The Observer, Volume L, Issue 25, 4/12/19

the

Ohio heartbeat bill passes legislature

Case Western Reserve University volume L, issue 25 friday, 4/12/2019

Observer

Grace Howard News Editor

This Wednesday afternoon, the Ohio House of Representatives passed the heartbeat bill that has been in deliberation in the House for the past few weeks. The bill will move on to the desk of Governor Mike DeWine, who has said he will be signing it.

The bill was passed 56-40, with all Democrats and a few Republicans voting against it. The bill will prohibit abortions in the case of a detectable heartbeat, which can occur as early as six weeks into a pregnancy, and possibly before a woman is aware she is pregnant. Similar fetal laws have been passed in North Dakota, Arkansas, Kentucky, Iowa and Mississippi, but they all have been ruled unconstitutional when challenged in court.

It seems likely that this bill, if passed into law, will follow a similar path, as it violates the verdict reached by the Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade, that an undue burden must not be placed on women’s rights by preventing them from choosing an abortion. Many anti-abortion activists in favor of these bills have expressed that the ultimate goal is to overturn Roe v. Wade and make abortion entirely illegal. Candice Keller, a Republican in the House of Representatives has made it clear that she views abortion as a humanitarian issue, not a political or religious issue.

The Ohio Heartbeat bill, or Ohio Senate Bill 23, makes no exceptions in occasions of rape or incest and is notoriously one of the strictest abortion bans in the country. Performing an abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detectable will result in doctors being charged with a fifth-degree felony, punishable by up to a year in prison. In addition, the Ohio House of Representatives added an amendment that would increase the fines that the state medical board could charge doctors to $20,000.

TO BILL | 3

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A participant of CWRU Holi sits down on Freiberger Field covered in pigments of color.

Holi takes CWRU

Hindu celebration brings a splash of color to campus Maryam Iqbal Staff Reporter If anyone were to look at Freiberger Field in the days following Saturday, April 6, they would see a riot of colors.

Purple, blue and pink smears of powder across the field were the only remnants of the annual Holi event. A joint venture between the Center for International Affairs, the Office of Multicultural Affairs and the Office of the Provost and First Year Experience, the festival has turned into one of the campus’ biggest events.

While at first it was part of an initiative to educate the community on various festivals around the world, Holi has also helped international students fully enter into the Case Western Reserve University community and combat homesickness.

Holi, the festival of colors, consists of celebrants throwing colored powder and water at one another. The variety of colors used in Holi celebrations are culturally symbolic and are part of an old Hindu legend about the god Krishna. Primarily celebrated in Southeast Asia, it is meant

A&E

pg. 4 pg. 9 New restaurant Preview Springopens on campus fest lineup

to signify the beginning of spring.

Cami Ross, the coordinator of programming and study abroad advisor at the Center for International Affairs, was one of the main event planners and declared it a huge success. Several hundred people were in attendance. Comparing the turnout to last year’s, Ross was able to point to the better weather as being a major factor in people enjoying themselves. The event provided free catered food along with street food and snacks that are not usually available around campus like kulfi, an Indian ice cream, and mango lassi.

Student organizations such as the Undergraduate Indian Students Association also took part in the event. Student volunteers were integral to the logistics, Ross emphasized. The festival used a large amount of color powder that had to be poured into individual bags and students rose to the task to help the staff.

In addition to the colorful fight, there was a sprinkler set up to shower everyone playing with the colored powder in water. A dunk tank provided a quicker wash, with students eager to see their

friends dunked. For those who wanted to stay drier, there were other activities set up. Flying kites proved to be the most popular activity, with nearly 100 circulating among the participants.

The kite flying helped to educate people about Basant, another spring festival held on the subcontinent. Posters around the check-in desk also assisted in introducing the traditions of Holi to those who came to celebrate. And of course Bollywood music, easy to sing and dance along to, aided in establishing a festive atmosphere to build a cohesive community.

Generally, there was a positive response among students. First-year nursing major Hannah Xu talked about how the event helped her understand and appreciate the different walks of life people on campus came from, and she expressed her excitement in being part of different cultural celebrations. At the end of the event, students covered head to toe in color returned to their homes, while the colorful field would remain a testament to the excitement of the festival for days to come.

Opinion

Sports

pg. 11 RTA passes should continue

pg. 15 Softball dominates rival

news La Alianza introduces petition to establish Latin American studies major Nathan Lesch Staff Reporter

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Courtesy of La Alienza Facebook La Alianza, the undergraduate Latinx student organization, recently petitioned to establish a Latin Amercican and Latinx studies major.

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La Alianza, Case Western Reserve University’s undergraduate Latinx student organization, recently began circulating a petition aimed at encouraging the university to establish a Latin American and Latinx studies major. Advocates believe adding this major will reinforce CWRU values, increase faculty representation of the Latinx community and fill an academic void.

Many of the universities that CWRU applicants also apply to, according to the U.S. News and World Report, already have Latin American and Latinx studies programs.

Carnegie Mellon University has undergraduate major and minor programs in Hispanic studies, University of Michigan has a Latin American and Caribbean studies major and the Ohio State University offers a Latina/o studies program minor.

Fatima Rahman, a second-year international studies major and La Alianza’s vice president of civic engagement, and Esmeralda Terrazas, La Alianza’s fourth-year vice president of external affairs, have played significant roles in La Alianza’s push for the major.

According to Terrazas, “Fatima and I took on this project because we have strong connections with [the] faculty members that are helping us make this happen.”

Both Terrazas and Fahman believe La Alianza owes a lot of its success thus far to help from Associate Professor of Spanish Damaris PunalesAlpizar and co-director of the Social Justice Institute John Flores.

