The Observer, Volume L, Issue 16, 1/25/19

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Case Western Reserve University volume L, issue 16 friday, 1/25/2019

Observer New Health Education Campus boasts world class learning facility

The Den extends meal swipe specialties Virginia Behmer Staff Reporter

Courtesty of CWRU Newmed Website Mockup of the The Sheila + Eric Samson Pavilion, which will hold the medical, nursing, dental and physician assistant schools

Justin Hu

The Den by Denny’s, colloquially known as “The Den,” has expanded their portable “special” meal swipe menu. Students will now be able to order the Quinoa Wrap, Turkey BLT, Italian Panini, Ham Egg & Cheese Melt and Veggie Mash-Up Burrito.

The change came over winter break after reviewing results from the Student Voice Dining Survey conducted by Bon Appetit Management Co. The online survey was sent out last October and November and encouraged students to voice feedback regarding the campus dining options.

“Several changes were made over winter break to respond to the students’ asks,” said Director of Auxiliary Services Beth Nochomovitz.

“These include extended hours to use portable swipes in Tomlinson and [the Tinkham Veale University Center], more vegetarian options everywhere and five more menu items added as part of the meal swipe option at The Den.” A rice bowl and grain option in L3 Grill and Halal chicken sourced from the West Side Market were added last semester in response to students’ requests.

“Our chefs are continuing to find ways to increase menu diversity and keep the interest of our diners,” Nochomoviz said.

Although pleased with the increased dining options, students still crave their old favorites from the previous meal plan: the Guacamole Chicken Burrito, the Bacon Cheeseburger and the Chipotle Bacon Cheeseburger.

“My first year I would use almost all my special swipes at The Den by Denny’s. Eventually I developed a routine where I would alternate between the Guacamole Chicken Burrito and the Bacon Cheeseburger,” said third-year student Jacob Porter. “[The Den was] basically the only place I could regularly get guacamole and bacon. In those days Leutner didn’t serve bacon at brunch.”

Similar sentiments are shared by second-year student Maddie Smith, who says she “misses her guacamole chicken burrito,” and also believes that “The Den fries are too spicy.”

In summer 2019, Case Western Reserve University in collaboration with the Cleveland Clinic will be opening the Health Education Campus. Located on 93rd Street between Euclid and Chester Avenues, it will feature 11 acres of land and two new buildings.

The 485,000 square-foot Sheila and Eric Samson Pavilion was designed by Foster + Partners architects and is immediately identifiable by the 27,000 square-foot central atrium, slightly smaller than the one in the Cleveland Museum of Art. Adjacent to the pavilion will be a separate three-story 126,000 square-feet dental clinic and next to the dental clinic will be a recreational park for families. When completed, the campus will be able to accommodate 2,200 students.

Although the Health Education Campus did not originally intend to have dentistry and nursing departments, the decision to include them expanded the original design by around 300,000 square feet. The reasoning behind this decision was to encourage collaboration between students of different disciplines, also known as “interprofessional education.” Now, the campus will educate medical, nursing and dental students,

as well as those from the School of Applied Social Sciences.

When it opens next year, the Health Education Campus will transform medical education for the next generation of caregivers,” said Dr. Tom Mihaljevic, CEO and president of Cleveland Clinic.

The university and the hospital have raised around $270 million of the $515 million needed and have plans for more fundraising in the future. The total budget includes all project costs, such as the dental clinic and a new parking garage.

Prominent donors include the Cleveland Foundation, Mt. Sinai Health Care Foundation and the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation. Much of the fundraising promotion was done by Case Western Reserve University President Barbara Snyder and Dr. Toby Cosgrove, former president and chief executive of Cleveland Clinic.

“When we go in to approach a donor together, it is a powerful statement about the priority of this project,” said Snyder.

Eric Samson, a steel company executive whom one of the buildings is partially named after, is one of the largest donors. Originally from South Africa, Samson built a strong relationship with the Cleveland Clinic when he flew to Cleveland in 2000 for triple bypass surgery which was performed by Cosgrove.

The interiors of the buildings will contain top of the line equipment to keep up to date with the latest technological advancements. Among other things, the main building will have high-tech simulation labs and an innovation laboratory for developing and testing new technologies.

Students will also be using HoloLens, an augmented reality device developed by Microsoft, for subjects such as anatomy.

“The ability to see individual organs and systems in three dimensions and then virtually explore all of their attributes when healthy or damaged,” said Snyder, “will give our students insights simply not possible with traditional cadaver-based approaches.”

The design was made with collaboration in mind: it includes classrooms planned around group work, shared lounges and study areas, all of which ensure that students are frequently interacting with each other both inside and outside of the classroom.

Alongside traditional health courses, new courses will be offered that focus on building teams with a combination of different skills and learning how to utilize each person’s specialty to provide the best patient experience. On this new campus, students will not only witness medical teams practice but also be able to build their own partnerships.

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pg. 2 pg. 6 Cultural mixer on Our staff tries to campus predict Oscars

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news 2018 Annual Cultures mix, students share experiences Diversity Giubileo Report presents Anna Staff Reporter diversity across Friday, Jan. 18 marked the Culcampus tural Mixer, hosted by the Taiwan-

Grace Howard News Editor

The 2018 Annual Diversity Report for Case Western Reserve University has been released. The report is released every year by the Office for Inclusion, Diversity and Equal Opportunity (OIDEO) and exhibits the university’s initiatives and representation across campus.

Some changes reflected in the report are the establishment of the CWRU Inclusion Transformation Fund, which provides funding for research, scholarship and other projects that work to further diversity and opportunity on campus and off. The first class of recipients included six projects and funding of roughly $22,000.

The report also celebrates the addition of a new minor, African and AfricanAmerican studies, that was made available at CWRU in 2018. This minor includes studies on critical race theory, African and African-American diasporic history and other political and social aspects of black life.

The director of the new African and African-American Studies minor, Joy Bostic, Ph.D., was also a featured researcher and presenter at the Social Justice Research Lunch Series. The annual series includes presentations geared toward presenting scholarship and discussing its relations to social justice.

In addition to campus initiatives, the Annual Diversity Report includes statistics of diversity and representation across campus. Women made up 16 percent of the faculty of the School of Engineering in 2018, a five percent increase from the 2013-2014 report. Students of color made up 23 percent of all medical students in 2018 and 15.9 percent of the incoming class in the School of Medicine in 20172018.

The Cleveland Humanities Collaborative, a partnership between the CWRU College of Arts and Sciences and Cuyahoga Community College, boasted its first graduates with degrees in humanities in 2018. It represents a growing pathway for students of community colleges to pursue a bachelor’s degree at CWRU. Marilyn Mobley, the vice president for Inclusion, Diversity and Equal Opportunity, also announced that she would be stepping down from her position and returning to her position as faculty in the Department of English. Under her leadership, the OIDEO created the Diversity Leadership Council, was recognized by the national Sustained Dialogue Institute for CWRU’s program and established the Trailblazer Project; an initiative to celebrate the contributions of alumni of color.

Although Mobley will be stepping down from her position, as she states in the report, she hopes to encourage the CWRU campus to make “inclusive excellence a reality at Case Western Reserve University.”

The 2018 Annual Diversity Report can be found in the OIDEO in Adelbert Hall and will soon be posted on the webpage for the OIDEO.

ese American Student Association (TASA), Korean American Student Association (KASA), Muslim Student Association (MSA) and La Alianza, a Latino student organization.

This was the first time these groups have come together to host an event at Case Western Reserve University.

Ricky Gilmore, a second-year student involved with La Alianza, said the event came together quickly over the past year. “La Alianza was planning a cultural event and as we planned more and more groups wanted to get involved, and it eventually formed into the Cultural Mixer.”

The event was an opportunity for students both involved in or independent from one of the involved groups to learn more about the similarities and differences among their cultures.

Gilmore said, “La Alianza had a mixer previously with the Vietnamese Student Association and the Black Student Union, but I’m really excited to be able to meet people involved in these other groups.”

Each group involved shared food from their respective cultures with the attendees. This included dumplings, chicken kabobs, soondubu and maduros.

Additionally, the groups came together to plan an activity they called Signs of Identity. Members and guests had signs with a variety of different words on them, ranging from positive descriptors to words with more negative connotations. If the attendees had ever felt what was being

from Den | 1 Other students are also personally invested in the missing options. “I would gladly never marry for the [Chipotle Chicken] ‘Tangler’ Burger. If only it would come back again,” said second-year student Mario Tanabe.

The Guacamole Chicken Burrito, Bacon Cheeseburger and the Chipotle Bacon Cheeseburger are still available at The Den using money or CaseCash. However, other options are no longer available at all.

“Unfortunately Denny’s corporate has removed onion rings from their menu so we are unable to add these back even though they are greatly missed,” Nochomoviz said.

According to Nochomoviz, the Student Voice Dining Survey will be sent out again this upcoming spring after these changes have been made rather than annually to ensure Dining Services are “meeting student needs.”

