocals and harmonies are at the center of “Days Are Gone.” The three sisters are also all great instrumentalists, and their guitar and bass work often evokes the mid-70s era Fleetwood Mac that released the trifecta of “Fleetwood Mac,” “Rumours” and “Tusk.”

Even more than that though, “Days Are

Gone” is a ridiculously catchy, fun, danceable pop album about relationships, heartbreak and loss— a formula Fleetwood Mac absolutely perfected on the musically incredible, emotionally brutal “Rumours.”

While songs like “Honey & I” and “Don’t Save Me” exemplify the Fleetwood Mac tendencies in Haim, they have often cited groups like TLC and Destiny’s Child as big influences. Second-half songs like the title track and “My Song 5” exhibit clear R&B influences, from the staccato falsetto of the chorus on “Days Are Gone” to the thudding bass line and syncopated drums of “My Song 5.”

There’s more to Haim and “Days Are Gone” than its influences, though, and labeling the band as Fleetwood-Mac-filteredthrough-90s-R&B doesn’t do it justice (although that label alone would pretty much sell me on a band). The three sisters co-wrote and co-produced every song on the album, and all three also receive production credit for the album as a whole. This makes a couple things pretty clear.

One, Haim are excellent songwriters.

There’s not a single bad song on “Days Are Gone.” Two, Haim knew exactly what it was doing making this album.

Slower songs like “Go Slow” are placed between more upbeat ones like “My Song 5” and the fantastic “Let Me Go.” The middle section of the album is sequenced to flow

smoothly from more Fleetwood Mac/folkrock sounding tracks into the more R&B leaning stuff of the second half. The final track, “Running If You Call My Name,” is a great closing track and sums up the album musically and lyrically.

The album opens with the three original singles back-to-back, a gutsy move on a pop debut, but Haim bet that the rest of “Days Are Gone” would hold up. And they were right. In a way that is rare for a debut, Haim shows that it knows how to make both songs and albums.

There are some times when I think that writing about music is superfluous. Listening to “Days Are Gone” is one of those times. I can tell you that I’ve been listening to the album on repeat since I got it, more than once a day for the last week or so. I can tell you that it makes me sing along and dance around in my chair while I’m trying to write this.

I can tell you that Haim likes Fleetwood Mac and Destiny’s Child. I could write something about how an album called “Days Are Gone” which is full of summery pop tunes with nostalgic lyrics about relationships ending is the perfect album for that time between the end of the summer and the beginning of fall, which seems to be finally happening here in Cleveland.

But really, “Days Are Gone” is just an album that you should listen to and that’s all.

This track is produced by somebody named Nottz, who’s not an Odd Future affiliate as far as I know, although you’d never know from the beat. It’s all sinister synths and off-kilter muted drums, standard Odd Future fare. The four rappers trade verses for four minutes with no sign of a chorus or a hook, more standard Odd Future fare. The debut album from MellowHigh (Domo Genesis, Hodgy Beats and Left Brain) is due out Oct. 31.

Blue Sky Black Death — “Keys (ft. Gucci Mane, Deniro Farrar, Nacho Picasso, & Mack Shine)” Blue Sky Black Death are apparently a rap-production duo out of Seattle, although I’ve never heard of them before this track. I’ve also never heard of Deniro Farrar, Nacho Picasso or Mack Shine; I mostly listened to this because Gucci was on it. But the track is a really pleasant surprise. The beat is fantastic, Gucci sounds awesome doing the chorus, and the other three rappers all drop solid verses. Blue Sky Black Death recently released a mostly-instrumental album “Glaciers,” which is definitely worth some listens judging by this beat.

Crystal Antlers — “Licorice Pizza” Loud, sloppy, catchy, with a silly name like “Licorice Pizza.” The new single from Crystal Antlers is pretty much everything I’m looking for in a garage-punk-rock track. Their new album “Nothing Is Real” is out Oct. 15.

R. Kelly — “Cookie”

It’s an R. Kelly song. It’s called “Cookie.” It is about exactly what you think it’s about. It’s unfortunately nowhere near as good as Kells’ other recently released single “Genius,” but my hopes are still high for “Black Panties” (due out Nov. 11).

Courtesy spin.com

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10/11/13

Minus the Bear revises sound in “Acoustics II” Stripping the guitars’ distortion and effects enhances songs

Katy Witkowski Arts & Entertainmant Editor In 2008, Minus the Bear entered the recording studio without much of their normal equipment. No distortion pedals, no loops, no synthesizers. “Acoustics” was the result, featuring an original song and innovative versions of fan favorites.

Featuring a vastly different side of the Seattle-indie rockers, the unplugged songs sold in a special edition white-and-blue vinyl record and received so much acclaim that the band continued the project.

Throughout the summer and fall, the band worked with PledgeMusic to fund the follow-up album, “Acoustics II.” “So many radio stations were asking us to perform unplugged in the studio,” bassist Cory Murchy said. “We were already working around stripping the songs.”

Much like its predecessor, “Acoustics II” begins with the previously unreleased song “Riddles.” Continuing through the band’s extensive discography, the unplugged versions breathe new life to songs from the band’s four most recent studio albums.

Although it lacks the pure, authentic vibe that oozes from the project’s beginning, songs like “Absinthe Party at the Fly Honey Warehouse” sound so different from their

originals that they could be considered original works themselves. The free-flowing, rhythm heavy guitar-work smoothly translated to a calming lullaby.

“The intricate, fun part of doing this is that we can come at these songs from a different angle,” Murchy said.

Other songs retain the electric version’s feelings. “The Game Needed Me,” although it replaces the refrain’s bass drum beat with methodic clapping, continues to serve the same dose of offbeat minor chords found on “Menos el Oso.” The album, released on the band’s own label Tigre Blanco Records, has been praised by other reviewers and listeners alike. On tour now, Minus the Bear will return to Cleveland on Oct. 15 to the House of Blues. Although still playing with the same toys featured in their studio albums, the band will unplug for special performances of their acoustic renditions.

On stage, the band knows how to work with a crowd; by belting many of the sensual lyrics at the top of his lungs, lead singer Jake Snider carries audiences through melodies you can tell they scream out when listening in private. Their sets do not change often, or usually include many of the band’s hits leaving many gems untouched.

But that won’t stop me from seeing them again.

Courtesy Blog.ourstage.com

Courtesy Minusthebear.com

Courtesy Minusthebear.com

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observer.case.edu

Prominent comic artist Chris Ware speaks the Cleveland Public Library Offers rare look inside his inspiration, works, and process

Courtesy Donald Black Jr.

Jessica Yang Staff Reporter Prominent comic artist Chris Ware went to the Cleveland Public Library on Saturday Oct. 5, as part of the annual “Writers and Readers” series at the library. Ware began his talk, humorously saying, “Thanks for coming out and ruining a perfect Saturday” and apologizing for having the audience listen to his “annoying nasal monotone.”

Ware’s humor continued throughout the series, adding a touch of lightness

to his otherwise somber topics, including his art.

His comics tend to explore human emotions, such as loneliness and how humans interact with each other, which have been praised for how it “completely redefined and expanded the inherent potential of comics” by fellow cartoonist Ivan Burnetti.

Although Ware describes his own work using self-effacing and modest terms, his work is original and detailed, oftentimes portraying complicated emotions with simple lines.

Ware grew up in a newspaper family and attended art classes at the urging of his mother. While at art school, he was exposed to Renaissance art. The work of both Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo inspired him, making him want to emulate them. Their attention to detail is both evident in Ware’s non-comic life drawings that he created while at art school as well as his comics. His use of stark lines that give strength and the detail used in the face was evident early on.

From Ware’s slides showing his journey from art school to his present day job as a cartoonist, his transition between mediums (and ultimately his call to comics) is obvious. Ware started

out as a painter, then became a sculptor, but he was unhappy with his art.

He couldn’t find “emotional truth” in his art. Slowly, he started using metaphors to mean something and soon that branched into comic drawing.

Although Ware found his calling in cartooning, he’s still experimenting with the layout, colors, drawing, display and more. He showed the process of how he designs books and it’s still as meticulous as his other works. Ware thinks about it as a sculpture, all the pieces coming together to have one big meaning.