Rahman and Terrazas say the project was inspired by the successful push for an African American/ African studies minor last year. La Alianza hopes to recreate that success for an even more ambitious goal.

“We realized we wanted more than a minor and wanted a program that could constantly improve and grow, which is what a major offers,” Rahman explained.

La Alianza believes adding this major would enhance CWRU’s community in many ways.

Terrazas thinks it will fill an important hole in CWRU’s academic offerings and believes her education was impacted by that hole.

“I chose a Spanish minor because Case doesn’t provide a Latin American studies minor or major to pursue,” said Terrazas. “Adding this major will educate anyone interested in our history and culture, not just Latinx students.”

Terrazas also noted that adding the major could act as a platform to push for more Latinx representation in CWRU’s community.

“Having a Latin American and Latinx studies major implemented is important because there is a lack of Latinx representation in the administration and the CWRU programs,” Terrazas said.

Fahman also stressed that the major could reinforce diversity at CWRU. “One of the core values of CWRU is diversity and inclusion, and that should be represented in our academic curriculum,” said Fahman.

Fahman and Terrazas agree that the response from the CWRU community has been mainly positive so far. However, Terrazas noted that the initiative did not begin will the petition. Support for the major has come from a broad swath of CWRU’s community.

According to Terrazas, “We have collected signatures from undergraduate students, graduate students, alumni, faculty and staff, organizations and departments who support us and want to see this major be integrated in the Case curriculum.”

However, Fahman recognizes that La Alianza cannot implement the major alone.

“As students, we understand that we can only go so far, but you cannot deny the support this initiative has gotten thus far on campus,” Fahman said. “We hope our administrators will remember the core values that CWRU represents, and take into consideration how this major would touch onto those values.”

Provost Ben Vinson III learned about the drive last week. Although he is a historian of Latin America, Vinson said he would not allow that to impact his opinion of the petition.

“My role as provost is to approach academic questions from a broad institutional perspective, rather than the lens of my own scholarly focus,” Vinson said.

Vinson also said, “I am impressed by the thoughtful and constructive nature of their petition language.”

Vinson found La Alianza’s research into Latin American and Latinx studies programs at other universities and support from students and faculty particularly compelling.

According to Vinson, each undergraduate college has a different set of bylaws for creating a new major.

Even if a college does decide to support an initiative for a new major, a Faculty Senate committee and then the full Senate need to approve the proposal. Vinson could not provide any insight into the timeline of establishing the major, if approved.

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3

Alumni create bike-sharing program

Alexandra Faccenda

Director of Web & Multimedia Anyone who lives in a major city has probably seen a bike-sharing system. For most people, biking is a fun and convenient way to get around. For people in lower income neighborhoods, however, it’s a vital opportunity to access the resources they need to improve their careers, education and life. That’s the mission of Mobility, a bike-sharing program founded by Case Western Reserve University alumni Justo Karell and Siddhartha Sen. Mobility installs private, customized bike-sharing systems in lowincome neighborhoods where people typically cannot afford the increasing cost of public transportation. During its first year, Mobility plans to team up with local businesses, non-profits, and universities to sponsor the service for its users. Its other team members include CWRU students Leo Thuman and Alexandra Faccenda (the author of this article), CWRU alumnus Tyler Fullington, and Pauly Suchy, who works at a startup called Bioflightvr.

Karell originally became interested in transportation for low-income community members at a startup competition. At the competition, he mentored participants who were interested in helping the homeless by providing models for transitional housing. He began visiting homeless shelters in downtown Cleveland and gathering information on the needs of

the community.

“I asked [members of the homeless community] questions like ‘What got you here?’ and ‘If you could ask someone for something, what would it be?’” said Karell.

He realized that many homeless people don’t necessarily need shelters—they need a means to finding resources to get out of shelters.

These experiences led him to reflect on the absurdity of wealth gaps, especially in major cities, and the problems they cause for people who need access to resources that will help close these gaps. For example, in Cleveland, the University Hospital (UH) bike-sharing system is located less than 500 feet from free shuttles.

Unfortunately, the bike-sharing system is located in an urban, metropolitan area where there is already an abundance of transportation options, rather than in communities that struggle with transportation. Karell realized that giving people physical access to transportation was something he could do to help.

“Our goal is to bring bikes to people who need them most,” he said.

With the help of a think[box] Student Project Fund, partnerships with local businesses Blazing Saddles and Two-One-Fix Bicycles for bike maintenance and donations and a partnership with Emerald Development and Economic Network, Inc. (EDEN), the Mobility team will soon attempt make its goal a reality. Mobility is currently set to launch its pilot bike-sharing system in a hous-

Courtesy of bikecleveland.org Although bikes are already offered to students through the UHBikes program, Mobility aims to increase accessability to students.

ing development managed by EDEN in late April. The pilot system will consist of 5-6 bikes equipped with odometers so Mobility can monitor their usage by residents. Residents of the EDEN development will simply sign out bikes when they need them, while Mobility and its partners will provide maintenance and equipment

as needed.

In the future, Mobility plans to expand to companies and institutions by providing private bikes for those that employ low-income community members. The team also plans to focus on data management to ensure that Mobility is helping people as much as possible.

CWRU graduate fellows to develop infrastructure in Ethiopia

Power Initiative to help cultivate economic development through creating engineering infrastructure, with a special focus on chemical engineering, in Ethiopia. This initiative aims to grow the infrastructure necessary to create jobs and fill eco-

nomic demands through engineering innovations, using the network of 30 schools and STEM centers the Gelfand Center has built.