“Bon Appetit and CWRU Dining Services are always looking for ways to improve student satisfaction with the meal plan.” Said Nochomoviz.

Students can also give input through Bon Appetit’s “Just Ask” policy and the Food Committee.

Ryan Yoo/Observer Students participate in the Signs of Identity activity during the Cultural Mixer.

For the activity, attendees stood next to signs with concepts they had felt.

described, for example “community,” they would walk over to the sign with that word and could talk with other people who had similar experiences or feelings as them. This gave students the chance to meet other people, talk about their life experiences and see the similarities and differences among them.

Another activity the groups came together to plan was a shared Kahoot, where questions centered on each of the different cultures represented at the mixer asked questions like “what is the

name of the formal Korean dress?”

Elise Kim is a third-year student in KASA. She mentioned how excited she was that all of the different groups were able to come together and create this event. “It’s amazing to see how different cultures can come together and share such common but diverse experiences,” Kim explained.

The groups saw a good turnout from both club members and students looking to learn more about different cultures and cultural groups on campus.

CCOLLEGIATE WRU RECOVERY

HOUSING A supportive recovery environment with social and clinical support.

Collegiate Recovery Housing is available to those admitted and currently enrolled in undergraduate, graduate or professional schools of CWRU, The Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine (CCLCM), The Cleveland Institute of Art (CIA), The Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM) and Kent State University College of Podiatric Medicine (KSUCPM).

FOR MORE INFORMATION Visit: students.case.edu/recovery Email: recoveryhouse@case.edu Call: 216.368.5872

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Activities abound in Professor receives grant to celebration of Martin develop nanoscale protein delivery systems Luther King Jr. Ibtesam Ghazy Staff Reporter

Courtesy of CWRU Twitter Keynote speaker at MLK Convocation, LaToya Rose Frazier

Katharine Toledo Staff Reporter

Despite closing campus this past Monday in celebration of the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Case Western Reserve University and University Circle blossomed last weekend with various activities in celebration of King.

Each year, CWRU hosts a special convocation ceremony in honor of King. On Friday, Jan. 18, CWRU hosted visual artist LaToya Ruby Frazier, a professor at the Art Institute of Chicago, as the keynote speaker for the convocation. In addition to delivering the convocation address, Frazier also engaged in a smaller discussion group with CWRU students with specific interests in social justice.

In order to help with transportation, CWRU offered a shuttle that traveled between the various museums around University Circle, including the Cleveland History Center, the Botanical Gardens, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) and Severance Hall.

Among the most involved of the various University Circle museums was MOCA, which hosted three separate programs on the holiday.

The first event was a 90 minute long teach-in with Hasan Kwame Jeffries, Ph.D., a professor of The Ohio State University and scholar of the Civil Rights Movement. The second, an interactive artistic activity, was hosted by Favianna Rodriguez, an artist and political activist based out of California. MOCA concluded the day with a “Freedoms Town Hall” with an emphasis on the freedom of expression and a group of diverse panelists including artists, professors, members of the Alliance of Safety and Justice and other emerging leaders.

Several of the other museums, including the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and the Botanical Gardens, offered free admission for the holiday, as well as special programming targeted at families.

Other off-campus organizations like the Cleveland Public Library offered civil rights- oriented activities aimed at preserving the memory of King.

Professor researches ethical growth, use of human brain organoids Nathan Lesch Staff Reporter

Beginning in 2018 with a funding proposal to the National Institute of Health’s (NIH) Brain Initiative, The Brainstorm Project investigates the ethical questions that arise from growing human brain organoids in labs. The project is in its first of two years of funding and is structured as a series of workshops. Sixteen-year Case Western Reserve University professor of bioethics Insoo Hyun is the project’s primary investigator (PI) with three other labs also participating in the project.

Hyun’s project calls scientists and ethicists together from CWRU, Harvard and Stanford to “identify where future research needs to be [in brain organoid research and ethics].” According to Hyun, “We are not trying to come up with solutions.” Instead, Hyun’s research intends to discover ethical issues related to the growth and potential applications of complex human brain organoids.

Investigating ethical issues in the frontiers of science is a theme of Hyun’s research. Hyun is also currently the co-PI in another NIH grant project that explores the ethical issues involved in using human stem cells in animals: using human stem cells in animals creates humananimal chimeras that can achieve a level of humanization in which moral dilemmas may arise. Additionally, Hyun is working on a project funded by the Greenwall Foundation, a private entity committed to funding bioethics research to create a “bioengineering ethics framework” for engineered devices.

According to Hyun, “As science employs new and more radical technologies regarding human development and health, the NIH has recognized there needs to be collaboration between bioethicists and scientists.”

Bioethics is no longer a reaction to new science, but instead occurs concurrently with new science, which Hyun believes serves both disciplines better. Hyun regards this a take-home point of his research’s importance.

Dr. John “Chip” Tilton, an associate professor and director of Immunobiology in the Center for Proteomics and Bioinformatics at the CWRU School of Medicine will be receiving $300,000 from the Dr. Ralph and Marian Falk Medical Research Trust. This funding will be used to develop a virus-based “Nano POD” (nanoscale protein delivery) platform to help treat rare genetic diseases. The seed funding, part of the Falk Catalyst Awards Program, will support one year of research into effectively packaging therapies into nanoPODS, and delivering them to specific tissues in mice affected by genetic disease.

Tilton’s project is of dire significance because it will address one of the major challenges that nanoscale therapeutics tend to face: delivering drugs to the right parts of the body.

Viruses, with their expertise in penetrating cells, also represent vehicles that can be co-opted by researchers to deliver therapeutics. nanoPODS’ main mission is to treat diseases caused by genetic mutations. Specifically those that introduce a “termination codon” that would prematurely stop protein synthesis.

This form of mutation represents approximately ten percent of all genetic diseases. Some of the diseases these mutations are responsible for are cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy and metabolic disease.

“The project is a really exciting bioengineering challenge to develop a system for delivering these drugs to the tissues where we want them in patients, while avoiding side-effects from delivering to the ‘wrong’ tissues,” Tilton said. ”While promising, these treatments cannot be used in patients yet due to a lack of a technological platform to efficiently deliver the suppressor tRNAs or genome editing machinery to the diseased organs inside of patients,” Tilton said. Tilton plans to package the therapies into nanoPODs, infuse them into mice and measure the nanoPODs’ ability to safely deliver their contents to affected tissues.

If successful, nanoPODS could be used to package a variety of emerging therapeutics. “RNA and protein therapeutics are still in their infancy, but have shown tremendous success over the past decade in providing treatments for cancer and autoimmune diseases,” Tilton said. “I think over the coming decades these drugs will take an increasingly important role in the treatment of many diseases.”

Medical marijuana available in Cleveland

Jack Heneghan Staff Reporter

Medical marijuana is now legal in Ohio, and two companies are setting up shop in Cleveland. Green Thumb Industries Ohio, located at 1222-1224 Prospect Avenue East and The Botanist, located at 3865 Lakeside Avenue East, are both national chains.

While this is a big step for Ohio, there are still many restrictions on what can be sold. The most popular method of use for marijuana is smoking, but that is still illegal in Ohio. However, the law also states that the sale of “Plant material for administration with the use of vaporizing devices” is legal. This means that dispensaries can sell flowers and other plant material under the assumption that the patient will not smoke it, but they are not responsible for verifying this. Dispensaries can sell various oils, capsules or lotions as well as a variety of other forms of the drug.

There are 21 approved conditions that qualify one to obtain an Ohio Medical Marijuana Card. These conditions include Alzheimer’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and cancer. However these are just a few of the many medical conditions that make it possible to receive an Ohio Medical Marijuana Card.

Ohio is the sixth state in America to decriminalize cannabis and the 25th state to legalize medical marijuana. Every provisional license to operate a dispensary is tied to a physical location and as of press time there are 60 planned locations. Five of those locations are in Cuyahoga County.

Overall, Case Western Reserve University students are happy with the progress in healthcare that is happening in the city of Cleveland.

Pavan Mody, a first-year student, said he was fine with the dispensary and said that medical marijuana is “definitely safer than some of the prescription medication that is currently legal.”

Visit our website to find exclusive online content, see the puzzle solutions, meet our staff or contact us with questions observer.case.edu

arts & entertainment Editor’s Choice

Don’t hug me, I’m Trump Horror-comedy show tackles current political climate with new season

Screenshot from the trailer, “Wakey Wakey”

Ryan Yoo

Staff Reporter Your favorite surreal horror comedy series is back for a second season.

On Sep. 13, Blink Industries released a 30-second trailer for the new season of “Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared,” titled “Wakey Wakey.”

The psychedelic horror-comedy series first gained popularity in 2011 through its sheer shock value, gaining more than 180 million views over its six episodes.

The series first presents itself as a

children’s show through its use of Muppets-style felt puppets and “educational” value, in which the characters are being taught the importance of being creative, dreams and time. However, the show quickly turns disturbing with graphic imagery.

What keeps people coming back to watch the series, even after being aware of shock value, is the underlying message that for-profit interests—such as advertisements—have corrupted children’s shows.