Most of Ware’s work explores humans, scrutinizing our species to the point of uncomfortableness and it’s oftentimes satirical. In his work, “Acme Novelty Library,” Ware tries to show how adults oftentimes distort reality and how that affects the way the world is viewed. Similarly, in “Quimby the Mouse,” Ware explores how human relationships tend to become conflictridden even in love, through Quimby, a mouse, and Sparky, a cathead.

Showing his plan for a comic that he made for Wired Magazine’s first iPad edition, Ware amazed the audience with how interactive the strip was. It allowed the reader to interact with the panels, having

the reader tap, scroll and more to reveal more of the story. While the idea didn’t turn into fruition because of how complicated it was, Ware’s attention to detail and his consideration with how the reader interacts with the comic are notable.

Ware also revealed his influences, which included Gustave Flabert, Marcel Proust and James Joyce as well as his artist influences, such as Art Spiegelman, Hokusai and Kim Dietch.

The Q&A that followed the talk excited the audience as Ware fielded questions ranging from whether or not he read a particular comic to how he deals with artist’s block. Ware revealed that up until very recently, he didn’t like his own work and would often tear up his work in frustration. It was very difficult for him to draw and be satisfied with his work, despite his love for comics. Ware also revealed that the rarity of names in his work is due to the fact that names are defining and he doesn’t want that.

Although Chris Ware once said, “I guess I just don’t like being physically in front of people I don’t know very well, because I expect to be ‘seen through,’ or, even worse, instantly hated,” the audience at the Cleveland Public Library loved him.

from Fast-a-thon | 1

camps and other Syrians in need.

According to Syrian Orphans, 3.1 million children currently experience violent lifestyles which include supply shortages and destroyed hospitals and schools. The war in Syria affects more than four million children, and that number will likely continue to rise as the conflict continues.

The Syrian conflict’s prevalence was reiterated in speaker Iman Abbas Ahmed’s speech. “[Syria] is reaching pandemic proportions… threatening the very fabric of our society,” said Ahmed. “It’s bigger than we could ever imagine.”

Ahmed, the founder of the first Cleveland mosque and an active foster care parent, has personally experienced many struggles with raising orphans. He compared orphans to a popular line in “Forrest Gump” at one point in his speech: “Foster children are like a box of chocolates,” he said. “You never know what you’re gonna get.”

His quirky comparison was followed up with some personal descriptions of orphan struggles and the effects of behavioral problems. Ahmed brought the topic into a more college-centered focus when he said, “You should be making some type of impact on children who don’t have the same opportunity as you.”

Irshad’s favorite part of the night was Ahmed’s speech. “His insight into foster care and the need to take care of orphans really seemed to resonate with the crowd,” she said.

Ahmed’s speech was an effective way to punctuate the night, even if it was a bit repetitive. However, his point of helping those in need was clear. Ahmed called everyone in attendance to stand up and take action, posing a simple question to help understand the plight of Syrian children: “What if it was you?”

traffic surrounding the food. Both students and family members were in attendance, with infants bobbing in mothers’ arms and children weaving between the tables. Seeing this kind of variety in the crowd made the message of displaced children even more real.

Juheena Irshad, the MSA public relations chair, thought that the night was a great success. “We were almost to full capacity 11 minutes into the event and ran out of all the food, which was amazing,” she said.

Once the hectic confusion bubbled down within the crowd of attendees near the food tables, an orderly line stretched across the length of the Thwing ballroom.

Appetizers included pita, hummus and samosas, and as the line continued to file forward, a call to prayer was announced.

The actual act of praying was optional, but amazingly enough, the entire room hushed respectively until the prayer was done.

Later, when dinner was served, it didn’t take any reminders for people to line up in an orderly fashion. Maybe it was because people weren’t as hungry after the first round of food, or maybe the depth of the night’s purpose had finally dawned on the crowd.

Small fliers depicting statistics about Syrian conflict were spread across each table as slideshows flashed on stage to music. The night quickly transformed from one about food to one about a solemn response to Syrian tragedies.

The event’s profits went directly to Syrian Orphans, an organization which, through volunteer action, brings any donated money directly to children in refugee

Correction: The editorial board of The Observer wishes to apologize for the poor quality of the photographs accompanying an article entitled “IMROVment alumni multiply humor” in the Oct. 4 issue. The Observer strives for excellence across various media and apologizes for this unusual mishap, which did not arise from externally sourced material.

16

Editorial

Bike lanes: Are we better off?

Last year, CWRU established new bike lanes. Following that, the Observer published an editorial on Sept. 21, 2012, which argued that the lanes were not working as well as their planners intended. Looking back, with roughly a year between then and now, it seems reasonable to expect some improvement. But has it happened?

Currently, walking across campus inevitably involves dodging cyclists passing by at ridiculously high speed. Even worse, the binary walkway instructs cyclists to “dismount for pedestrian safety.” We have yet to see a solitary soul comply. Near the University Center construction site, cyclists often zoom by despite signs instructing them to walk their bikes, blatantly ignoring simple sanity. There are bike lanes meandering across the main quad but most are impossible to follow, with unclear beginnings and destinations.

Some lanes that are almost never used, while others are congested. The current situation is a combination of disregard, misinformation and just plain confusion.

While it is admirable that CWRU and its surrounding areas are encouraging cycling as a means of transportation, both cyclists and pedestrians must follow the rules. Otherwise the bike lanes are useless, and more importantly, someone could get hurt – which, in fact, has continued under the revised bicycle policy. Sadly, it turns out that the problems pointed out by editorials past are still largely unsolved.

The biggest problem undoubtedly centers on the binary walkway. During peak hours, the walkway is swamped with students, and most cyclists seem to disregard the signs telling them to dismount. However, the signs are not conspicuous enough, either. Nor are they stern enough to make cyclists comply. Forcing cyclists to cut through the Crawford Hall parking lot is not a better option, either. In fact, it puts cyclists in greater danger of being involved in a vehicular accident.

Luckily, the Undergraduate Student Government (USG) is in the process of addressing the issue, forming a committee expressly for that purpose. The objective of the committee is simple: deal with congestion on the walkways, safety problems and unclear signage.

The committee is also planning to create suggested bike trails for cyclists on Mather quad, where bicycling is currently dangerously out of control. Unfortunately, the space on Mather quad is extremely limited, especially with the ongoing construction, and it is doubtful that a suggested bike route will actually work - especially considering that the current bike routes are not working as well as the university intended. Perhaps bicyclists should avoid Mather quad altogether for the safety of themselves and their peers.

It is definitely a step in the right direction that there is a plan to fix these issues. However, the committee must make sure that it does not suffer the same fate as the organizers of the university posting policy, which took years to finally be implemented.

The bike lane committee has hopes to start working within a month’s time. They must ensure that this will indeed happen, as our safety is already compromised. Moreover, the new rules about where cycling is allowed must be established before both cyclists and pedestrians get used to wandering around campus without any idea where the bike lanes start and where they end.

No matter how large USG’s ideas are, they will not work without input and participation from us, the student body. Neither pedestrians or cyclists follow the current guidelines. Cyclists ride their bikes straight through the binary walkway while pedestrians disregard the bike lanes painted on the ground on the main quad, thus forcing cyclists to ride through areas that are off-limits for them. Vicious cycle? You bet.

The campus is not as safe as it could be with clear, strict rules and mutual respect between pedestrians and cyclists. Somebody has to make changes now, or we’ll be right back where we started, writing the same editorial year after year.

The editorial opinion takes a stand on a select campus issue that The Observer’s board of directors, the executive committee of the editorial board, considers relevant and consequently should be brought to the attention of the Case Western Reserve University community. The board consists of the executive editor and publisher, director of design, director of web and multimedia, director of print, director of business and marketing, and opinion editor. A member of the board meets with students, staff, faculty or any other persons who the board considers to be a subject matter expert. The board will then decide what stance to take on the issue, or if there are disagreements among the members, communicate them in the editorial. The meetings with interviewees occur off the record; no person will be directly quoted or referred to by their name. The editorial opinion does not in any way influence the work of the editors, reporters and staff of The Observer, nor does it represent the opinions of those interviewed for it.