“The Case School of Engineering was chosen as the United States partner for this project due to our strengths in innovative engineering education and global engagement, and the vision and passion we share with Mark Gelfand to make the world a better place through science and engineering education,” said Dan Lacks, project lead and the chair of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.

Currently, the standard curriculum in the Ethiopian education system does not address practical applications of the science being taught in classrooms, leading to deficits in the creation of value-added products, or products that increase in value after production.

This project brings CWRU graduate fellows together with Ethiopian students in the creation and implementation of hands-on scientific applications.

Blaire Volbers, a 2012 alumna and inaugural Gelfand graduate fellow, said, “It is our hope to add this component into the curricula and in turn help create a generation of engineers that could harness the raw materials available in Ethiopia to create more jobs, better stimulate the economy and further advance the country.”

The project is based on the idea that engineering is a means of adding value, with one of the activities consisting of making soap from vegetable oil.

“We are all excited about this initiative because it’s not just changing the lives of the students in Ethiopia,” Lacks said, “but also changing the lives in the CWRU students who will be the Gelfand Global Fellows.”

Ultimately, the program hopes to motivate the youth of Ethiopia to stimulate the economy of their country by mobilizing their raw, natural resources.

Volbers explained that the scope of the project has not been fully realized and will likely make exciting potential opportunities in the future.

woman’s medical issues for seven years. Additionally, the woman getting the abortion would be obligated to sign papers conceding she is allowing the abortion, and that “the unborn human individual that the pregnant woman is carrying has a

fetal heartbeat and that the pregnant woman is aware of the statistical probability of bringing the unborn human individual that the pregnant woman is carrying to term.”

Protestors against the bill and proponents of the bill demonstrated

outside the Ohio House of Representatives as it was being voted on. Iris Harvey, the chief executive officer and president of Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio, has made it clear that she is willing to take the bill to the Supreme Court if necessary.

Courtesy of CWRU The Daily Blaire Vorbers, a 2012 alumna, teaches students in Ethiopia.

Anna Giubileo Staff Reporter

Graduate fellows at Case Western Reserve University have partnered with the Gelfand Global STEM-

FROM BILL | 1 According to an analysis of the bill by the Ohio Legislative Service Commission, abortion providers are required to keep documention of a

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4/12/19

Dave’s Cosmic Rock Club opens on Northside Nathan Lesch Staff Reporter

For the past several months, students walking from Northside to the Case Quad have wondered about the construction that has been occurring at the former Barking Spider Tavern. Their curiosity was satisfied with the opening of Cosmic Dave’s Rock Club, a unique take on a local franchise, Dave’s Cosmic Subs.

Co-owner Paul Sidhu, says the franchise and location were specifically chosen to add a fun dynamic to Case Western Reserve University’s campus.

Cosmic Dave’s Rock Club is Sidhu and his partner Dan Clark’s second co-ownership of a Dave’s Cosmic Subs franchise. Both men have prior business experience; Sidhu began in real estate finance before starting his own real estate company, Sidhu Realty Capital. From there, owning franchises was a small step. In addition to the two franchises Sidhu owns with Clark, Sidhu Realty Capital also owns three other locations and is the largest Dave’s Cosmic Subs franchisee.

Sidhu said he chose Dave’s Cosmic Subs for its special theme and culture. He has also been a longtime patron and fan of the franchise.

“After researching multiple fast casual franchises we chose Dave’s

Courtesy of Cleveland Jewish News Cosmic Dave’s Rock Club recently opened on North Residencial Village, replacing Barking Spider

Cosmic Subs for its high quality sub sandwiches and focus on rock and roll in the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s,” explained Sidhu.

When Sidhu and Clark chose the Barking Spider location for Cosmic Dave’s Rock Club, they wanted to maintain the Barking Spider’s live music legacy.

“I had been to the Barking Spider multiple times and appreciated how

it was a platform for aspiring artists,” said Sidhu. “That was instrumental in our decision to maintain the live music and entertainment and combine it with our quality subs and full service bar.”

Negotiations between Sidhu’s franchise management team and CWRU to lease and retrofit the carriage-house location took several months but were worth it according

to Sidhu, who believes the unique nature of the franchise will make it a destination for CWRU students and the broader community.

“I hope the club becomes an awesome hangout space for the entire community of undergraduate/graduate students, faculty and local residents,” Sidhu affirmed. “There is no other Dave’s store like this in the entire country.”

Professor’s research sheds light on human transition to bipedality Jordan Reif News Editor

Professor Simon Simpson of the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine has always been interested in the study of paleontology and evolution of humans. Growing up in a house built in the late 18th century, Simpson remembers his father “poking around” in the ground to find things that had been buried there years before. As a young child, Simpson recognized digging into the earth beneath his feet as an accessible path to history. He ultimately pursued a career in archeology and is now a professor in the department of anatomy at CWRU. His research for the last 30 years has taken him to the Afar Triangle, a geological depression of Ethiopia in East Africa. Simpson was a specialist studying human evolution the first time he went to Ethiopia in 1992. He continued to return, working on other projects as the paleontologist responsible for the analysis and collection of all human and nonhuman fossils. Five years ago, he established his own project, Galili, and has been working there with his colleagues and students. While the range of fossils available in Ethiopia range between 300,000 and over six million years old, the Galili project focuses on a specific time frame of 3.9 to 4.4 million years ago.

Simpson, through all his educa-

tion and research, has found humans to be “pretty crazy animals,” in our vast deviations from other mammals. Questions of why humans walk on two legs and why our canine teeth are small while our brains are big are among the many raised during the initial stages of his research.

Working in Ethiopia has allowed Simpson the opportunity to answer those questions and prompt others.