The web series follows three characters, Yellow Guy, Red Guy and the Duck,

on a children’s show produced by Red Guy. Through the episodes, the series is sabotaged by Roy, the show’s financier and Yellow Guy’s father. Roy undermines the creativity and the direction of the show by using it to sell his own products.

This new season, however, seems to move away from this theme, but still sticks to its popular children’s showturned psychedelic horror formula that has led to its popularity.

Unlike the previous episodes, which were distributed through YouTube, the new season is pitched as a TV series. The new series will be produced by Blink

Industries, who produced the original shorts, and Conanco, Conan O’Brien’s production company. Through Conanco, the creators aim to bring the show to a U.S. audience. The creators, Becky Sloan and Joseph Pelling, have created a speculative pilot and are currently pitching it to various streaming or cable networks.

Many fans have argued that the new season is about the modern political climate in America, especially about the presidency of President Donald Trump.

In the new season, the Mayor of Clayhill has disappeared, leading to a power vacuum in the town. The Duck, who represents Trump, has taken power in Clayhill and established a surveillance state. The Duck then blames the death of the mayor on the Red Guy and locks him out of the city.

This new season seems to take on new content material and themes. Despite a similar format to the first season, the new series cannot rely too heavily on the previous sudden shift that it used in the previous season, especially considering that it has moved to a broadcast format.

Instead, the new season must be nuanced and tackle the themes in a tasteful, yet detailed way. However, this is exactly what the first season did well. The joy of watching the series is that there is always something more to be discovered upon rewatching the videos.

The series will be featured at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, from Jan. 24 through Feb. 3, but a TV broadcast date has not been set.

The subversive, effective conclusion to the Glass trilogy Lars Torres

Staff Reporter Nineteen years ago, M. Night Shyamalan directed a radical film known as “Unbreakable,” a film that looked to be a conventional mystery and psychological thriller but was in fact a slow-burning and grounded take on the superhero genre.

The film revolves around a security guard, David Dunn (Bruce Willis).

Dunn, the sole survivor of a massive train derailment, initially believes it to be luck but is convinced by the enigmatic Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson) and his hopeful son, Joseph (Spencer Treat Clark), that he was in fact imbued with superhuman abilities and that it was his duty to help people as a hero.

A decade and a half later, Shyamalan directed 2016’s “Split,” which is seemingly unrelated to “Unbreakable” and follows Kevin Wendell Crumb (James McAvoy), a man suffering from dissociative identity dis-

order with 23 distinct identities. His more sinister personalities kidnap Casey Cooke (Anya Taylor-Joy) and some other girls to sacrifice to the superhuman 24th personality, The Beast.

Cooke eventually bests Crumb and the “Horde,” a supervillain who gains the attention of Dunn, after he reports Price, a criminal mastermind who commits major crimes to find superhuman individuals like Dunn and goes by the name “Mr. Glass,” due to a severe brittle bone disease, to the police.

Now, Shyamalan aims to finish this evolving trilogy with a third film that, much like his previous films, subverts expectations by providing an overly ambitious, sometimes messy but riveting deconstruction of the superhero film.

On a technical level, “Glass” showcases Shyamalan’s abilities to work hand in hand with his tech workers to showcase impressive cinematography, vivid production design and effective camera work

during the more tense and dramatic sequences.

However, a major issue is that the visceral nature of the action scenes involving Dunn/The Overseer and Crumb/The Horde/The Beast is diminished by shoddy camera work, though there is a spark here and there during the raw brutality of these aspects.

Story-wise, Shyamalan displays a great deal of ambition and analysis, perhaps a bit too much on the screenplay level as he descends into too much explanation and overwrought reveals on how certain things work compared to comics, but these elements don’t overwhelm the film for too long.

The acting performances in the film are an amazing display, from the ulterior kindness of a psychologist, Dr. Karen Fletcher (Betty Buckley) who attempts to persuade the main characters that superhuman beliefs are merely fiction, to James McAvoy’s consistently scene-stealing performances with his various personal-

ities, and the Machiavellian nature and villainous intents of Jackson’s performance as Mr. Glass.

However, Willis, Taylor-Joy and Treat Clark are not to be outdone as they bring in a wave of realistic, grounded emotions and coolheadedness to offset the more vibrant villains. The score from West Dylan Thordson is also minimalist yet effective, combining the best elements of the “Unbreakable” and “Split” scores to produce a sometimes grandiose, sometimes subdued effect.

However, the film’s pace lags in the middle as plot elements become summary and effective flashbacks take over before the highly subversive climax, which will either make or break the zeal in the more energetic first half.

For me, it worked towards an adequate climax that just needed a better finish. However, the set-up definitely led to a desire for more entries in Shyamalan’s wondrous superhero cinematic universe.

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Playlist of the Week

“So Social” tour brings Smallpools back to Cleveland

Kyle Smith

Staff Reporter

Winter has arrived with a vengeance. With the temperature plummeting and the snow piling up in a matter of days, your music taste might have a hard time adjusting to the weather. This week’s playlist contains plenty of music for a cold, snowy winter.

“If Winter Ends” - Bright Eyes

“If Winter Ends” is suitably bleak in both content and style. Lyricist and frontman Conor Oberst describes a bitter winter that stretches on without end as a way of discussing a hopeless, depressing period of his life. The soundtrack to the story is a grainy, lonesome guitar with echoey vocals that belong in an empty, snowy cabin.

“Snowglobe” - OWEL

During the next winter storm, listen to OWEL’s “Snowglobe.” Don’t listen to the lyrics. Instead, listen to the complex counter-rhythms of the melody, where bright, buoyant keyboard notes float around each other like snowflakes, driven by gusts of violin and guitar. With the ambient electronics of “Snowglobe,” OWEL will turn any storm into a winter wonderland.

Latest Smallpools EP Cover

Henry Bendon Staff Reporter

“Hours Outside in the Snow” - Modern Baseball

Modern Baseball is a band noteworthy for their flawless ability to capture the awkwardness of growing up as a young man.

In “Hours Outside in the Snow,” the band describes a hopeless kid gamely standing in the cold to prove a point to his girlfriend, “happily ignoring” that his blue jeans didn’t do a thing against the cold.

“Winter” - Joshua Radin

In “Winter,” Joshua Radin sings a floating, ambient song about the nagging heartbreak of loss. Radin’s breathy voice floats through the accompanying guitar like a gusting winter breeze, changing drastically in strength and volume from line to line. The song, which was featured in an episode of the sitcom “Scrubs,” describes the feeling of losing someone familiar: “your voice is the splinter inside me.”

“Winter Song” - The Head and the Heart

Alternating verses from the band’s three singers—Josiah Johnson, Jon Russell and Charity Thielen—lend intimacy and authenticity to a song that likens the last days of a fading romance to the changing of seasons. Nostalgic guitars blend with multipart vocal harmonies to evoke a gentle regret. “Loving, leaving, it’s too late for this now. Such esteem for each has gone,” croons Thielen, remarking that in growing up, the couple are leaving behind romantic idealisations of both love and loss.

Find all these tracks online with our weekly Spotify playlist at observer.case.edu All photos courtesy pluspremiers.us, genius.com, directlyrics.com, and wikipedia.com

Remember fall? So many great things happened: you could go outside without freezing your eyebrows off, the Patriots weren’t going back to the Super Bowl and University Program Board (UPB) brought in Smallpools as one of their fall concert artists. While there have been unfortunate developments on two of those fronts, Smallpools has done their part to keep the good times rolling by releasing a five song EP entitled “So Social” in December and announcing a tour, including a stop in Cleveland, in support of their new material.

The album itself is standard Smallpools fare. Fans of the band will be happy to hear their guitar driven pop-rock combo return in full force, with catchy riffs and synths permeating the entire album. The two songs marketed as singles, “Social” and “Stumblin’ Home,” are the strongest on the album, encapsulating the joyous energy and almost goofy lyrics typical of previous hits. The three songs that round out the EP, “Downtown Fool Around,” “People Watching” and “Beggar,” are fun too, but don’t stand out that much—you might not intentionally play one of them, but once on, there’s no reason to turn them off.

Smallpools’ biggest weakness comes in their consistency—the entire album sounds like the band fans know and love, but there’s no real sign of musical develop-

ment or experimentation. The new songs are fun and the EP is solid, but none of the songs match the heights of previous hits like “Dreaming” or “Million Bucks.” All in all, “So Social” is an enjoyable listening experience, and if you’re looking for the indie pop sound Smallpools is known for, you can’t really go wrong with trying out the new material.

Their tour dates sadly do not include a dedicated Cleveland show. Instead, they’ll be stopping at Brite Winter, an indoor/ outdoor music festival held on Feb. 23 at the West Bank of the Flats. The festival, which sells VIP tickets for between $50 and $200, is free—with donations appreciated—so if you felt like you missed an opportunity to see them for cheap in the fall you’ve got a chance to redeem yourself.