Disclaimer The opinions expressed by individual columnists in the Opinion section do not constitute or reflect the opinions of The Observer editorial staff, Media Board or Case Western Reserve University. Articles in the Opinion section are edited for grammar, clarity and AP Style, not content. For the opinions of The Observer staff, refer to the weekly Editorial, an opinion which is informed by discussion and a collaborative editing process, rather than the opinions of a single person. Any opinions expressed in the Opinion section do not affect our news gathering practices or commitment to journalistic integrity. The Opinion section is a forum for students to express their opinions and engage in informed discussion. If you wish to submit your opinion or commentary, please submit a letter to the editor.

opinion Editor’s Note Keeping up with the Joneses With each passing day, the Tinkham Veale University Center is developing from an organized collection of steel and glass into the future facade of a Case Western Reserve University landmark. The university offices and student organizations that will occupy the space mostly have been decided and inside tours already have been provided to select members of the Case Western Reserve community.

Since its groundbreaking, the developing university center has rarely left the limelight, and it served as a destination of interest during Homecoming Week. But the new structure isn’t the lone occupier of central campus. It exists parallel to the Kelvin Smith Library and— more importantly—Thwing Center, which will remain the university’s only student center even once the doors of the Tinkham Veale University Center open.

Campus administrators began meeting last year to discuss the future of Thwing Center, recognizing that it will soon have a competitor just outside of its backdoor. The aging building currently serves as the home to almost all of the university’s undergraduate student organizations, such as the Undergraduate Student Government, University Program Board, University Media Board and Class Officer Collective. From the Center for Student Engagement and Learning to the Office of Student Activities and Leadership, the building also houses many student-focused departments.

While the majority of these organizations will move to the new digs, some will stay.

Much of the space in Thwing Center will be vacated, leaving abundant opportunities for new offices to enter the structure. The Division of Student Affairs, which oversees Thwing Center, has identified it as a component of its first strategic plan in nearly two decades. As a result, students and staff members have gathered to brainstorm a shared vision for the future of the building.

Moving forward, Thwing Center must avoid becoming a duplicate of the Tinkham Veale University Center. Instead, it must forge a new identity, in which it continues to serve students but through a revised offering of services and tenants.

Because spaces will open throughout the building, the structure could easily become a one-stop shopping destination for essential undergraduate student services. What if the Career Center and the Office of Student Employment were next door neighbors? What if a staircase was the only obstacle separating Undergraduate Studies from Access Services?

The current layout of the Case Western Reserve campus forces students to traverse the Case Quad each time they want to conduct a simple office visit. Utilizing Thwing Center as a centralized hub would reduce student confusion regarding the location of essential services. It also would place student-focused departments within arm’s reach of each other, which would spur collaboration among offices that serve the same constituency yet rarely connect.

With its student-focused staff and ample meeting space, Thwing Center must continue to be accessible to undergraduate students. The building requires investment, such as new furniture, paint and infrastructure. But if these actions are executed, Thwing Center has an opportunity to not only continue—but increase—its engagement with the student body.

The opening of the Tinkham Veale University Center should not mark the end of Thwing Center. Rather, it should represent the beginning of a mutually beneficial relationship, in which both buildings are irreplaceable elements of the undergraduate experience.

Tyler E. Hoffman –EXECUTIVE EDITOR

the observer

established in 1969 by the undergradute students of case western reserve university executive editor & publisher TYLER HOFFMAN director of design MEREDITH DYKEHOUSE director of web & multimedia KYLE PATTERSON director of print SHEEHAN HANNAN director of business & marketing PETER CHOI assistant director of business & marketing COLE MORRIS account manager ERIC HAUFLER ad manager CELIA TORRES news layout MEILYN SYLVESTRE a&e layout AMBER ALBERGOTTIE sports layout HEATHER HARGROW opinion layout EDWIN LO distributors SAGE SCHAFF DANIEL DOHERTY

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

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

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR should be e-mailed to observer@case.edu or submitted on our website at observer.case.edu. Letters can be mailed to 10900 Euclid Avenue, Suite A09, Cleveland, OH 44106. Letters need to include the writer’s full name, address, and telephone number. Anonymous letters will not be published. Letters from organizations must contain the name of an individual for contact purposes. Writings may be edited for clarity and brevity, and while The Observer makes an attempt to print all correspondence; space and date of publication are not guaranteed. Letters over 600 words may be returned to the sender. Letters must be received by 5 p.m. on Tuesdays.

opinion 17

observer.case.edu

The Student Leadership Journey Council (SLJC) presents October’s Students Organization of the Month Award Case Kung Fu is a sports club that meets three times a week with an instructor to practice. They participate in multiple national and international competitions throughout the year, as well as hosting a tournament annually in April. SLJC recognizes and awards the members of Case Kung Fu for their success in their tournaments and progressing in their Kung Fu skills, as well as promoting confidence and friendships between members.

SLJC interviewed President John Conrad McGarry, Vice President Ameera Khalid and Secretary Erica Pettit.

Question: What type of Kung Fu does Case Kung Fu do?

Ameera Khalid (AK): “We do a northern Schuai Chiao style Kung Fu. We occasionally do forms from other styles.”

Erica Pettit (EP): “There is another seminar coming up where we will get to learn a form that is beyond our normal curriculum, which is always cool. We normally have two seminars a year for something that is above and beyond what is typically what we learn in class.”

Q: What is your organization doing to connect with the on-campus community?

EP: “One of the big things Case Kung Fu does [is] a lot of different demonstrations.

In the last three or four years we’ve done the Share the Vision demo for the incoming freshmen. We’ve also participated with other campus groups for events they put on… So every year we put on a couple of different

demonstrations for different campus groups and then we also help out with the open houses for the freshmen [CWRU Live].”

Conrad McGarry (CM): “We plan on having a multi-day self defense seminar...

We are pushing toward this semester so if that turns out well, we can do a second one in the second semester…On [Sept. 27] we sponsored a movie [Shoalin Soccer] with [CWRU Film Society].”

Q: How does learning self-defense contribute to personal growth and increased confidence? Does it help you learn how to function as a team or as an individual?

AK: “Both as a team and as an individual…Just fighting with somebody— if you have ever just spared with somebody or especially with swi jow— you learn more about people that way than just talking to them ... It’s kind of cool how tight you get with people in the Kung Fu Club. But then there’s a lot of personal growth: You’re better aware of yourself and you don’t feel threatened necessarily by every stranger that walks by.”

CM: “One of the biggest things for me is the development of self-discipline. I have done martial arts for a good part of my life, and I don’t know where I’d be if I couldn’t sit down for 15 minutes or 10 minutes and do a drill. I don’t know how I’d survive classes if I hadn’t learned that from an early age, and continuing it helps develop that for everyone.”

Q: As leaders, what do you think are the biggest challenges to the club and what have

you done to overcome them?

EP: “Some of the big challenges are around organizing events, especially with belt testing and tournaments, since we have to deal with external organizations and try and find times that aren’t terrible for us. But that works for Sefu to come in for testing seminars, and then trying to find tournaments that don’t compete with finals or during a break.”

CM: “We go to a tournament most years in Canada in Windsor. It’s not that they didn’t consult with us, but they didn’t look at the U.S. Calendar, and scheduled the tournament for the week after Thanksgiving.”

EP: “They said that was the only week that they had available, but that was unfortunate for us, because we have a lot of members that are in Canada who come down to the tournament that’s held at CWRU in April, and we typically try to go up for theirs. We’re trying to figure out how many of our members are going to be around for theirs and capable of going to this tournament since it is at such an unfortunate time.”

CM: “Communication is a big thing. In general, just trying to get everyone on the same level as you.”

Q: What is your most successful moment as a leader or as a member of Case Kung Fu? EP: “I would say right after Great Lakes was a pretty good moment [...] because after every tournament we try to take a picture of the team with all their various trophies. Any time, you’ve got 17 or 18 people standing around this pile of trophies, and each per-

son has one or two of them. Last year, we had a graduating member who competed in five events, and won places in each one and she’s in the front of the picture with this row of trophies with her behind it! Also right after belt testing is always great because everyone is so excited that they got their new stripe that they have to beg someone to sew [them] onto their own belt! I typically end up taking three or four or five home with me for all the freshmen boys who don’t have sewing machines.”

CM: “The other one is right after demos like Share the Vision, because right before everyone is like, “We don’t know what we’re doing”, and freaking out about things, and then we go out there and it turns out really well and everyone’s just clapping.”

Part of our mission in SLJC is to recognize those student leaders and groups that use their talents to promote growth in our community.

The Student Leader of the Month and Student Organization of the Month Awards are our way of celebrating the wonderful people and groups at CWRU. Keep an eye out for future awards. Know someone or a group that deserves to be awarded? Please email akc48@case.edu for more information.