He emphasized that researching in Ethiopia allows him to study fossils from all different time periods going back millions of years. Studying fossils in the New World, such as the United States, would limit research to the past 20,000 years, when “we’re already humans, we’re already an advanced culture, we already have language,” he said.

Eight to 10 million years ago, humans were quadrupeds, walking on four legs. Simpson’s research has focused on the transition into bipedalism in human ancestors and how human bodies and structure changed as a result.

“When we adopted upright walking, we had to remodel our muscular skeleton,” Simpson explained.

Such evolutionary alterations allow archeologists like Simpson to be able to identify human ancestors from a small foot bone or the shape of the spine or lower limb. There is a lot of anatomical evidence used by scientists to promote the transition to upright walking. Pelvis, foot and leg bones are all very different in

humans from mammal counterparts such as chimpanzees, monkeys, apes and even dogs, due to our bipedal walking.

Simpson says there are many problems consequential to the “adoption of bipedality.” These include a human’s ability to break femoral necks, have “bad” knees and hemorrhoids, difficulty in childbirth, hernias and

“[Simpson] emphasized that researching in Ethiopia allows him to study fossils from all different time periods going back millions of years.”

- Jordan Reif, on Professor Simpson and his expeditions to Africa to study human fossils even menopause, while other mammals lack all of these medical issues.

Simpson and his team recently published an analysis of a fragment of a 4.4 million-year-old female skeleton that contributes to ideas of bipedal walking. Not only did she provide pieces of skeleton his team had never seen before but also improved their understanding of how an ancestor her age walked. Scientists are “hard pressed to describe all human beings [from] just one individual,” Simpson said, describing how the discovery and analysis of their most recent skeleton has helped his team

appreciate the amount of diversity among human ancestors.

While Simpson is unsure what lessons learned from our ancestors four million years ago can be directly applied today, there is certainly a legacy of human evolution as well as biological and scientific evidence to support that we are all one diverse species.

Through the notable rise in nationalism in Europe and in the United States, Simpson says it is important that people do not dwell on differences between ourselves. As an anatomy professor, Simpson often hears his medical students telling him that their cadavers differ from the pictures in a textbook. Simpson replies that variation is normal, and it is important not to treat minor differences as significant ones. He suggested the same is true in society.

“The things that people pick on to divide people out are trivial,” he said. “It’s not because there is a fundamental difference.”

As a scientist and historian brought together under the focus of archeology, Simpson hopes a greater understanding of biological variation will help people see the importance of differences among a species.

Simpson will continue his research in the Gilili area of Ethiopia, focusing on the time period 3.9-4.4 million years ago, when humans made their final transition to becoming bipeds.

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5

CWRU mourns, celebrates Justine Boyle Grace Howard News Editor

On Friday, April 5 the memorial celebration for Justine Boyle was held at the Amasa Stone Chapel.

Though the occasion for the gathering was tragic, the message of the afternoon was one of hope and love, focusing on celebrating life rather than mourning the loss of it.

Dozens of students and several members of the classics department, the Residence Hall Association, Sig-

ma Tau Delta and the music department showed up to celebrate the life of a Case Western Reserve University first-year student, Justine.

Justine had been involved with the classics, music and English departments, and the communities came together to show their support at the service.

The program for the celebration included musical performances from Anna O’Connell, a graduate student with the Case Catholic Campus Ministry, and Steve Perry, also with the ministry.

Judy Hammer, the campus liaison for the Interreligious Council, greeted those in attendance and reminded students that there are counselors readily available to students in the case that they need it. Additionally, she reminded everyone that the CWRU community was there for everyone, and in times of hardship and loss, they could turn to the community for comfort.

The memorial celebration had remembrances in the Islamic, Jewish, Unitarian Universalist and Christian traditions, showing that no matter

one’s faith, coping with loss and celebrating life can be understood by all. Five candles were lit to represent and acknowledge the life cycle. The candles stood for future, dreams, completion, hope and reflection.

The service emphasized moving on from loss and finding support in community.

After the memorial celebration service, students and members of the CWRU community came together to share memories of Justine and celebrate her presence in the CWRU community.

Coalition aims to eliminate lead exposure in children Abbey Wells Staff Reporter

The Cleveland City Council has partnered with the Lead Safe Cleveland Coalition to create a plan to fight lead poisoning in the city. Nineteen organizations comprise the coalition, with groups from the environmental, healthcare, philanthropic, government and educational fields including Case Western Reserve University.

The coalition hopes to significant-

ly reduce the number of Cleveland children with lead in their blood.

Members believe that the broad span of the alliance will help execute the plan.

A timeline for the coalition’s plan has recently taken effect. By May 1, the coalition will present their policy recommendations to the city council. Following that, they will roll out their plan at the Lead-Safe Summit on June 21, with legislative action expected to follow soon after.

According to a 2017 study, an estimated 13 percent of children

under the age of six in Cleveland have unhealthy levels of lead in their blood, which is four times the national average. Up until now, the policies made in response have been reactive rather than proactive.

However, it is highly unlikely that the coalition will be able to completely eradicate lead levels, as over 97 percent of homes in Cleveland likely contain lead paint because they were built before 1976.

As such, the coalition is focusing on making Cleveland “lead safe” instead of eliminating all lead.

The coalition also wants to cre-

CWRU students to research human-robot factory interactions Lev Pearlman Staff Reporter

Case Western Reserve University engineering students are working with engineers from Missouri University of Science and Technology and the University of Florida on a National Science Foundation (NSF) funded project to research what human-robot interactions will look like in factories of the future.