You can also discover some new bands while you’re there, like the Cleveland area Mourning [A] BLKstar, a self-described “multi-generational, gender and genre non-conforming amalgam of Black Culture dedicated to servicing the stories and songs of the apocalyptic diaspora,” or Front Porch Lights, another local Cleveland band whose five-piece lineup has produced a sound one critic called “the kind of mid-tempo Americana that we’ve been sorely missing.” Just make sure you’re at the mainstage when Smallpools make their appearance.

“So Social” is available now on the band’s website and on streaming services like Spotify and Google Play Music.

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Oscars Predictions from the editorial staff

Matt Hooke

Staff Reporter

Best Picture A Star is Born Bohemian Rhapsody BlacKkKlansman Vice Roma

20% 20% 20% 10% 10%

The Favourite

10%

Green Book

10%

Best Supporting Actress Emma Stone, The Favourite 70% Amy Adams, Vice

20%

Regina King, If Beale Street Could Talk

10%

Best Supporting Actor Adam Driver, BlackKKlansman Mahershala Ali, Green Book

70% 20%

Sam Elliott, A Star Is Born

10%

Best Animated Feature Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Incredibles 2

60% 30%

Ralph Breaks the Internet

10%

Best Featured Actor Rami Malek, Bohemian Rhapsody

Christian Bale, Vice Bradley Cooper, “A Star Is Born Willem Dafoe, “At Eternity’s Gate” Viggo Mortensen, “Green Book

30% 30% 20% 10% 10%

Best Featured Actress Lady Gaga, A Star Is Born Glenn Close, The Wife

James Blake pens a love letter in “Assume Form”

70% 20%

Olivia Colman, The Favourite

10%

Melissa McCarthy, Can You Ever Forgive Me?

10%

James Blake is an artist who has always fluctuated between two modes.

One part of him is piano balladeer who covers Joni Mitchell; the other is an electronic producer whose songs blend dubstep-inspired bass drops with atmospheric synths.

“Assume Form,” marks a change for Blake. The album is a love letter inspired by his relationship with actress Jameela Jamil. Blake’s new muse has inspired a happier, more optimistic tone compared to the melancholic tracks that have defined his past.

This change is welcomed as Blake expands on his trademark sound. The album features more collaborations than any of his previous projects. This new focus on collaboration is representative of how Blake has become a called upon featured artist, lending emotional spacey outros to songs on two of the most prominent hip-hop albums of 2018, Kendrick Lamar’s “Black Panther: The Album” and Travis Scott’s “Astroworld.”

“Tell Them” is one of the best songs of the album mainly because of how guest artists take the spotlight instead of Blake.

Blake wisely has the song function as a vehicle for singer Moses Sumney and producer Metro Boomin. Sumney’s vocals, a high pitched yearning falsetto, perfectly complement Blake’s fragile as glass voice.

With a different producer, the delicate vocals of these two singers could lack energy and edge, but Boomin’s production gives the track an eerie atmosphere

that still has enough percussive force to make it a solid fixture at off-beat parties for the rest of the year.

The album still has moments of melancholia as Blake exhibits paranoia about the validity of his relationship with Jamil.

“Are You In Love?” sees Blake question his partner’s feelings. Blake’s doubt in his partner is an expression of his selfdoubt. Blake recalls past relationships that have failed and sings “It’s all on thin ice, thin ice, thin ice.” This doubt comes partially because, at this stage of the relationship, Blake is unsure of what love looks like. He asks his partner to do their “best impression” of love for him, begging the question—would Blake be able to tell an impression of love from the real of thing?

“Where’s the Catch” is another expression of self-doubt from Blake. Unlike piano-driven “Are You In Love,” “Where’s the Catch,” hides the pain with a driving beat and fractured vocal robotic vocal samples. The track features the legendary Andre 3000 in a guest verse.

Andre 3000 prefaces his performance by warning the audience that his lines “maybe a little bit heady,” the warning is thankfully unnecessary since the artist immediately takes over the song. He reveals his inner demons and how pessimism looms over him. He worries that the gold he worked for will be turned to silver, then aluminum and so on, until it returns to the soil that it came from, making all his work meaningless.

Andre 3000 and Blake’s work on this album is far from meaningless. Blake makes good on his promise to “Assume Form” with one his best works in years.

Kendrick Lamar deserves an Oscar Christopher Heermann Social Media Editor

At the upcoming Academy Awards, Kendrick Lamar is up for a chance to add the Oscar for “Best Original Song” to his collection of awards for “All the Stars” featuring SZA. Lamar has won hundreds of awards for his music, and rightly so. In his trophy case, Lamar holds such prizes as “Best Rap Album” (x2), “Best Rap Song” (x3) and “Best Music Video” (x2) from the Grammy Awards. He garnered 19 various awards from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers and has won an incredible 26 Black Entertainment Television (BET)/BET Hip-Hop awards.

Some argue, however, that he deserves more. These people claim that he was snubbed when he failed to win the coveted “Album of the Year” Grammy in 2013 for his first studio album, “Section 80,” again in 2016 for his groundbreaking album “To Pimp a Butterfly” and most recently in 2018 for politically charged “Damn.”

People were indignant when Bruno Mars’ album “24k Magic” beat out “Damn” but were unsurprised. The last time a rap album won “Album of the Year” was in 2004 with Outkast’s “Speakerboxxx/The Love Below.”

Since then, even rap greats like Kanye West and Jay-Z have failed to win “Album of the Year.” They in turn have boycotted the ceremony along with other notable artists such as Frank Ocean and Drake.

Drake even decided to stop submitting his projects to the Grammy’s completely.

The 2018 winner, Bruno Mars, addressed the other nominees in his accep-

tance speech, saying, “you guys are the reason why I’m in the studio pulling my hair out, because I know you guys are going to come with the top-shelf artistry and music.”

What makes the “Damn” loss more poignant is the reception it garnered in other respected award ceremonies. Lamar won the Pulitzer Prize for Music for the same album that lost to “24k Magic.” In the Pulitzer Facebook live video after the ceremony, Lamar said, “It’s an honor. I’ve been writing my whole life, so to get this type of recognition—it’s beautiful.”

The album was the first non-classical or jazz work to ever win the Pulitzer Prize, so why couldn’t it win the Grammy?

Most recently, Lamar led the soundtrack to Marvel’s “Black Panther.”

Although he was nominated on Jan. 22 for “Best Original Song,” people are doubtful Lamar will win because of racial bias within the Academy. The racial bias of the Oscars has been in the spotlight in recent years, with several notable directors and actors boycotting the awards show due to the lack of representation in the nominations and winners. Skeptics predict that the winner for “Best Original Song” will be “Shallow” from “A Star is Born” starring Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper.

I agree with what Jay-Z said before the 2018 Grammys. “It’s going to be what it is. Bob Marley is going to be Bob Marley, whether he’s nominated for a Grammy or not. Tupac is going to be Tupac, Biggie is going to be Biggie.”

I have hope that Kendrick will prevail and get one step closer to an EGOT (winning an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony). But even if he doesn’t, he still has more Pulitzers than Lady Gaga.

fun

observer.case.edu

fun page | 7

Horoscopes

Ken Ken The aim of the puzzle is to fill the whole grid with numbers. The only numbers you are allowed to use are 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. No number may repeat in a column or a row. Each “cage” (or a shaded box) contains a target number and the arithmetic method needed to be used to obtain the target number.

Which Mitchell’s flavor are you?

Aries Caramel Fudge Brownie Pisces Black Raspberry Chocolate Chunk Aquarius Dark Roast Coffee Taurus Peppermint Stick

Sudoku Normal

Gemini Cookie Dough Cancer Banana Cream Pie Leo Caramel Sea Salt Easy

Difficult

Virgo Vegan Chocolate Libra Swiss White Chocolate Scorpio Blue Cosmo Capricorn Fresh Mint Chocolate Chunk

Riddle of the Week What movies do these two sets of emojis represent?

Sagittarius Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup

8

opinion

1/25/19

opinion Editorial

CMA makes major expansion to Open Access media For a small student paper like The Observer, there are some hurdles we encounter that larger, professionalized publications do not. Often times, getting the perfect photo to complement an article is one of those challenges.

While we’ve built up a nice stock library for articles related to Case Western Reserve University’s campus, it gets more difficult outside this bubble. When there are events or incidents we cannot send a reporter or photographer to, we are typically confined to the limitations of Creative Commons. Contributions to this library of open-use media, then, are especially important when it comes to our ability to constructing the best publication that we can.

The Cleveland Museum of Art’s (CMA) decision to publish 30,000 high quality, Creative Commons images of its collection is a highly equitable and generous use of its

resources. For years now, the museum has published its entire collection in an online catalog, but until recently, these pieces were reserved for online viewing only. Now, a multitude of high-profile pieces of art are available for use in a number of media—ours included.

This may not seem like a significant addition, but it is certainly a push against the copyright issues that can bog down other publications and media outlets. “Copyright trolling” has become a legal epidemic, with copyright owners repeatedly filing cases over the last decade against any potential infringers they can find.