SLJC is a group dedicated to creating a community among student organizations and student leaders. We work with the Office of Student Activities and Leadership to provide resources, support, and recognition so that our community will grow.

Sex, violence, and politics The elephant in the room Andrew Breland Can you ever really say what you want? If you just want to rip into someone or something one day, is that allowed? On the other hand, do we live behind masks?

Every day, someone else denounces the evils of political correctness and the importance of not offending anyone. But even this isn’t exactly what I want to bemoan. Nor is my issue with profanity.

Walking around campus, it is obvious that students neither gain nor lose the respect or admiration of their peers by using “naughty words.” The truth is, sometimes those words are the only way to express some excited feeling, enraged attitude, or incomprehensible feeling of raw emotion.

One should not use these gratuitously, but sometimes judiciously.

But that’s an issue settled far too easily.

The question I want to ask is more fraught.

It gets at a deeper problem both, in a small sense, here on campus, and in the larger “society.” Are there rules we have to live by when we express ideas? Are there things that no matter who I am I cannot say, for fear of reprisal, prosecution, or worse?

Here in the United States, most people would agree that we live under the US Constitution. Amendment One of that document reads “Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech.”

Yet even in light of this statement, there are things that I legally cannot say. I cannot incite violence. I cannot disseminate prurient and obscene pornography. And potentially worst, I cannot spread known falsities about people, slandering their names, while writing for this paper.

But these aren’t the metrical rules, the hard and fast barricades that I want to address.

What I want to reproach are rules like the new campus sexual harassment policy, or even worse, speech codes like those at some universities. Case’s luckily is a “better one,” though it could still use some fixing. According to data provided by the

Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), a free speech group based in Philadelphia, Case Western Reserve University receives the lowest rating for speech freedom on campus. Simply put, Case Western ranks near the bottom of colleges and universities in the freedom of students to say what they want.

But the freedom to say what you want extends far beyond what you might think it would include. Obviously, I can’t promote radical hate speech on campus. That’s illegal. We can debate the propriety of that ruling later. But what about political campaigning? What about where I can say things on campus? Does it make a difference that I said something in front of Adelbert Hall versus Storrs House?

Luckily at Case Western we do not have to consider this too often. We have a fairly lax speech code that does not define “free speech zones” or “appropriate hours” like at other universities. But still we are considered to be extremely unfriendly to student speech. Why? There are multiple levels of speech one has to consider in this case. We prohibit political campaigning of any kind, in or on any university property. We disallow any activity that “disrupts operations” of any kind. We ban bullying. That last one is less of a bad thing and more just incredulous.

This is college. Since when was that the same thing as kindergarten?

But there’s even a level beyond that.

Consider sexual harassment. In some instances, reporting requirements are considered an intrusion on the free speech rights of victims. At Case Western, our new sexual harassment policy recognizes that if a student does not report a perceived or real case of sexual harassment, no matter the magnitude, it is a punishable offense. I cannot and will not debate the merits of this requirement, but I question its existence because of the effect it has on the freedom of speech. Ignorance of the rights of victims to say what they are comfortable saying is ignorance of society, and that is what we are dealing with here.

However – let’s take a moment for a reality check. It might be impossible for the

university not to have a sexual harassment policy. It would be problematic for the university to allow blatant politicking on campus, given the nonprofit status we enjoy.

And the university cannot be bothered by small things that interrupt the management of a multi-billion dollar research and administrative endeavor.

But is that supposed to be an excuse?

I want to suggest that because of a lack of communications, because of these hard and fast rules of what I can and cannot say, the university suffers. Because of a broad sexual harassment policy, art that portrays nudity, speech that condemns or awards sexuality, and literature that could be considered “erotic” is all put under additional scrutiny. Because of a ban on politics, campus advocacy groups like the College Republicans, Democrats, and Young Americans for Liberty are limited in their advocacy abilities; other groups like the Campus Right to Life, GayStraight Alliance, and, in some cases, sustainability groups must watch their messaging to avoid a political tone; conversations of a political nature become cloistered in coffee shops and offices, as openness turns to reticence.

Prohibiting speech has what Justice

William Brennan famously called “a chilling effect” on all sorts of interaction and activity. Because of innocent restrictions, students are not given the experience or environment that we dream of when we think, “I want to go to college.” The communications, community, and dialogue that have been promised are destroyed.

I will be honest. I commend trying to balance freedom of expression with the university’s principles. But unfortunately, in our current state, the university’s thumb is tipping the scale too far in favor of restriction. We need a policy that encourages all forms of speech, especially speech that offends someone, challenges beliefs, and, in the words of WH Auden, “force us to have second thoughts,” and “free us from the fetters of self.” We do this with hope that we advance the quality of the conversation and making everyone all the wiser for it.

Andrew Breland is a double major in political science and English, planning on getting a master’s degree in political science before attending law school. He is the vice president of the Phi Alpha Delta prelaw fraternity and the treasurer of CWRU’s undergraduate mock trial team.

Letter to the Editor Jacob Martin’s meaningful piece, “A call for campus-wide attitude makeover” (10/4/13, p.7) refers to freedom “from the fetters of self.” Martin is right. That is essential to create a true community.

Poet W.H. Auden (1907-1973) blessed rules “that forbid automatic responses, force us to have second thoughts, free us from the fetters of self.” Teaching at CWRU since 1994, I have encouraged myself and others to make those rules our own.

Cordially, Laura Y. Tartakoff Department of Political Science

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The myth of Sisyphus: The importance of collegiate community The meaning of Spartan life Jacob Martin It’s Saturday, Oct. 5, 8:31 p.m. My computer just booted up and (since it isn’t homecoming weekend, and the class of 1963’s 50th reunion party isn’t creating cacophony or a pungent aroma of alcohol that would both permeate the third floor quiet study room) Kelvin Smith Library is rather serene.

I’ve opened my notebook and laid my books out in my usual study cube tucked well into the stacks just as I’ve done so many times before in preparation for a long night of studying. However, one thought won’t quit its barrage on my focus. I need to address the question, “With all this homework to do, why does community matter?” Maybe then I can stop reeling and write my English paper.

Why should you, a Case Western Reserve University student— or professor or administrator for that matter— care about community and dialogue and diversity on this campus? Why heed a call for an attitude adjustment or change in perspective?

Why work to establish a real community of interconnected scholarship at CWRU when each of us is busy, stressed, sleep-deprived and pressed for time?

A colleague asserted in this paper last

week that the number of CWRU students that read great literature is dismally low, and unfortunately I would agree. But I also want to provide a small, yet assuring glimmer of hope that lonely intellectuals remain in the interstices of our detached and egoistic university.

Albert Camus’ “The Myth of Sisyphus” introduces the notion of philosophical absurdity; that is, man’s search for and inevitable inability to find inherent meaning in life. For those unfamiliar with the reference, in Greek mythology, Sisyphus was doomed to repeatedly roll a boulder up a hill only to watch it roll back down. Camus relates this to man’s ostensibly meaningless and futile existence, ultimately asking if suicide is the answer to such a reality.

He answers this question with a condemnation of suicide and a charge to rebellion.

In the time spent walking back down the hill, Sisyphus is conscious of his pointless task. From that awareness rushes a brook of vitality so strong and refreshing that Camus concludes his masterpiece with the line, “One must imagine Sisyphus happy.”

We are all modern day Sisyphus’s that share the same absurd task of completing an undergraduate education. Each of us is pushing rocks up hills: Rocks that look like homework, chaotic and confusing personal development and the human impetus for socialization— hills that afford

sweeping views of discovery, growth and electrified solace.

Therein lies the answer to why we must work to establish community. This prodigious commonality that connects us is indispensable. We must exercise solidarity if we are to be a community, and we must be a community if we are to be happy like Sisyphus is happy.

Yet we continue to commit symbolic suicides, never rebelling against mediocrity and discontent. Have you ever been walking through campus, sitting in class or studying at a table surrounded by others and felt the pangs of loneliness or the desire to reach out to someone only to become paralyzed by an irrational adherence to social norms and fear of disrupting the status quo? Aren’t there things that have upset you to the verge of tears, things which you outwardly respond to with inexplicable silence but internally cry a dejected and primal scream?