The project will be tested in Michigan by the COsorizio MAcchine Uensili (COMAU), a manufacturer based in Turin, Italy and the Institute of Intelligent Industrial Technologies and Systems for Advanced Manufacturing of the National Research Council of Italy.

According to RobotWorx, automation is hardly a new concept. As early as the ninth century, there have been records of automatic devices created to make tasks easier. It was in 1921 that robots first developed a negative reputation. In a play titled “Rossum’s Universal Robots,” the robots revolted against their human masters and killed them, then destroyed all life on earth. This play was set in the 1960s, coincidentally right when industrial robots appeared on the scene.

In the past few years, human-robot collaboration (HRC) has grown around the world as the next big

thing in intelligent manufacturing.

HRC allows for robots and humans to collaborate on the factory floor on tasks. The robots assist human workers, doing the heavy lifting and handing them the correct tools as they need them.

The robots will learn to track a human worker’s motion, and through doing this predict what the worker is going to do next in completing the task. Gaining this contextual awareness, the robots will be able to know how to assist the worker, for example when to hand the worker which tool.

Robert Gao, chairman of the department of mechanical and aerospace engineering and the Cady Staley Professor at the Case School of Engineering, is representing CWRU on the NSF project to research different aspects of HRC in manufacturing.

Gao’s team will be focusing on the prediction part of HRC. They will be working on teaching robots to be able to recognize human motions across different workplace scenarios.

In the future, robots will also be used to train new workers as they will already know what tools are needed at each step and can guide the new workers through a task. The ultimate goal is to use robot labor to make factories safer and more efficient.

ate citywide lead testing standards.

According to studies completed by Case Western Reserve University, over 15 percent of Cleveland public school kindergartners have no lead test on record, and only 20 percent of Medicaid-eligible children were screened at the recommended age, between one and two.

Health professionals consider no level of lead exposure to be safe for young children. Possible effects of low levels of exposure include irreversible brain damage, which can lead to ongoing behavioral, learning and health issues.

CWRU ELDRED THEATER 2018-19 SEASON

O + R

O + R

O + R O+R

O+R

O + R

O+R

ByWilliam Shakespeare Directed by Don Carrier

April 12, 13, 19, 20 at 7:30 p.m.

April 14, 21 at 3 p.m.

BOX OFFICE PHONE: 216.368.6262 Ticket Information: • Single Ticket Price $10 • Adults 60+ and Case Faculty/Staff $7 • Students with ID $5 or buy online!

THEATER.CASE.EDU

fun

observer.case.edu

fun page | 9

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.

Normal

Difficult

Horoscopes Horoscopes as misheard song lyrics

Aries

“Got a long list of Starbucks lovers”

from Blank Space, by Taylor Swift

Taurus

“Hold me closer Tony Danza” from Tiny Dancer, by Elton John

Gemini

“We built this city on sausage rolls” from We Built This City, by Starship

Cancer

“See that girl, watch her scream, kicking the dancing queen”

Sudoku

from Dancing Queen, by ABBA

Normal

Leo

“Excuse me while I kiss this guy” from Purple Haze, by Jimi Hendrix

Virgo

“Sweet dreams are made of cheese”

from Sweet Dreams (are made of this), by The Eurythmic

Libra

“I can see clearly now, Lorraine is gone”

from I Can See Clearly Now, by Johnny Nash

Scorpio

Easy

Difficult

“I’m farting carrots”

from Good for You, by Selena Gomez

Sagittarius

“Here we are now, in containers”

from Smells like Teen Spirit, by Nirvana

Capricorn

“Let’s pee in the corner, let’s pee in the spotlight”

from Losing My Religion, by R.E.M

Aquarius

“Hold me closer Tony Danza” from Tiny Dancer, by Elton John

We’re looking for contributers!

If you would like to write, take photos, create illustrations, or serve on the public relations committee, email us at observer@case.edu.

Pisces

“Don’t go Jason Waterfalls”

rom Waterfalls, by TLC

arts & entertainment “Captain Marvel” middling, still entertaining Marvel film

“Captain Marvel” Launch Poster

Lars Torres

Staff Reporter Leading up to its release, there was much anticipation and scrutiny of “Captain Marvel,” Marvel’s first female-led superhero film in the current Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The commotion was fueled

by Brie Larson’s commentary up until the release of the film regarding male critics, which resonated quite strongly, and at times, badly with various fans of Marvel and of the general population.

However, this review will look at the film holistically. Does it live up to expectations? Not necessarily,

but what we have is a decent Marvel film that could have done better as an early Phase One film of the MCU rather than as the penultimate film of Phase Three.

Chronologically the second film in the MCU, “Captain Marvel” follows the story of Vers (Brie Larson), an elite special operative for the advanced alien race known as the Kree who struggles with her intense, seemingly innate powers. She tries to prove herself to her mentor YonRogg (Jude Law) as she struggles with her identity and memories of a past she does not remember.

Training to deal with their nefarious archenemies, the Skrulls, Vers is assigned to her first mission, which leads to her capture and subsequent arrival on Earth, where memories begin to return. Vers, referred to as Carol Danvers in her memories, begins to learn about who she really is and who she is destined to become, aided by S.H.I.E.L.D. Special Agent Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) as they both attempt to suppress the Skrull’s hidden invasion of Earth, commanded by Skrull leader Talos (Ben Mendelsohn).

An unfortunate aspect to the film from the start is that, much like a multitude of other Marvel films— excluding work from Ryan Coogler, the Russo Brothers, James Gunn and Taika Waititi—there is no truly definite sense of director flair or style from the duo of Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck.

That is not to say that they don’t have a strong handle on their work, but it definitely feels very controlled and by the numbers at times, although the ways some sequences are shot possess a certain stylistic flourish to them.