On some platforms, this has jeopardized the careers of content creators and producers. A number of major YouTubers, for example, have seen their channels hit repeatedly with copyright claims that cause their work to be taken down. Often times, these supposed infringements are in fact not violations of Fair Use rules but will be removed regardless.

In many of the cases where these producers are taken to court, they struggle to pay for their defense.

Seeing a large institution employ its resources so that they can be used by a number of organizations is refreshing and also an important precedent to set for the age of New Media. As the CEO of Creative Commons remarked at an announcement at CMA: “I hope this model of working closely together with visionary organizations will be one that we can replicate with other museums, and that this will become the new standard by which institutions share and engage with the public online.”

In taking this step to advance the Open Access movement, CMA is reaffirming the reality of the online, connected nature of modern media.

Information is readily available to anyone with an internet connection, and the ownership of certain sectors of information becomes muddled when it becomes restrictive. The

wealth of resources possessed by CMA is no longer confined to the interior of the museum, and can now be made useful outside of inperson viewership.

It poses immense benefit to educational settings, as the revocation of copyright makes the navigation of what can and cannot be used for teaching that much less difficult. Schools and school districts have been subjected to copyright suits in some cases, showing how relentless copyright trolls can be if they have even the slimmest excuse to act.

Any efforts to expand and strengthen the principle of fair use are welcome in this New Media age, and CMA is on the right track by making such an enormous contribution. It may seem niche or irrelevant, but Open Access is imperative to smaller journalistic organizations that are still building up their resources.

Safe injection sites, syringe exchange programs should be more prominent In Case it Matters

Jordan Reif Life expectancy has historically been used as an indicator of a population’s health and development. While the United States has consistently rested in the top quarter of all countries in this regard, our life expectancy has decreased in two of the last three years. The decline from 78.7 years in 2017 to 78.6 years in 2018 may appear inconsequential, but put in context with our country’s drug abuse problem, it represents 70,000 more Americans who died from drug overdoses compared to the previous year. With such alarming statistics, each backed with a human life and no sign of significant improvement, we need to bolster effective programs already in place and look elsewhere for additional ways to help the victims of this crisis.

In 1996, Purdue Pharma, a privatelyowned large pharmaceutical company, released OxyContin, a form of the painkiller oxycodone. The company’s administration assured patients and physicians that this was a safer alternative than other opioids to treat long-term pain and carried a low risk for addiction.

The drug flooded the market, and with incessant advertisements, the number of painkiller prescriptions increased by eight million that year. Widespread use of

such potent medications—including other opioids such as Percocet, codeine and Vicodin—led to misuse and addiction, catalyzing the opioid crisis.

In 2007, Purdue was charged with “misbranding” and minimizing the possibility of addiction with OxyContin.

Yet 12 years later, over 130 people die every day from overdosing on an opioid.

In Ohio, opioid overdose deaths have increased over 1,000 percent in the past 19 years; an increase felt in our city of Cleveland. Last fall, the MetroHealth System filed a lawsuit against Purdue Pharma in efforts to hold them accountable for the deaths of 727 lives in Cuyahoga County in 2017 and destruction they have helped cause. This is a start but not enough.

Circle Health Services, a free medical clinic just north of Case Western Reserve University’s campus, is one of the only places in Ohio to offer a syringe exchange program. In an effort to reduce HIV and Hepatitis C infections, drug users are given a clean needle for every used needle they exchange. Between 50,000 and 60,000 needles are safely exchanged each month. Not only have syringe exchange programs been scientifically proven to be safe and effective in reducing HIV contraction, they are also cost-effective. A New York Times analysis found that one dollar invested in such programs saves six dollars on costs associated with HIV. Greater access to such services across

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the city and state would save lives. Yet skepticism, fear and resistance run deep, causing these programs to be few and far between.

Even more contentious are safe injection sites (SIS): medically supervised facilities in which people living with substance abuse disorders can go to safely inject illicit drugs. Public officials from many cities, Cleveland included, are wary of the Federal Drug penalties that may accrue if SISs are opened, as they are currently illegal in the U.S. Only two cities in America—Philadelphia and Seattle— allow such facilities. Upon reporting the potential for the city’s SIS to save 75 lives a year, Eva Gladstein, deputy managing director of Philadelphia’s Health and Human Services, commented, “If any of those 75 people are a member of your family, you would, I think, agree that that’s something that’s desirable.”

The several people in Cuyahoga County who die every day from opioid overdoses are always someone—a mother, a brother, a friend or an uncle.

They deserve to live, and SISs are a way to help ensure that.

In order to open the first SIS in North America, the city of Vancouver, British Columbia had to win a battle with the courts, and it is now in its 15th year of operation. The Canadian Supreme Court ruled that saving lives outweighed the laws prohibiting the use of illegal drugs.

Since opening, the Canadian facility has

supervised over 3.5 million injections and reacted to 6,000 overdoses. Even more beneficial, no one has ever died at the SIS facility. If legalized in the U.S., an SIS is likely to see just as impressive results as Vancouver, British Columbia. Access to such a facility in Cleveland would mean a decrease in HIV infections and ambulance calls and a dramatic increase in lives saved.

Beth Zietlow-DeJesus, the director of external affairs, alcohol, drug addiction and mental health services board of Cuyahoga County, emphasized that “there are no substance use free communities in the U.S.” and that “substance use disorder does not discriminate based on age, race, socio-economic status or any other reason.” It is our responsibility as a community to take care of our brothers and sisters suffering from substance abuse disorders in and around our neighborhood.

With interest and support from the CWRU community and the greater Cleveland area, we could move Cleveland to be one of the 13 cities that strives to keep people safe as they work to overcome their disease.

Jordan Reif is a first-year student studying political science on the pre-med track. She likes to spend her time reading, saving the bees or innovating new ideas for her startup “Ned talks”—a discussion forum for those who are just not quite good enough to make it to TED.

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opinion 9

observer.case.edu

Shutdown woe Publicized Confab

Josiah Smith There’s something seriously awry when around 800,000 people aren’t able to go to work despite their eagerness to do so. It is impossible to frame this occurrence as ethical or even a means to an end.

Before delving into why our government has been shut down, we should recognize and agree that a government, let alone that of the most powerful nation on earth, should not have provisions where it will not operate the way that ours has over the past few weeks.

By function alone, the problem is silly to ponder. It would be like constructing a personal budget that you can use only if you and your complete opposite agree.

Why does this continue to exist?

I’m sure there are several answers to how this immorality has persisted, but none of them are sufficient to explain why your family or others may not eat. If there’s ever been a reason to do better, this is it. It is equally simple and crucial that we avoid continuing down the same path.

Regardless of political party and where they’ve stood in the past or where they stand now, the data seems to suggest that border apprehensions in 2018 have increased, especially those traveling with family members. However, if you look at trends that show apprehensions along the southern border over a 20year timeline, there has been drastic decline. In the year 2000, there were more than 200,000 apprehensions of illegal aliens crossing the southern border. Today, there are far less at around 40,300 apprehensions.

It is worth mentioning that this is a drastic increase from just a couple of months ago when the number was lower than 10,000 apprehensions.

But, it is also important to note that these numbers are forever fluctuating and even in their current state they are the lowest numbers of their kind that we’ve ever seen.

In knowing these numbers, it is hard to rationalize any significant change to our already existing infrastructure. Because with data this promising, U.S. Customs and Border Protection is clearly doing an exceptional job with securing the safety of this nation.

Even at the height of illegal apprehensions, 200,000 illegal aliens seems quite a pitiful threat to the nearly 300 million people who call the continental United States home. There would be a reason for frantic worry if a population the size of China threatened to move to the United States. At that point, I’d rally for a wall. “Build it as high as you can,” I’d scream. That many people would instigate a significant imbalance in our economy and livelihood.

So, I offer yet another query: why the general panic when things seem to be going well? What are the grounds for a brand new fortification of our border? And why does it hinge upon law-abiding Americans, our own citizenry, being able to go to work?

On that note, however, it should be said that building a wall is not immoral. Every day we live within and depend upon walls to secure our safety.

Turning it off and on again doesn’t work

The Left-Wing Conservative In this case, I believe building a David Pietrow

wall that stretches the distance of our southern border would be flagrantly unnecessary, but immoral is an extreme I’m not willing to concede.

We are a nation that is supposed to protect its own above all else.

If there is legitimacy to a threat at our southern border—not a measly caravan of around 100,000 asylum seekers—then we should and must build a wall. But, the “crisis” as we are currently portraying it is pitiful.

The government shutdown, of course, has immediate effects, but the long term consequences are far more frightening. The most significant issue is that the trust in the American dollar, which affects its value, will struggle to recover. With the government being partially shut down, which includes two agencies that deal with the movement of money, the U.S. Departments of Treasury and Commerce, the trust in the U.S. economy declines and its strength over outside economies weakens.

There are many layers as to why this is problematic, the most critical being that it weakens our economic impact on a global market that is dependent on the strength and stability of the U.S. dollar.

The longer this lasts, the more the United States relinquishes its highly coveted strength and stability, which affects not only the local economy but the global one as well.