Community has the power to pacify such unrest. It’s like an old palatial mansion without property lines. It has countless rooms that house collegiality, integrity, honesty and transparency; a parlor for stimulating dialogue; a wrap-around porch to be merry and praise diversity of thought, culture, and difference of opinion; a basement to lock away judgment and hatred; a pool of love in the backyard to drown social norms and the pieces of a shattered

hierarchy in. The doors would never be locked, and the only house rules would be a positive attitude and curious disposition.

Perhaps I’m slipping into the dangerous realm of idealism, but to me a university is quite simply an institution that provides a large-scale forum for learning. It is a place that transcends society, functioning as a model of engaged wonder and a catalyst to inspiration. We need community and dialogue and diversity at CWRU to re-enter and reestablish a forum of unbridled learning.

If we continue marching down the road of apathy like a mob of cowards without a cause, we remain disenchanted composites of basal mass only capable of squandering happiness and incarcerating love and respect behind bars of selfish ignorance.

I’m tired of settling for the dilapidated, weathered hovel that houses the CWRU community, and I refuse to accept that the overwhelming majority of students on campus don’t share my frustration. Perhaps it’s time to listen to Camus’ positive message in the face of absurdity, because if awareness is enough to combat suicide, then it must be enough to facilitate change.

Jacob Martin wishes to acknowledge the industrious individual(s) who taped his column all over Nord’s doors last Friday.

Sine qua non.

Your attitude affects The black hole: around you Life without NASA those Boosting the CWRU community Keeping perspective Ashley Yarus While Case Western’s career fair was a hustling, bustling event full of wonderful companies and unbelievable opportunities, I found I was not alone in feeling as if there was a gaping hole in Veale this past week.

A black hole, if you will allow some poetic licence in the phrasing. This hole was left

by NASA. The John Glenn Research Center table was empty at this year’s fall career fair and the reason for their absence was none other than the government shutdown.

Personally, the government shutdown was simply a bleakly hilarious concept until I saw the utterly sobering sight of a NASA table without NASA. I don’t know if it was the idea that scientific progress was being directly halted by bureaucratic nonsense, or just the concept of a world without NASA that disturbed me, but no matter the case, I was not impressed. The widespread consequences of the current government shutdown finally hit home as soon as I started thinking about just how much this ongoing showdown could be impacting the agencies which I find essential, mostly NASA. Truly, the shutdown is impacting me in a number of ways, but for a moment I would like to focus primarily on the idea of a world without NASA. It must be something about the idea of outer space, aliens or rockets that really just excites everyone. No matter a person’s age, profession or interests, I’ve come to find that everyone gets excited about NASA. For my parents, NASA was the symbol of exploration and progress with programs such as the Apollo and Gemini projects. For our generation, outer space is everchanging and elusive, and NASA acts as our connection to this fascinating world of possibilities. More than any other facet of life, the idea of the universe, of infinite space, of changes and processes which boggle the mind, these are the elements of mystery which drive progress and inspire

individuals to achieve great things.

NASA is a government agency, but it’s really so much more than that for the American public. There’s a certain importance connected to the work of NASA which seems to transcend their daily tasks and average functionings. I think that extra importance comes from both the difficulty of the work the agency accomplishes as well as the ideas of continued progress and scientific exploration that is indirectly fostered by the existence of such a program.

Basically, NASA inspired some of us to become engineers and scientists, simple as that. The idea of being an astronaut will never go out of style because it is one of the most amazing experiences one could ask for— to leave planet Earth will always be a dream of both little kids and adults alike, and I think this should never change. To shoot for the stars is an ambitious goal, but it is one which agencies such as NASA allow us to believe possible.

Many of us were slighted of some opportunities at this past career fair for reasons completely out of our control. Those who would have spoken to NASA representatives and found fresh inspiration in their encouragement, research and stories were left defeated by an empty table. To top it all off, NASA’s website ceased to function when Congress and the wheels of our larger government came to a grinding halt, so applications and opportunities have been left a mystery.

Like NASA, most other government agencies are ghost ships right now, functioning only enough to work once the messy details have been hashed out and some serious compromise comes to Congress.While I’m sure NASA and all the other government-run agencies will come back into the full swing of things shortly, it’s strange to think how many of our peers have been impacted by the momentary lapse in government progress in ways we have yet to even realize.

Ashley Yarus is a second-year student studying chemical engineering.

Boosting the CWRU community Heather O’Keeffe I will first say that Passion Pit was amazing. I realize it was two weeks ago, but once again I feel the need to thank the University Program Board for such a fantastic concert. The free tickets padded my otherwise empty wallet and the night of passionate fun was the perfect cure to too-many-exams-itis.

While whipping my hair to “Sleepyhead,” I took a brief moment to take in the scene around me. The front of the field house turned concert hall was packed with head bobbers, crowd surfers and singers-along. Towards the back people stood at nearly arms length away with barely a smile across their lips. Based on my observations there seemed to be a direct relationship between stage proximity and crowd density to the amount of fun had by the attendee.

I was greatly disheartened to see my peers (and alumni and parents, which was weird) sitting against the walls or standing with their arms crossed. Their faces resembled the Mckayla-Maroney-not-impressed-grimace and their body language blatantly read, “Bored.” It was even worse when I noticed people were leaving the concert! Who walks away from a free concert?

Well, to those who felt Passion Pit was not entertaining enough, allow me to impart this little secret upon you: More than what you are doing or where you are, the people you are with have the greatest bearing on your experiences.

Think of your favorite memories, those days when you felt infinite bliss.

Were you with your best friends? Your family? Or were you with someone you hate?

I know for a fact that I would rather spend the day in a cardboard box with my best friend than ride the most exhilarating roller coaster at Cedar Point with a

person I can’t stand.

In regards to the concert, I nearly had more fun waiting for Passion Pit to emerge than when they were actually performing. My friends and I took it upon ourselves to make our own music and screamed Vanilla Ice lyrics for all the world to hear. This simple, unabashed act drowned out the sweaty, cramped, unhappy waiting scenario we could have easily succumbed to.

Before you discard your friends in search of new ones, I challenge you to analyze the person always beside you: you.

At the end of the day, your attitude determines your happiness. The mindset you enter the concert, class, party or any opportunity with weighs immensely on how you feel both during and after.

We are the sole proprietors of our emotions. No one can tell us what to feel and no amount of chocolate cake or puppies can make us happy. We are only happy when we choose to be and disappointed when we decide that is the path we want to walk. You’ll feel great when you savor the cake, but will only regret the calories when you compare it to momma’s secret recipe.

So the next time you trudge to class or are dragged off to some party, remember that life is what you make of it. Sit next to classmates who intently listen to professors because they have a genuine interest in the information and make a conscious decision to engage in learning. Rather than sulk in the corner at a party because you can’t stand the music, raise above the subpar tunes and introduce yourself to someone new.

Start with yourself and work outward, surrounding yourself in a network of funloving, life-living people. Now try to walk away from Passion Pit. Heather O’Keeffe is a second-year student studying biomedical engineering and sports medicine. She shows little restraint to dancing like no one is watching

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observer.case.edu

Both fresh people and parents pay the drinking tax Heard from a first-year Maia Delegal A trial to determine punishment, probation from student activities, frustration: All brought to you by a trip to the hospital and one unfortunately unforgettable night. A concerning number of freshmen already wear the badge of shame that comes from a drunken escapade gone horribly wrong. Freshmen’s resident assistants follow the procedure which states that anyone suspected of drinking and caught vomiting must immediately take a trip to the emergency room. As a result, the rooms in University Hospitals are packed on Friday and Saturday nights. You may think the issue here lies in the irresponsibility of freshmen and their voracious drinking habits, but I’m not so sure. I believe something’s wrong with the way this university— and undergraduate institutions in general— handles underage drinking.

For starters, to think that underage students won’t drink on a college campus is pretty naïve. Whoever’s idea it was to put

21-year-olds in the same place as 18-yearolds with a law restricting teenagers from interacting with alcohol had a serious lapse in judgment. The law permits only a fourth of undergrads to drink but, naturally, almost all undergrads will drink as a result of proximity. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism estimates that as many as 80 percent of all undergraduate college students consume alcohol during their college career.