Writing-wise, the film has a strong low-stakes plot that may disappoint some that were expecting something more bombastic. Although the plot is low-stakes, it is powerful due in

large part to the Skrulls’ backstory—not Danvers’.

Danvers’ amnesia isn’t as interesting, but does lead to some striking sequences—specifically, the manifestation of her powers. Dialogue-wise the film is serviceable, if a bit stilted. Larson’s performance suffers at times due to this, as sometimes she does not have much to work with.

Larson’s performance as a whole is solid, although it takes a while for her to fully immerse herself as Captain Marvel. She does a great job with her comedic jibes and smart aleck remarks and eventually fits the role, so hopefully in future films she will continue to improve and grow.

The most impressive performance is by Samuel L. Jackson, presenting us with a less confident, but spry and earnest take on the early days of Nick Fury, working very well in a buddy-cop capacity with Larson.

Clark Gregg’s return (in the films) as Agent Coulson is welcome, but there is little for him to do regardless, which also extends to Jude Law and Annette Bening, whose performances were fine for what they were.

A surprising scene-stealer and scenery eater is Mendelsohn, who is always a joy to watch. The music is also decent as well, from the ‘90s song choices (the film is set in 1995) and a decent, if forgettable electronic score.

Overall, “Captain Marvel” is not necessarily anything to boast about, especially with “Shazam!” the DC version of Captain Marvel, offering up a better take at identity and small-scale poignancy.

“Captain Marvel” is still an entertaining and enjoyable addition to the Marvel canon but would’ve been better if we had not already seen an origin story like this before in the earlier phases.

Artist Spotlight

Student band sticky to open Springfest

Yvonne Pan

Arts & Entertainment Editor University Program Board’s (UPB) potato prank on April 1 was only the first of many events planned for this month. UPB recently announced the headliners for this year’s Springfest: MadeinTYO, Echosmith and Coast Modern. Another familiar name on the list is sticky the band, the band that won Battle of the Bands, which was held at the Jolly Scholar on Feb. 23.

Sticky is comprised of five members: third-year student Nick Charles, second-year students Matt Pukansky, Conor Clark and Jared Jacknow and

first-year student Mac Craffey.

Although the members played together whenever they could since last semester, sticky was only formed a few weeks before Battle of the Bands.

“We had always talked about forming a band but didn’t really have a reason to until Battle of the Bands,” Pukansky said.

The name sticky comes from Charles’ nickname as a pledge for Phi Gamma Delta (Fiji). Although the nickname didn’t stick when he became a brother, Pukansky, who attended the same high school as Charles, brought it back when he visited Case Western Reserve University as a prospective student.

When the four fraternity broth-

ers were looking for a name for their band, sticky seemed to be the obvious choice.

Being in a band isn’t a new experience for most of sticky’s members.

Both Charles and Pukansky have played in rock bands in the past, and Jacknow was part of a progressive metal band.

“Playing around with a new beat and being able to lock eyes with the guys and having everyone else fall in line is a great feeling,” Craffey said.

Since their establishment, members of sticky have been practicing two to three times per week.

“I love being with my [fraternity] brothers because there’s a connection further than words can explain. We are

in sync without having to verbally express our feelings,” Pukansky said.

Sticky has already written several original songs and performed many covers. Pukansky’s favorite is their version of “Hurt” by Johnny Cash.

Their music has been well-received. “sticky always delivers an exciting and engaging performance every time I’ve gotten to see them play,” secondyear student Kate Haering said. “Even though they’re relatively new to the Case [Western Reserve University] music scene, they’ve already made huge waves, and I’m looking forward to seeing them at Springfest.”

to STICKY | 10

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With “Shazam!,” Playlist of the Week DC finds its groove Chris Heermann

Social Media Editor

This week’s playlist focuses on songs you might hear at a classic Friday or Saturday night party. Knowing all of these songs will make you the coolest person in your social group and will enhance your enjoyment of the loud social gatherings.

SICKO MODE - Travis Scott

Somehow this song is always playing as you step into the door of the party. Drake’s first line, “Astro,” grows the suspense as the beat builds before dropping along with the IQ of everyone in the room.

Mo Bamba - Sheck Wes

Similar to “Sicko Mode,” “Mo Bamba” builds tension from the first line. However, it immediately releases the tension five seconds later as a wall of bass assaults your ears. This song is guaranteed to hype people up, as long as the people are stereotypical college students.

Africa–Toto

“Africa”? It’s more likely than you’d think.

As the opening chords blast from the speakers, a cheer always springs up from the crowds of party-goers. The best part of this song playing may be listening to everyone try and sing along then give up until the chorus.

“Shazam!” launch poster

Staff Reporter

Say what you will about DC Comics’ failed attempts to force together hits like “Justice League” and “Suicide Squad,” the studio is quietly killing the game on stand-alone movies. Since “Wonder Woman” exploded onto the stage in 2017 as the first standalone film in DC’s attempt to create a cinematic universe like its rivals at Marvel, the studio has experienced some ups and downs.

But while big, multi-lead projects have struggled, all three of the heroes that have been given the opportunity to fly on their own have soared, with “Wonder Woman” and “Aquaman” both topping $800 million in box office sales and a solid opening weekend from their newest venture: the Zachary Levi-led “Big”meets-“Superman” caper “Shazam!”

“Shazam!” tells the story of 14-year-old Billy Batson (Asher Angel), a foster child who moves in with a new family in Philadelphia and, after defending his foster brother from some remarkably irredeemable bullies, is chosen by a dying wizard as the champion for good and given the ability to transform into a superhero by saying the word “shazam.” Saying the word gives Billy the body of an adult superhero, but he still has a 14-year-old’s mind. This premise serves as the source of most of the

goofy comedy that makes the movie so great.