Every day this shutdown continues to linger, for what is an insignificant “crisis,” Americans suffer. From what I can tell, we need more protection from our own than from those who are trying to come in.

Josiah Smith is a fourth-year English and business management double major.

If you have been following the news, you know that our government has been shut down yet again.

It almost happens like clockwork now, and each president has had their own reason for initiating a shutdown. Former president Barack Obama shutdown the government for 16 days to negotiate legislation on healthcare. Before that shutdown in 2013, former president Bill Clinton had a shutdown in 1995 to negotiate a budget for the fiscal year. That lasted a total of 26 days.

Fast forward to today, and President Donald Trump has shut down the government to get funding for his proposed border wall. The shutdown started on Dec. 22 and has lasted over 31 days. Already holding the record for longest shutdown, I think it is time that Trump’s shutdown was given an evaluation.

So why is the government not working?

Well, to put it simply, Trump wants his wall. No, seriously. He really wants this wall. In fact, he claims that Americans need the wall “for the safety and security of our country. We need the Wall to help stop the massive inflow of drugs from Mexico, now rated the number one most dangerous country in the world. If there is no Wall, there is no Deal.”

He actually has more reasons for wanting the wall, but if I highlighted and broke down all his documented reasons for it, this article would turn into a research paper. Instead, I will just examine his claims in that tweet.

Trump is correct that Mexico sources most of our drugs, but his conclusion about a wall helping is far from accurate.

According to the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), a nongovernmental organization that advocates for human rights in Latin America, 90 to 94 percent of heroin consumed in the United States today comes from Mexico.

That is an unfathomable amount. If you have a problem with drugs, then it is more than likely you should have a problem with Mexico.

Courtesy of Wikimedia Union members rally in McAllen, Texas, on Jan. 11

How is this happening, and how can we stop it? That is where Trump’s approach is flawed. How drug lords smuggle substances into this country is a complex system of coordinated attacks. It is difficult to pinpoint, but what we do know is that they tend to move smaller amounts across a wide variety of checkpoints, then have a rendezvous point somewhere north of the border. With this in mind, a wall would not help the situation.

WOLA agrees with me. On their website, they state that saying that a wall will deter smugglers “reveals a misunderstanding of how cross-border smuggling works.” Basically, Trump’s proposal for a wall to help the situation is not rooted in factual evidence. So how does Mexico factor into all of this, especially when Trump claims it is “rated the number one most dangerous country in the world”?

Although the criteria for such a metric aren’t entirely clear, Mexico does not appear to be the most dangerous country in the world according to any website.

According to Atlas and Boots, Mexico is ranked the 24th most dangerous country in the world. In fairness, 24 out of 163 countries is not exactly a good rating.

But that is a far cry from number one. No credible websites I searched had them at number one, with only one website placing them in the top 10.

So what grade could we give Trump’s shutdown? Considering the lack of factual evidence to back his reasons for having a wall, I believe this shutdown deserves a D. For starters, the wall will cost much more than he is estimating. One can not just stick a piece of concrete in the ground.

The government needs to hire experts to survey the land. Since the border between the United States and Mexico is quite long, that will likely be at a substantial cost. Factoring in transportation costs to get the materials to construct the wall, as well as paying supervisors and workers, I can reasonably estimate it will likely cost more than the $8 billion he quoted.

But that is not my main issue with this wall proposal. The primary factor in my grade for Trump’s shutdown was that he initiated it over a wall. Obama shut the government down to discuss healthcare, and it took half as much time. Trump just wants his wall.

It is downright silly, because shutting down the government is more than just a political move that forces Congress to compromise. It poses substantial security risks to this country. Don’t believe me?

If you traveled over winter break, then you more than likely passed through an airport. Did you notice how relaxed the security was? That is most likely due to the fact that Travel Security Agency workers were forced to work without pay and, as a result, ten percent stayed home.

It doesn’t even end there. The government shutdown poses substantial risks to cybersecurity. If federal employees aren’t going to work, then that would include cybersecurity workers.

In fact, NPR reports that “cybersecurity professionals say government websites are more vulnerable to security breaches during the shutdown.”

I understand putting this country at risk for an important protocol or measure that needs to be addressed. I am not denying that border security and illegal immigration are a problem. In fact, bringing awareness to these two issues is exactly why I did not give Trump a F. But to shut down the government, and therefore put this country at substantial risk, over a wall? That is a step too far.

David Pietrow is a second-year student pursuing a Bachelor of Science in computer science with a minor in applied data science. He was once hit by a bus, so if his reporting of the facts are a little off, please be forgiving.

10 opinion

1/25/19

Why we still cannot wait I Spit My Truth and It’s Brown

Viral Mistry Last weekend we celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and even though I was unable to attend the convocation that bears his name, I tried to take some time to reflect on King’s legacy and how we collectively discuss the work that remains.

In 1964, a year after the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, King published the book “Why We Can’t Wait.” I recently read it for the first time.

It remains as poignant and powerful today as it must have been when it was first released, detailing the story that led to King’s incarceration for civil disobedience, to him writing “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” to how the mass mobilization of Birmingham’s black population brought their notorious segregationist mayor Bull Connor to the negotiating table with the civil rights activists.

But the book also details the importance of how King envisioned the

protests of 1963 as the first phase of a social revolution that would sweep away injustice and inequity. He called for a Bill of Rights for the Disadvantaged that would strive to end both social and economic injustice. He made the case for reparations. He envisioned a “NegroLabor” electoral coalition between the white and black working class, which he felt would be politically unstoppable.

He even hoped that non-violence could become both a tactic and a philosophy for global nuclear disarmament.

Throughout all of this was the idea that there was no better time to wait for change; the time is now. We do not need to wait for our freedom; we need simply to assert it.

It’s been 55 years since then, and unfortunately, we are still far off from the world King imagined. The median blackwhite wealth gap has actually expanded since the 1960s. Black educational achievement has languished for decades.

Jim Crow-era segregation has given way to a subtler “New Jim Crow” in mass

incarceration. Violence from gangs and the police continues to tear communities of color apart. Black-majority cities buckle under the strain of economic austerity forced on them by white-majority states that leave social services underfunded.

Meanwhile, many of our cities have actually become more racially segregated in the decades since the Civil Rights Movement.

I doubt King would be proud of how his name has been fetishized and weaponized to cover up the hard work that is still needed to rectify old wrongs. We can rename buildings and streets after him, declare his birthday a holiday and hold a convocation every year in his honor, but none of that should ever be understood as an acceptable alternative to continuing his legacy of combating systemic injustice.

What would King make of our current system of mass incarceration or of our collection of private prisons that dot the nation? What would King make of our student debt crisis, which is increasingly making the sort of humanities education

that he received harder and harder to achieve for those among us with the fewest opportunities and resources?

What would King, a pacifist, make of the endless wars we are waging in the Middle East, the increasingly militarized police forces that patrol our streets and the heinous treatment of people at our border?

These questions should be on our minds as we reflect on what King’s birthday should mean for our values. The struggle to combat injustice has never stopped, but it certainly has taken a backseat to many in favor of superficial actions that simply resemble justice. Now, more than ever, we must rally to the cry that we cannot, and will not, wait for our freedom.

We will assert it, now.

Viral Mistry is a fourth-year biology and cognitive science double major who is minoring in chemistry, history and philosophy. He wears many figurative hats around campus, but if you ever see him, you can guarantee he’d rather be in bed reading a good book.

Thoughts regarding the China-US trade war Staff Columnist Erya Du The China-U.S. trade war came to a temporary stop in December. At the G20 summit on Dec. 1, 2018, the leaders of the two countries, Xi Jinping and Donald Trump, reached a consensus. They agreed to a 90-day negotiation period and will suspend new trade measures for the duration of the agreement.

This eight-month trade war has forced people to think about how this war began and what effects it might have on the world.

First of all, when an emerging global power intends to surpass established powers and usurp their place in the global economy, conflicts between the old and the new such as economic, diplomatic, military and other disputes are inevitable.

Secondly, China’s trade surplus with the United States over the years and the open nature of the United States’

domestic market have greatly dissatisfied the U.S. government and its citizens.

Since 2001 when China joined the World Trade Organization, it has received tangible benefits from international trade, especially with the United States.

It soon became, and remains, one of the biggest beneficiaries of free trade in the global marketplace. Foreign exchange reserves would not have such tremendous economic success today without the trade.

Though countries with large surpluses are disadvantaged in the trade war and are gradually becoming disgruntled at the present situation, surpluses are not the only significant factor. This trade war is dependent on numerous aspects, including the economic recession and damage to welfare.

When two countries are locked in a trade war, the exports of both are damaged, and the economy is affected greatly.

However, for the United States, trade protection may not bring employment back, and inflation may rise rapidly.

Even if the United States restricts imports

from China, local companies may not be motivated to produce these goods unless the government offers subsidies, a policy that is not economically viable. Therefore, trade protection does not necessarily lead to the return of U.S. manufacturing and does not help employment.