Since underage drinking seems inevitable, why would universities waste their own resources, those of the hospital and of the students’ parents in order to quell it? Nurses would much rather pay attention to actually sick patients. I’m sure they don’t jump for joy whenever sloppy teenage drunks crowd the EC and vie for their precious time. Parents get an even worse end of the deal whenever they receive the hospital bill. Our parents already shell out enough to CWRU. They probably expect the faculty and staff here not to make a costly mountain out of a molehill (like throwing up). Besides, no one patrols the 21-year-olds and their post-party vomiting. They know to drink water and suffer through hangovers like adults. Since the

majority of us here are legal adults, the RA’s should really extend the same courtesy of independence to us.

Speaking of RA’s, how many of them really want to spend their weekends chasing down intoxicated freshmen, anyway? Instead of stalking vodka-breathed kids, they could urge the sober students to keep their living areas cleaner. They could check in on roommate disagreements and make rounds to make sure everyone is healthy and happy.

If we’re supposed to see RA’s as helpful and feel comfortable coming to them with our problems, then maybe they should tone down their disciplinary side just a little.

The university can do more to ensure the safety of its students by teaching them how to prevent alcohol-related disasters instead of punishing their ignorance. Many freshmen who choose to drink when they come to college haven’t done so before. They need more guidance. During orientation week, presenters glossed over the issue. The message I garnered from all the so-called advice was “you might end up drinking, but you shouldn’t.”

Since statistics show the predictability of underage drinking in college, why doesn’t the

university teach freshmen about the dangers of alcohol poisoning, how to establish personal drinking limits or how to avoid vomiting and hangovers?

The more radical question would be “why doesn’t the university, as a private institution, lower the campus drinking age to eighteen?”

Other small colleges already model this approach. While this may help to reduce campus arrest rates, the same dangers that arise from uninformed young adults deciding to drink would remain. All universities should concern themselves with preventing reckless drinking habits through education, regardless of how many other policies surrounding drinking exist. After all, post-secondary schools are charged with educating us, not placing a levy on our lifestyle choices.

Maia Delegal is a first-year student from Jacksonville, Florida. She is planning to double major in music performance and either cognitive science, psychology, neurobiology, political science or women’s and gender studies. In her free time she likes to read, write and have jam sessions with the talented musicians in Taft.

A Friday night, CWRU style Dealing with Dunderheads Un-sCWRU your lifestyle Theresa Smetona Friday. 4:54 p.m. Myra, your typical CWRU student, frantically types up the last few sentences of her lab report and successfully submits it via Blackboard. She checks her iPhone. It is 5:00 p.m. She exhales a sigh of relief and pulls up Twitter, indulging in a celebratory tweet: “Lab report done and ready to party! #workhardplayharder #CWRU” She has had a particularly demanding week and can’t wait to recover from her stress by spending the weekend alternating between being drunk and hungover.

6 p.m. Myra has showered and is now pondering her next course of action. She can’t eat the cold pizza in her refrigerator, because it is her designated drunk food for when she comes home ready to binge. She plans her outfit for that night— stilettos, crop top and a bandage skirt that arguably covers her tuchus.

7 p.m. Myra exchanges numerous texts with her girls, deciding where they should meet up and pre-game before heading to the party.

Everyone knows that big kids don’t start raging till after 11 p.m., so Myra and her friends plan to meet up at 10 p.m. in order to drink and take copious amounts of photos that they will later Instagram to show just how much fun they had.

8 p.m. Myra sends another Tweet in order to emphasize her excitement for the night. “Can’t wait to take shots with my girls! Much needed therapy.”

10:30 p.m. Myra and her friends are eager to get their party on, but they feel that it would be unacceptable to show up at a house party before 11 p.m., so instead they talk about how much fun they will have, and insist that each girl is hotter than the rest of them.

10:45 p.m. Myra’s sense of civic responsibility compels her to tweet again: “Disclaimer – I am not to be held responsible for any of my actions tonight.”

11 p.m. The horde of tipsy girls begins its exodus to Hessler Road. Their journey is marked by stumbling, screams, and phrases such as “You deserve to have fun once in a while,” “You look SO hot,” and “Will you be my drinking buddy tonight?”

11:15 p.m. After getting lost a few times and knocking on a couple wrong doors, the girls finally arrive at their destination. As the girls make their noisy entrance, a few guys, who clearly have not showered recently and are wearing faded jeans and dirty t-shirts, glance up. The guys notice all the clothing that

the girls are not wearing, and revert to playing beer pong. The girls clump together in a corner and begin sending mass texts to all their friends, demanding, “Where are you? Come to Hessler! It’s so much fun!”

11:30 p.m. Having exchanged a grand total of about two words with the guys at the party, Myra decides that music will remedy the situation. “Can we play some music?” she demands. “I’m ready to dance!” The host complies with her request, but the blaring music is so loud that no one can hear anyone else, and Myra’s attempt to boost conversation proves futile. One girl who particularly resembles Bambi attempts to dance, but the combination of her high heels and the numerous puddles of beer on the floor prove too much for her delicate balance, and she falls.

Myra joins the rest of her friends in loudly expressing their concern for Bambi.

12 a.m. A few more people straggle in and seek out the remaining available corners of the house. Eager to gain some attention, Myra moves to the beer-pong table and apologizes too loudly every time she misses a cup. Once, when the ping-pong ball rolls off the table, Myra is faced with a dilemma. Her formerly appropriate skirt will not permit her to bend down and pick up the ball. Hoping to attract the attention of some helpful man, Myra suggestively looks at the guy standing a few feet away. But this would-be knight in shining armor is too busy sipping his natty light to notice Myra’s invitation. Several minutes pass before the ball is returned to the table.

1 a.m. Having already been to the two other houses hosting parties that night, everyone ends up at the house where Myra is now pretending to be super busy responding to urgent texts. Conversation is still minimal, and the heat and stickiness have reached unbearable levels. But there are no corners left to hide in, and aided by their drunkenness, most people engage in some sort of grinding. The hosts of the party are proud of their success.

2:30 a.m. Shoes in hand, Myra returns home. She would have liked to party longer, but the police showed up and ended the night.

While inhaling slice after slice of pizza, Myra contemplates what shirt she should wear tomorrow to flaunt the hickeys that are developing on her neck. She sends a final tweet: “And that’s how it’s done. Ready to repeat tomorrow #ilovecollege.”

Theresa Smetona is a senior majoring in Spanish and English. In her free time, she likes to drink coffee and consider the possible benefits of her future unemployment.

What CWRU is really teaching Abby Armato My very first day of archaeology, I was more than content just zoning out. The professor spoke slowly with plenty of pauses, which would be wonderful if I was taking notes, but I was not. Instead, I busied myself plotting out a play I wanted to put on including where we would perform, what music we would use and how we could acquire 20-orso plastic Christmas trees for the set.

It would have taken a miracle to pull me from my daydreaming. But that miracle came. It came in the form of one line, the most wonderful line a 60-or-so, white-haired, mild-mannered gentleman could ever say: “You occasionally run into a dunderhead; the world has plenty of dunderheads.”

I was not sure how to respond to this bit of brilliance aside from laughing and adding it to my class notes. My first instinct was questioning who says “dunderhead” anymore. My second instinct was questioning what exactly a “dunderhead” is. Yes, the word was hysterical, and the context suggested a meaning, but I had no idea what I was dealing with.

Google tells me that dunderhead actually means “a stupid person,” which I should have been able to guess from the context of our conversation. But Google also tells me that their definition is “informal,” which I interpret to mean “is flexible.”

So what is a dunderhead, as far as this article and I are concerned? I would say that a dunderhead is someone who does not see things quite the way you see them. Which, if you want to be insulting and rude about it, can be considered stupid. But the unfortunate reality is that we are always surrounded by people who do not see things they way we do.

For example, I do not think eating pizza while I shower is a good idea. However, there are people who think it is a lovely way to save time. More seriously, I think paper towels are a great invention. CWRU does not. Clearly, there is a lack of eye-to-eye action. So I give them a pretty label (eh hem, “dunderheads”) and try to move on.

But I cannot. Because I live with people who eat in showers and prefer obnoxious hand driers that do not help clean up paint that may have been accidentally smeared on the stairwell wall from the paint party to paper towels. I needed to find a way deal with these different kinds of people. So I collected advice from floormates:

Helen: “If they are super douchey, I just wait quietly and leave as quickly as I can.”

Sam: “I come [complain] about them to you.”

Emily: “I run away.”

Emily: “On second thought, I roll around on the floor and cry about it.”