Levi stars as the hero version of Billy, who, along with his foster brother/superhero manager Freddy Freeman (Jack Dylan Grazer) quickly raises the movie’s profile through social media and public appearances, an approach that while fun, is hardly heroic. The fun comes to a close with the arrival of Dr. Sivana (Mark Strong) who has been corrupted by the very forces Billy was chosen to fight—a built in archenemy.

The rest of the film follows the tried and true paths of the many superhero movies that have preceded it but does so with strong performances from the rest of the cast. The final result is a movie that proudly delivers an experience worthy of the decades of comic book adventures that led up to it.

The legacy has some fun stories itself—the Shazam character was billed as Captain Marvel until the 1970s, but was eventually changed to end a dispute with Marvel Comics, who currently have a film about their version of Captain Marvel in theaters.

“Shazam!” is rated PG-13 and runs a concise 132 minutes, including one after credits scene.

Movie: Shazam!

Release date: April 5 Rating:

Mr. Brightside-The Killers

Similar to “Africa,” “Mr. Brightside” is always welcomed by a cheer from the throngs of dancers. This great unifier appeals to everyone on campus and therefore must be played at every social gathering.

Broccoli - DRAM

This classic sing-along can also be substituted by “iSPY” by Kyle, also featuring Lil Yachty. Only happy vibes are permitted while screaming along to this bop at the top of your lungs.

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 w

Henry Brendon

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observer.case.edu

Jordan Peele’s macabre brilliance

“Us” Launch Poster

Lars Torres

Staff Reporter Following the release of his film “Get Out” in 2017, Jordan Peele quickly established himself as an effective and highly proficient filmmaker in the realm of combining social commentary, horror, thriller

elements and some underlying comedic aspects still simmering from his “Key & Peele” days.

Following his Oscar win for Best Original Screenplay on this film, many people were clamoring for a future film, a demand that was swiftly answered by his announcement of a new horror venture, “Us,” among other potential projects.

There was a fear that Peele would

suffer from the “sophomore film curse”—his follow-up would be a substantially lesser film than the debut. Thankfully, this has turned out not to be the case, and in some respects, “Us” is an improvement upon “Get Out.” The film follows the Wilsons, a well-to-do middle-class family, consisting of Adelaide (Lupita Nyong’o), Gabe (Winston Duke), Zora (Shahadi Wright Joseph) and Jason (Evan Alex), who are planning a vacation at their beach house near Santa Cruz.

Adelaide has been plagued by nightmares and bad memories from her time in Santa Cruz as a child, swearing she saw an identical version of herself as a kid but is told to think nothing of it.

However, in swift fashion, a family of doppelgangers appears and attacks the Wilsons, who quickly realize that the family is a malevolent version of themselves (also played by the same actors).

The matriarch of this doppelganger family, Adelaide’s counterpart, speaks of more violence and chaos, leading the Wilsons to try and fight to survive for their very lives as they attempt to make it safely into the next day.

From a technical standpoint, the film is much more impressively shot.

Peele and cinematographer Mike Gioulakis included subliminal messages and subtext that made every frame feel purposeful. There is always something to be on the lookout for, similar to their work together on “Get Out,” but with a more assured and experience connection for both.

The cinematography can be quite exhilarating at times. Peele takes riskier choices and is also more certain in his directing choices of what to show and how to portray the characters and story. Writing-wise, while the story is less tight and focused

than “Get Out,” the concept and the execution is significantly more ambitious and entertaining, and the story is more haunting and on the nose with the social commentary of the underprivileged and the cons of class hierarchy compared to issues of race.

Acting-wise, Nyong’o, for me personally, is an early pick for a nomination for Best Actress, despite the usual prejudice against horror films (in spite of “Get Out’s” success). She plays her dual roles with gusto, emotional reverence, frightening clarity and crazed passion that makes it impossible to look away.

Duke also does a great job playing the nebbish and comedic patriarch of the family, trying his best to make light of a horrifying situation and never letting the dire parts of this hellish nightmare get to him fully.

Both portrayals are strengthened by the child actors, who are also impressive in both of their roles—normal and doppelganger.

The music is phenomenal, gluing everything together wonderfully with a terrifying take on Luniz’s song “I Got 5 On It” and an overall oppressive and horrifying score by composer Michael Abels that evokes thoughts of horror and madness throughout the film.

Overall, “Us” is a more ambitious, perhaps messier follow-up to Peele’s wondrous debut, but it is no less entertaining. It is much more comedic and incredibly thrilling, while also excelling in cinematography and acting. The film ultimately proves to be yet another calling card for Peele’s promising career.

Film: Us Directed by: Jordan Peele Release: March 22 Rating:

Who are the Springfest headliners?

Chris Heermann

Social Media Editor Much like Butch Cassidy, my first thought when the Springfest committee released the headliners to this year’s concert was, “Who are those guys?”

Coast Modern? Echosmith? MadeinTYO? As someone who rarely listens to the indie pop genre, I was lost. So naturally I opened up Spotify and searched up Echosmith.

Then, after seeing their large library of singles and albums, decided I would listen to Kanye on my run and check out Echosmith another time.

When I finally worked up the courage to listen, I felt like Christopher Columbus discovering the New World. I, of course, recognized their hit “Cool Kids” from its radio popularity, and “Bright” from a friend’s study playlist.

But there was so much more to discover. Their recent single, “Fa-

vorite Sound,” was added to my running playlist before the song was even over on my first listen. The hook in “Over my Head” is especially catchy due to its singable lyrics and tuneful melody.