If imports of low-priced goods from China are restricted, American consumers may have to bear higher costs, and inflation may rise in a short period. This means that trade protection, in fact, has a greater effect on U.S. inflation than employment.

In the context of economic globalization, the adjustment of the industrial structure of countries requires more consideration of the factors involved in international division of labor, and how they can be used to attain the optimal allocation of economic resources. The use of anti-dumping by importing countries to protect the country’s traditional industries and eliminate competitive advantages both destroys the international division of labor and hinders the importing country’s

ability to adapt its industrial structure.

As for trade products, China’s exports to the United States are mainly low-cost, labor-intensive manufacturing products, while the U.S. exports to China are mainly technology-intensive products based on aircraft, electronic equipment and machinery. China and the United States each have a comparative advantage and optimize the allocation of resources.

A trade war between the two countries will be detrimental to both sides.

It is clear that the trade war between China and the United States cannot continue without economic catastrophe for both countries. There needs to be a resolution that is more considerate of the state of the global market. What will happen after the 90-day negotiation is still not clear, but I am hoping for a positive, more calculated result.

Erya Du is a first-year pre-law student double majoring in international studies and economics. She loves deer, pandas and architecture.

Airing concerns about the Thinkers Letter to the Editor The Provost’s Think Big strategic planning process will include Thinkers, people of our university whose answers to questions received the best evaluations by university leadership, faculty, administrative and students, and were then balanced for diversity before being selected. I’m excited to hear their ideas about the future of Case Western Reserve University. At the same time, I’ve heard some concerns about the process and have questions of my own.

One big concern was timing. Whether borrowing from models of industry disruption or not, the Thinkers process was launched quickly. It was difficult to make time for it. Schedules are often tight-knit plans balancing work with personal life.

Being a Thinker involved making room in one’s spring schedule in a little over a month. Ultimately, this is why I decided I couldn’t apply. That made me wonder: how many good thinkers were never considered because they were thoughtful about prior obligations?

But there’s an answer to this. The Thinkers can draw on the people around campus who have experience, special knowledge and know-how in a given area and let these folks who are closest to the action regarding some part of the university’s mission shape their thinking.

A good Thinker will listen to local

know-how and expertise and be able to synthesize it.

Another concern was compensation.

Being a Thinker involves regular meetings with the provost. While this will be an exciting opportunity, it will involve preparation. Thinkers are also expected to engage with the university around campus in as-yet-unspecified ways. So it seems being a Thinker is the work of a class, a time-consuming committee or a new program. Yet there was no mention of a course release being provided for faculty in a future semester, release time for staff or compensation for students.

The answer to this is to provide some form of compensation, stipend, course release, etc. going forward for Thinkers.

The question on the application process about what the Thinkers might need to do their job opened the way for this, and I hope the Provost’s office makes some such arrangement for those who serve.

Lastly, the questions of people interested in being a Thinker made me think twice.

After giving them a go, I realized that my answers felt forced. The first question was about the future of higher education by way of its challenges, possibilities and so on. The second question asked for a vision of CWRU a couple decades from now.

First, I do not think the main question we should be asking ourselves is what our industry future will be. Instead, I think we should ask, “What should we be doing as educators, learners and researchers?” To try to anticipate the future in order to adapt

to it opportunistically is to turn things around. I think we should be asking what it is to do our work right before seeing what adaptation means. What would true integrity and excellence in our education be, and why?

Also, CWRU has a tendency to underestimate its own possibility. Students often look elsewhere and wonder what it is like to be in the Ivies, ignoring how much intelligence and earnestness there is here, rather than snobbish elitism. Faculty may wonder what a better research environment might be, not knowing and engaging with colleagues who do excellent work in their building or across the yard. CWRU has a tendency to get tangled up, failing to act as a team or a college. Questions that focus us outward may actually detract from working on our integrity and community within where something organic of our own may grow.

The second question did not sit well with me for a different reason. How can I, as one person, have a vision for a university that should be governed collectively by the faculty, responsive to student needs and mindful of staff and community concerns? These are all collective, deliberative matters, not the matters for a single visionary. The most acceptable vision for our institution in two decades will be the one that emerges from collective and deliberative processes that allow what we see around us to reflect what we think, collectively is best.

What processes will allow us to create

an institution together reflecting what we do best and realizing the know-how, knowledge and integrity we already have when we do things right in our studies, programs, centers, departments and units?

Overriding local, working knowledge with grand designs undermines quality.

Those of us who work here often know best what would work in our areas of work. Rather than big visions that hover above us, I think processes that honor our local knowledge and particular expertise will do a better job of bringing out our excellence. This issue also relates to governance, which I don’t have the space to address here.

The new planning process is different than any I have seen in my time in academia or as an accreditor of other universities. We’re lucky that the process involves a spirit that is so inclusive and welcoming. Despite my concerns, I’m excited about what could come of the planning process as a collective and am going to get involved. I hope we all do and that the Thinkers are good synthesizers and listeners. May they take seriously how adaptation shouldn’t undercut standing for what education ought to mean, and may they see that our future is collective. It needs good processes that steward us patiently over time beyond the short process of next semester.

Jeremy Bendik-Keymer Beamer-Schneider Professor in Ethics & Associate Professor of Philosophy

sports

observer.case.edu

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Midseason NBA catch-up Andrew Ford Staff Reporter

LeBron left Cleveland, but Cavaliers tickets are now affordable The story of last summer was the departure of LeBron James to the Los Angeles Lakers. After four straight trips to the NBA Finals, the Cleveland Cavaliers currently hold the worst record in the league. Granted, star forward Kevin Love has missed most of the season with a foot injury, leaving the Cavaliers without a reliable offensive threat. Their leading scorer, Jordan Clarkson, actually comes off the bench, averaging 17 points per game. Rookie point guard Collin Sexton has had his bright spots this season and is shooting 39 percent from three but is only shooting two per game. However, his fewer than three assists per game leave a lot to be desired from a playmaking aspect. As a team, though, they are just plain bad. On the bright side, tickets are now much cheaper. Upper level tickets can be found for around six dollars on sites like StubHub. You can also get really nice seats in the lower section for about $40.

James Harden and Giannis Antetokounmpo are tearing up the league Giannis Antetokounmpo, affectionately known as the “Greek Freak,” is having the best season of his career. He’s averaging 26 points, 13 rebounds and six assists with a 29.2 player efficiency rating, third best in the NBA. More importantly, his Milwaukee Bucks boast the best record in the league at 34-12. Just listing his numbers though does not do him justice. He has always been an athletic specimen, but this year he’s taken a giant leap. The Greek Freak gets to the rim with uncanny ease, finishing most of the time and kicking out for a three to a teammate when he gets doubled. The Bucks’ Head Coach Mike Budenholzer

has greatly helped his star player, implementing a five-out offense that gives Antetokounmpo plenty of space to drive.

The Bucks look like a serious contender to make the Finals.

James Harden has followed up his MVP season from last year with perhaps a better performance this season. He leads the league in scoring with an absurd 35.7 points per game. His two best teammates, Chris Paul and Clint Capela, are injured; yet Harden is putting the team on his back, scoring at a rate that has rarely been seen in the history of the NBA. Harden has scored 30 or more points in 19 straight games; for context, only Wilt Chamberlain in the 1960s had a longer streak. Harden is must-watch television. He might just be the best scorer the league has ever seen.

The Eastern Conference is a mess For the last eight seasons, the Eastern Conference has been dominated by a James-led team. Now, he’s in the Western Conference, so there will finally be a new representative. Predicting what team that will be halfway through the season is proving very difficult. After last year, it appeared the Boston Celtics should be the favorite. They took the Cavaliers to Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals without their best player, Kyrie Irving, and played the entire season without Gordon Hayward, their star free agent signing of the summer of 2017. Yet, despite both of those guys returning healthy this year, the Celtics sit in fifth place in the East and six games back of first place. Irving has criticized his usage publicly, leading some to wonder if this Celtics team needs a shakeup to improve chemistry. Then there’s the Toronto Raptors who traded for Kawhi Leonard over the summer. They sit at 36-13 and look like a real contender but have always struggled in the playoffs. The Bucks, of course, are up there too. But they lack a second star next to Antetokounmpo. The Philadelphia 76ers, current-

Courtesy of Keith Allison/Flickr

James Harden leads the league in scoring with 35.7 points per game. Currently he has a 19 game streak in which he has scored 30 points or more.

ly in fourth, traded for Jimmy Butler in the middle of the season and probably have the most talent of any of the teams in the East, but their bench depth isn’t great and they have plenty of drama issues of their own. The surprise team sitting in third is the Indiana Pacers. Clearly, they have the least talent, but they play hard and are coached well. Your guess is as good as mine as to who will win the East.

The Warriors still own the Western Conference and the NBA Sure, the Warriors haven’t been truly dominant this season. Yes, their defense is average this season, sitting at 15th in the league in adjusted defensive rating. But the Warriors are favored to go to the Finals for a fifth straight year. The reason? De-

Marcus “Boogie” Cousins. Golden State was good when they just had Steph Curry, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson.