While these are all very valid responses, I am not sure any of them would serve as a permanent solution to dealing with difficult people. Though I could argue that all would be appropriate responses to walking into your dorm and discovering a giant penis has been drawn on the pool table. Currently a white sheet has been laid over it like a cadaver.

Welcome to CWRU. So when a situation is not as extreme as a billiard boner, how do I cope? I think a step down would be the rude comments left on the bulletin boards in Leutner. While voicing our opinions is perfectly valid, some people take it too far. My personal favorite too-far card complained about the wait time at 6:15pm.

I may be a first year, but I know that dinner anytime between 6:00 and 6:30 means a wait.

In that moment, I realized there was no real way to deal with dunderheads directly. I could not hunt down the commenter and inform them about the Leutner rush hour. I could not yell at everyone who leaves hair in the sink.

I could not interrogate everyone in my dorm and see which dunderhead once again threw my laundry on the ground. All of this, I could not do, assuming I do not want to lose friends.

I cannot fix every dunderhead. But I can try to fix their effects. For Chef Mike, I wrote a comment thanking them for the wonderful gluten free meal and asking if they had gluten free pasta. A roll of toilet paper worked almost as well for cleaning up the smeared paint. I regret to admit that I have no solution for the pool table situation.

So, yes, my archaeology professor is right: There are dunderheads. But the point is simply that, while we may not be able to deal with dunderheads, we can work hard to add some positive to make up for them.

And sometimes, if we give a little love, we can get a little love back. Chef Mike wrote a very hearty thank you and personally cooked my gluten free pasta. He delivered it steaming hot with a little garnish on top because he is the best.

Abby Armato is a first-year student currently majoring in English and anthropology. When she is not freaking out impending adulthood, she enjoys various strokes of creativity, determination and passion.

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Charlotte Palmer/Observer Junior Natalie Southard elevates to defend the net versus New York University.

from Round Robin | 24 This is a good sign, as there is still another Round Robin tournament before the UAA Championship next month.

Farrell is most concerned with the consistency of the team. “Our biggest challenge is continuing to develop as a team and make sure everyone is playing their best volleyball at the same time,” Farrell said. Instead of seeing one or two players getting big numbers, she would like to see multiple players raising their level of play to meet high expectations in the weak spots of the current roster.

The team’s resiliency was put to the test as they went up against Oberlin College on Wednesday. This was a winnable match, but dependant on the focus and confidence of the entire team.

The first set started out evenly matched with the Spartans trading points with the Yeowomen culminating in a 2419 deficit. The ladies fought back five match points for a 26-24 victory.

The Spartans didn’t look back as they finished off the opposition in the two remaining sets with scores of 2517 and 25-10. Bogart led the offense with ten kills with the collaboration of Marks with 28 assists and Best with 13

digs on defense. This was a meaningful win going into the rest of the season.

The team needs to continue to show this resilience to beat back negativity amid challenging match-ups.

The Spartans look to learn from their experience last weekend moving forward into the difficult conference rounds to come.

There are multiple experienced teams that play at a high level and the CWRU team

needs to stay motivated if they want to compete. “Every time we step on the floor, we have to prove ourselves,” said Farrell of the young squad. “We can’t look past any opponent but we can’t be fearful of any opponent. We have to get it done.”

The team looks to get it done versus Hiram next Wednesday at Veale before the second Round Robin tournament in St. Louis starting Oct. 19th.

from Conference | 24

UAA finish last year. Going 0-7 in the conference last year, the Spartans have a lot to prove. An improving UAA result is critical step in the growth of the team.

The Spartan’s will play three straight on the road starting with New York University on Saturday. The NYU match is a good opportunity for the team to make up some ground on the competition.

Following New York, Case will be taking on Washington University and Chicago University.

While traveling can be tough for some teams, the Spartans are excited for the challenge. “Our guys have done a good job with traveling and I think we’re excited to go to some cool areas of the country and play good teams,” Bianco said.

game, but were unable to break through and find the back of the net.

It was the second time the Spartans had been shutout in two games. Case even had more shots than the Yeomen, outshooting the visitors. “Soccer is a funny game,” Bianco said. “At times you will have rough patches where the goals are coming. We’re putting ourselves in good spots, we just need to do a better job of finishing plays in the attacking end.”

The Spartans are looking to make the proper adjustments and get back on track. As the team enters the more competitive portion of the season, they look to match or improve on their last-place

Arianna Wage/Observer Freshman Jacob Grindel dodges the Oberlin defense during Tuesday’s match.

observer.case.edu

sports | 21

Despite best start in over a decade, questions linger for Browns David Hoffman Staff Reporter The last time the Cleveland Browns notched a 3-2 record through their first five games, the year was 2001 and Tim Couch was the starting quarterback.

When a team gets off to its best start in a dozen years, it would normally be cause for celebration and unbridled optimism.

These Cleveland Browns are not your run-of-the-mill team.

They have already endured two changes of quarterback, both of which were necessitated by an injury to the incumbent starter. They have experienced an incredible high point and a demoralizing low point already this season: From Brian Hoyer leading the team to a come from behind victory in Minnesota

to Hoyer being lost for the season during their Thursday night victory over Buffalo— you can already see a roller coaster ride beginning to take form this year. So, what will the future hold for the Browns?

An initial glance at the team’s upcoming schedule would be a good place to start forming an answer to that question.

They have four games remaining until their scheduled bye week. Their opponents in those games include the Detroit Lions, the Green Bay Packers, the Kansas City Chiefs and the Baltimore Ravens. All four of those teams are also off to good starts early in the season and will have just as much to play for as the Browns, if not more. Keep in mind, too, that with Brian Hoyer no longer able to play this season, the team has been forced to turn back to Brandon Weeden

to lead the offense.

The only difference this time around is that Josh Gordon is back on the field after serving a two game suspension to start the season. It should be noted that the Browns’ offense has improved noticeably since Gordon’s return, not to mention the fact that the team has won three straight games during that span.

The other main factor to consider is the competition the Browns will face as they look to remain in the thick of the playoff hunt. The AFC appears to be top heavy so far, with a few dominant teams separating themselves from the pack. The Browns, meanwhile, are currently lumped in with that inferior pack, as they are one of six teams in the conference sporting a 3-2 record. The other teams in that group include a few pleas-

ant surprises and a couple of teams that most pundits expected to compete for a playoff berth.

Fortunately for the Browns, they share a common trait with the other teams in the AFC sporting the same record as them: An above average defense led by a ferocious front seven. However, they are far from a perfect team. The offense is not necessarily up to par with some of the other teams they’ll be competing with, and they still must deal with the stigma of simply being the Cleveland Browns.

Only winning games on a consistent basis can erase that stigma and change the fans’ perception of the franchise as one that is always destined to fail. Ultimately, the Browns have been one of the league’s pleasant surprises so far but still have a long road ahead of them this season.

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22 | sports

10/11/13

CWRU women’s soccer team overcome by weather against first conference opponent JP O’Hagan Staff Reporter The women’s soccer team rebounded from a narrow 1-0 loss to Brandeis in their University Athletics Association opener to beat Oberlin 4-0 on Tuesday night.

The Spartans fell in Saturday’s UAA season opener to Brandeis by a score of one to nothing. The wet weather added to the difficulty of the match as the two teams attempted to overcome not only each other, but also the slick conditions. Two lightning delays prolonged the game that was very evenly matched with both teams keeping the other at bay. The Judges were able to capitalize on one of the few opportunities between both teams when they broke through in the 79th minute, finding the bottom left corner of the goal.

The Spartans were unable to press back quickly because just moments later, the second lightning delay was called. The Spartans played strong, but were unable to score once play restarted. “We created some great scoring chances and the game went to the team that put the ball in the back of the net,” head coach Tiffany Crooks said. “I was very pleased with our play. We battled very hard and, I felt, performed very well. “ The Spartans were able to rebound when they played Oberlin on Tuesday. The game was a rematch of the rained out Sept.

12 game where Leah Levey had scored three

goals and the Spartans were winning 4-1.

However, that match was rained out in the 54th minute. The Spartans came back to Oberlin and didn’t miss a beat with the 4-0 win over the Yeomen.

The Spartans broke through early in the second half when Jessie Sabers tapped in a misplaced ball in the 49th minute. Levey added a goal of her own just five minutes later off of an assist by Sabers. The Spartans slowed down for a few minutes, but didn’t stay quiet for very long when Kate Dolansky found the back of the net at the 70:53 mark to make the score 3-0.