Then they added Kevin Durant, a top-five player in the league. Yet, even with their three championships they never had a post threat who could also nail a three. Cousins gives them exactly that player. He’ll open up driving lanes by forcing the opposing team’s rim protector to guard him outside the arc. If teams try to put a smaller player on him, he will punish them in the post. Furthermore, he will be the third or fourth offensive option—and he is one of the best centers in the league. Looking at the Warriors, it is insane: Curry is the best point guard, Thompson is a topthree shooting guard, Durant is a top-three small forward, Green is a top-ten power forward and now Cousins. Barring injury, the Warriors will slide through the rest of the league.

Spartans split on the road David Chang Staff Reporter

“For every high, there is a low.”

The adage rings true to the Case Western Reserve University women’s basketball team’s first University Athletic Association (UAA) road trip last weekend.

The Spartans tied the program’s secondlongest win streak with their win against Emory University, 71-57. Unfortunately, the streak was broken in a loss against University of Rochester, 72-64. The Spartan’s 12-4 record still remains strong.

Against Emory, the Spartans played excellent defense to begin the game, forcing multiple turnovers and missed outside shots, causing Emory to call a timeout with five minutes remaining in the first quarter and a 13-4 lead. The Eagles continued to struggle in the second quarter.

To compound their troubles, fourth-year CWRU forward Hillary Hellmann made a few jump shots, leaving the Spartans with a 13 point lead going into the half.

Graduate student Kara Hageman contributed four points to this lead.

Hellmann made a layup with two minutes remaining in the third extending the

lead to 17. Emory tried to comeback in the fourth, starting the quarter with a 9-2 run, cutting the lead to eight with five minutes remaining. Hellmann also picked up her fifth foul and was unable to play, but the Spartans remained composed and hit shots to maintain the lead and eventually secured the win.

At Rochester, both teams struggled at the start. The Spartans missed their first 10 shots and gave a 11-0 lead to the Yellowjackets. Hellmann scored two jump shots and a three, helping the team to catch up, ending the quarter only trailing by five points. Second-year forward Emma Cain maintained the energy to start the second, scoring back to back baskets on a jump shot and layup. With three minutes remaining in the second, Hellmann’s three tied the game at 20, but Rochester turned up the heat, going on a 11-2 run with their smooth ball movement to find the open player necessary for a jump shot.

Cain and third-year guard Kendall McConico attacked the paint to cut the lead to three to start the third. The Spartans eventually took back the lead with McConico making a pair of free throws.

A three by Hageman maintained the Spartans’ lead heading into the fourth,

Courtesy of CWRU Athletics The women’s basketball team extended their win streak to eight games with a win over Emory University. However, the team fell to the University of Rochester during the road trip. The team will again face two tough conference opponents.

50-47. Both teams continued to trade baskets, but the Yellowjackets went on a 5-0 run with less than a minute remaining in the game, bringing their lead to 72-64.

The Spartans will look to bounce back

in their upcoming games. No. 19 University of Chicago will prove tough opponents on Jan. 25 and the current UAA conference leader Washington University at St. Louis will provide a challenge on Jan. 27.

sports Men’s basketball suffers setback against UAA opponents

Courtesy of CWRU Athletics The Spartans battled hard in games against Emory University and University of Rochester but were unable to come away with a win.

Sanjay Annigeri Staff Reporter

The Case Western Reserve University men’s basketball team suffered two tough defeats on the road against University Athletic Association (UAA) opponents, losing to Emory University, 91-74, on Friday, Jan. 18 and to No. 22 University of Rochester, 81-68, on Monday, Jan. 21.

CWRU played a close first half against Emory but let the game get away in the second half.

The Spartans started the game on a 13-2 run, with three-pointers from third-year guard Sam Hansen, second-year guard Antonio Ionadi and third-year forward Connor Nally, gaining an early lead in the first two minutes.

Ionadi hit another three to make the score 18-7 with under 16 minutes left in the half, but an 11-0 run

by Emory tied the game with over 12 minutes left.

The teams would trade baskets, but Emory would take the lead on backto-back baskets. Hansen stopped the

run by hitting three three-pointers in the final five minutes of the half, cutting Emory’s halftime lead to three points, 45-42.

Emory came out in the second half and quickly took a 13-point lead. The Spartans cut that to seven, with help from third-year guard Monty Khela.

However, the Eagles immediately expanded the lead back to 14 points with under 12 minutes left in the game.

CWRU would cut the lead to single digits twice, once on a layup by third-year forward Michael Hollis with eight minutes left and another on a three-pointer by Ionadi with under six minutes left. Ultimately, Emory pulled away and won by 17.

Against Rochester, CWRU fought to overcome a few big runs but were ultimately unable to gain enough momentum for the win. The team started the game with a 5-0 lead off of a three-pointer by second-year guard Michael Volkening. CWRU kept this lead with the help of Hansen’s threepointer.

Rochester took the first lead at 1312 with under 14 minutes left to play in the half. This started a series of back-and-forth lead changes between both teams. First-year forward Brady Flynn gave the team a 20-19 lead with under nine minutes left. However, Rochester had a 9-0 run to extend their lead over the Spartans.

Volkening and Hollis hit threepointers to keep the score close, but the Yellowjackets ended the half on a few made three-pointers to give them a seven point lead, 41-34. Rochester started the second half with five quick points to make their lead double digits and grew it to 15 points with just over 13 minutes left in the game.

First-year forward Ryan Newton and first-year guard Jack Vaselaney combined to score 11 straight points to bring CWRU within eight, 63-55, with under 10 minutes left to play in the game. CWRU would end the game going on a 6-0 run, but ultimately Rochester maintained the double digit lead to earn the victory.

The Spartans finished the week with two losses, dropping their overall season record to 8-8 and UAA record to 1-4.

The team will continue its UAA schedule with home-and-home matchups against the University of Chicago and Washington University in St. Louis. They will first face both of these teams on the road, playing in Chicago on Friday, Jan. 25 and in St. Louis on Sunday, Jan. 27. “[University of Chicago and Washington University in St. Louis] are very good and have very talented players,” Head Coach Todd McGuinness said. “We need to get back to playing harder and smarter in the games.”

Spartan swimming sinks in New York Riley Simko

Staff Reporter The Case Western Reserve University swimming and diving teams both lost to State University of New York at Geneseo (SUNY-Geneseo) on Martin Luther King Jr. Day this past weekend.

The meet was pushed back from Saturday, Jan. 19 due to the dangerous winter weather’s effect on travel time.

Both the men’s and the women’s teams now stand at 5-2 in dual meets so far this season.

Will McDonald, a second-year student, made a splash in the men’s competition, winning the 100 backstroke and the 200 backstroke. McDonald also joined first-year teammate Calvin Tecson and fellow second-year swimmers Jonathan Liu and Kyle Barclay to take second place in the 400 medley relay.

Tecson also brought home silver in the men’s 200 freestyle relay, with teammates Brody Schmidt, a fourth-year student, and Alec Johnson and Ryan Gilbert, both first-year team members.

Schmidt won gold in a solo race as well, taking first in the 200 breaststroke.

Suhan Mestha, a fourth-year pow-

erhouse who took a serious amount of gold at the College of Wooster Invitational last fall, made her spring debut by rocketing into first place in the women’s 100 freestyle.

Olivia Picchione, a third-year, took the 200 butterfly by storm and stomped out the competition with a first place time of 2:12.19. Picchione placed first in the 400 IM as well, scoring a solo total of 18 points for the Spartan women.

First-year swimmer Anna Smith edged ahead of the SUNY-Geneseo competition, winning the 100 yard butterfly by less than a second.

Smith joined Mestha, second-year student Caitlyn VonFeldt, and fourthyear student Allison Drohosky for a second place finish in the women’s 400 medley relay.

Mestha and VonFeldt combined forces with fourth-year teammate Bhavya Kumaran and first-year teammate Daniella Rupert to win the women’s 200 freestyle relay.

Kumaran said a key part of getting ready for a meet starts before the team even gets on the road.

“I make sure to sleep/rest well the night before, eat a healthy breakfast” Kumaran says. As for the day of, Kumaran says that like a lot of other team

Courtesy of CWRU Athletics The CWRU swimming and diving teams competed at SUNY-Geneseo over Martin Luther King Jr. weekend. Unable to secure a win, both men’s and women’s teams hold a 5-2 record for dual meets.

members, she has “a specific warm up that I do before my races.”

Although SUNY-Geneseo’s athletics report named their piece on the meet for the men’s team “Open and shut Case,” it’s clear from the numbers that Monday was anything but. The Spartans brought their A-game to the pool, and the Knights won by a fairly slim margin.

Despite some spectacular wins from the

CWRU athletes, both teams did eventually fall to the SUNY-Geneseo Knights.

The Spartan women’s team earned a total of 120.5 points, and the men’s team came away with 135.

This weekend, it’s back in the pool for the Spartans as they take on the Ohio Northern University Polar Bears in Ada, Ohio. The CWRU Spartans will compete at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 26.