Neither the Spartans nor Levey were done for the night though when she found room between the posts for the second time Tuesday night in the 78th minute. The defense was untested as Oberlin managed just one shot all night. “It was interesting to get to play against an opponent that we were already familiar with from the same season. And, it was great to go so deep into our bench,” Crooks said, “ All of our players performed very well.”

In addition to the strong play this week, the Spartans were delighted by Crooks being named to her alma mater Ashland University’s 2013 Hall of Fame Induction Class.

Crooks is the most successful women’s soccer coach in Case Western history. However, she is being honored for her play as a student at Ashland, where she graduated from in 2002.

She played keeper for Ashland and posted 174 career saves, the second most in school history. Now the head coach at Case in her seventh season, Crooks is a two-time UAA Coach of the Year and has led the Spartans to a 59-51-12 record. “I think my playing career helps me relate to the journey of our players. I

know what it’s like to compete on a daily basis with people you love,” Crooks said, “I’m absolutely honored to go into the Ashland Hall of Fame.”

The Spartans will play again on Saturday against New York University and will hope to continue their strong play.

observer.case.edu

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Editor’s Choice

Spartan Cross Country goes the distance in all-state meet Men’s team claims top spot while women’s team exceeds expectations with second-place finish Katie Wieser Sports Editor The Case Western cross country teams shone last weekend as they completed at the All-Ohio Intercollegiate Championship competition in Cedarville, Ohio. The men’s team was the Division III Champion and the women’s team placed second in the unseasonably warm October race.

The men’s team was expected to beat out the division competition. They won the event last year and looked to rise to the challenge of the area runners. Senior David Dixon led the team as he placed second among the 143 Division III runners with a time of 25:57.43 and fellow Spartans Timothy Travitz and Wyatt Hoch also finished the race in good standing, 17th and 18th place respectively, with times at the 26:47 mark.

The fourth and fifth runners for the team were sophomores Tony Spalding in 24th and Gilad Doron in 45th place with times of 27:00.94 and 27:35.77, respectively.

Despite the overall success of the day, coach Kathy Lanese feels the team could have performed better. “The expectation was to win, but it wasn’t really in the best form,” Lanese said, “The

top few runners on the team were good, but everyone else didn’t really meet expectations. We were very fortunate to come out on top, but it was an ugly win.” The ideal spacing between the top runner and the fifth best runner on the team is around 45 seconds. The fifth Spartan crossed the finish line over a minute and a half after Dixon, well beyond that benchmark.

Dixon, the co-captain of the team, acknowledges that the team didn’t meet personal expectations, but has a different perspective. Though he was disappointed with some of the individual showings, he is happy where the team is at this point in the season going into the more difficult meets ahead. In addition to the difficulty of the course and rough conditions, there were other obstacles the team had to overcome. “With running, there are a lot of mental blocks to get through. Coming in, trying to defend our title was a lot of pressure. For some of the more inexperienced runners, this was their first time running under that kind of pressure,” Dixon explained, “during a race you’re hurting so you try to rationalize things and settle for less than your best.”

Once the men learn to conquer this pressure, they should meet with more

success. The next few meets are more competitive and the team may be able to think less about the consequences and more about achieving the best individual results.

On the reverse side of the high-pressure men’s team was the women’s team, led by sophomore Kelsey Aamoth.

The women expected to be challenged among Division III rivals Oberin, Mount Union and Kenyon. The race was the longest of the year at 6,000 meters and the team had worked hard in practice preparing for the challenging weeks ahead.

Aamoth was the top runner for the Case team with a sixth place time of 23:50.17. She was followed closely by teammates Kristen Ruckstuhl and Erica Bauerbach who placed 27th and 33rd, respectively, with times of 23:16.91 and 23:26.43. The top five was rounded out by Lydia Greene and Dana Jeter who ran times of 23:50.41 and 24:02.17, earning 51st and 59th place. To have five runners all finishing within a minute of each other was a sign of dedication to sacrifice personal results for the good of the team.

“Personally, I don’t think it went that well, “ said Aamoth, “but we did really well as a team. We ran in more of

a group and that team effort definitely helped. Individually we all felt it could have gone a little better, but finishing in second was really great.”

With the heat and humidity on this grueling course, teamwork was key.

Lanese focused on the team motivation when creating her strategy for this meet and the women executed this to perfection.

“We knew first was a long-shot and fourth [place] was a real possibility.

It was a real team effort that got them two second place and I couldn’t be more pleased,” said Lanese. She looks to emphasize this team mentality heading further into the season to bring all the female runners up to a new level.

The runners and coaches all know that the best way to achieve this goal is to work together to overcome physical and mental exhaustion in the long races ahead and both teams will continue to train hard in preparation for the Inter-Region Rumble in Oberlin Ohio on Oct. 19.

The team is familiar with the Oberlin course, and is hoping for nice weather to complement the f lat landscape. It could be a very successful race for both teams as they look to gear up for regional and conference competitions next month.

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sports

Volleyball unable to best conference opponents Battles back versus Oberlin for a straight-set win Katie Wieser Sports Editor

The Case Western volleyball team weathered a disappointing weekend to defeat Oberlin College on Wednesday.

The University Athletics Association Round Robin #1 was a difficult challenge for the young Spartan team who were faced with competitive squads from New York University, Carnegie Mellon University and Emory University.

The draws for the weekend were based on last year’s conference results, which led to a rough day for a team with few returning players. The inexperience and lack of confidence led to a frustrating first day with just one set win in two matches.

The competition opened with a faceoff against NYU. The team dropped the first set with a score of 25-15, but remained fairly close for the rest of the match. Both Haley Kauffman and Isabelle Wagner notched up eight kills for the CWRU offense, and Shannon Chua and Robyn Marks added to the defensive front with nine digs each during this match. But it wasn’t enough to beat the Bobcats, who won the final two sets with scores of 25-23.

The team continued to be challenged in the second match of the day versus Carnegie Mellon University. The play continued to be evenly matched and the Spartans were able to best the CMU team in one set with a score of 25-22.

The trouble was with consistency as the team went through highs and lows with scoring through the remaining sets and lost the match 3-1. Individual players still brought their best game with Wag-

Charlotte Palmer/Observer Sophomore Carolyn Bogart prepares her attack versus New York University during UAA Round Robin. ner adding 12 kills to her total and Katie Best contributing 23 digs.

The team faced their most difficult challenge yet with conference leader Emory University on the schedule for day two. Despite the disappointments of day one, the Spartans went into the

match playing their best. With tremendous effort by each member of the team, the Spartans held their own throughout the match. Carolyn Bogart contributed eight kills and eleven digs; Best added 12 digs to that total.

Even considering the straight-set loss,

Coach Karen Farrell still acknowledges the high level of play during this game, saying it was one of the best-played matches by the team so far this season.

to Round Robin | 20

Men’s soccer slumps entering conference schedule Team shutout in two straight games JP O’Hagan Staff Reporter The Case Western men’s soccer team’s confidence was shaken this week as they lost two games. The Spartans lost to Brandeis 4-0 on Saturday and 2-0 to Oberlin Tuesday night. “The biggest area is our confidence at the moment,” Head Coach Brandon Bianco said. “We’re a good team when we’re playing together and playing with confidence. At the mo-

ment we need to dust ourselves off and get ready for the next one.”

The Spartans suffered their second loss of the season and started UAA play on Saturday against Brandeis. Brandeis is ranked 14th in the nation amongst Division III teams. The Spartans’ strong play this season was no match for the visiting Judges and Case Western struggled against the powerhouse, falling 4-0. The Judges’ Ben Applefield beat two Spartan defenders before rocketing

a shot into the upper ninety for the first goal of the game in the 23rd minute.

Brandeis added three more goals in the second half in the 48th, 73rd and the 78th minutes to handily put away the Spartans. It was Case Western’s first time being shutout this season. Some of the reason for this is that the Spartans didn’t step up their play like in previous games this season. “Brandeis was a good team,” Bianco said, “but [the] goals we gave up put us in a tough hole.

We can defend better than we have recently and if we do, we’re in the game against a team like Brandeis.”

The Spartans dropped their second in a row on Tuesday night when they lost to Oberlin College. This is the first losing streak the team has had all season. The Yeomen did all of their damage in the first half, scoring in the 16th and 23rd minutes.

The Spartans battled back the rest of the

to Conference | 20