As I journeyed further into their discography, shuffling through various singles and their debut album, I began to have a feeling of deja vu.

Many of their songs sound similar, and blend into one another. A song I thought was just really long turned out to be two different songs played after one another that just happened to have similar melodies.

Exploring Coast Modern was a different experience. Each song gives off a unique vibe, while still having a similar sound to the previous. “Dive” is the kind of song that makes you relax with a smile on your face. Other songs, like “The Way It Was,” command you to nod along to the beat while listening.

I am most excited for Coast Modern this Springfest. Their music

matches the vibe of a warm, sunny spring day perfectly. Hopefully, the majority of the crowd knows their music because the only thing that is sure to ruin a fun concert is a disinterested audience.

The final headliner for Springfest is MadeinTYO. Again, I had not heard his music before but quickly fell in love. His most popular song on Spotify with over 170 million streams is “Uber Everywhere,” but my favorite with 73 million streams is “Ned Flanders” featuring A$AP Ferg, who performed on campus in fall 2017.

Similar to Coast Modern, MadeinTYO has a very positive energy that he skillfully conveys through his music. His music may not be for everyone, due to his vulgar language and subject matter. But considering the overwhelming enthusiasm the student body had for Amine, I expect that he will be welcomed with open arms into the Case Western Reserve University community.

That is not to equate Amine to MadeinTYO however, as the two exist in different circles within the hip-hop genre. MadeinTYO is closer to trap and mumble rap than the pop/ hip-hop that Amine specializes in.

I expect his setlist will consist of songs mostly from his most recent album, “Sincerely, Tokyo.” He will of course play the songs that put him and Amine, on XXL’s 2017 Freshman Class. Songs such as “I Want” and “Skateboard P,” both of which are sure to hype up the crowd.

This Springfest is sure to be exceptional. While the headliners may not be known to every student, their music has a general appeal that will brighten the day of attending CWRU students before finals week puts an end to their joy.

Until then, give each of the artists a listen while walking to and from class. Who knows? Maybe you’ll find your new favorite band and you can scream along when they rock Freiberger Field on Saturday, April 27.

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More than a club?

David Pietrow Staff Reporter

My first exposure to Indian culture came last year when I was a first-year student living in the Tyler House on the north side of campus.

I vividly remember it: I was walking past Wade Commons when I noticed people doing a dance routine inside.

As I watched and walked, a substantial number of people inside the building were doing choreographed dances to what sounded like Indian music. I did not realize at the time that I was witnessing one of Case Western Reserve University’s dance teams practice for their third time in a single week, nor did I realize how significant Indian dance was becoming, and now has become, on our campus.

CWRU has four dance teams centered around different types of Indian dance circuits (Raas, Fusion, Classical and Bhangra). The distinctions between the styles may seem trivial to a casual observer but are actually quite significant to those affiliated with these clubs.

Raas, represented by Case CobRAAS, is based in Gujarat-style choreography that traces its origins back centuries ago to the city of Gujarat in India. Fusion, represented

by Case Kismat Fusion, is more of a contemporary version of traditional Indian dance blended with songs rooted in hip-hop, Bhangra and Bollywood. Bhangra, represented by

Spartan Bhangra, is similar to Raas in the sense that its choreography can be traced back to the Punjab region centuries ago. And Classical, represented by Case Nritya, blends classical Indian choreography with modern music to tell stories.

These four clubs comprise of over 100 students who compete nationally. Spartan Bhangra hosted their own Naach Di Cleveland on March 23. Hundreds of dancers from 16 teams specializing in Bhangra or Fusion represented different universities from across the nation. They competed and were scored based on a point-based system.

If a team’s performance at national events like Naach Di Cleveland gets a significant amount of points, they may qualify to go to the “National Championship” of Indian dance. CWRU is sending two dance teams, Kismat Fusion and Spartan Bhangra, and the acappella team Dhamakapella to compete for its own respective championship.

Behind the scenes, members of each team put in a great number of hours practicing the routines. According to an anonymous dancer on CobRAAS’s team, the members typically practice eight to nine hours during any given regular week. This excludes increased practiced times during the week of a competition and the competition itself.

That is on par with, if not more than, what most club sports at CWRU spend practicing. The expenses are on par with a club sports team as well. All members pay a certain fee

The Spartan Bhangra team

Courtesy of Spartan Bhangra Facebook Page

to help cover transportation costs, motels and traditional costumes and props used for the routines.

Currently, the Undergraduate Student Government helps offset these costs, but most teams have their own fundraisers to help with competition costs. In fact, Spartan Bhangra had its own Taco Bell fundraiser on April 10, with six menu items at $3 each, and even delivery to Fribley and Northside dormitories.

It is astonishing to witness the rise of these dance teams on our

from STICKY | 7 Band members are optimistic about the future, even if they don’t make it big. “Hopefully we’ll find jobs in the same area and can still play shows consistently,” Pukansky said.

The band has already been booked for shows in addition to opening for

campus. It gives Indian culture a unique voice that is seldom heard.

My congratulations goes out to the three teams competing for nationals, as well as for the other two teams’ placements at events earlier this year.

Given the immense amount of work all the dancers (and singers) put into their craft, and at times even passion, that is a tremendous accomplishment. If you get the chance to do so while attending CWRU, I highly encourage you to witness these dancers representing Indian culture in our community in action.

Springfest. They recently played for PastryNow’s launch party on March 23. The student-founded start-up company is a delivery service for freshly baked goods.

The band will also be performing at Fiji Islander Fest on April 19 and Carlton Road Block Party on April 26 and has a show booked for May 22 at the Grog Shop.

Want to see your name in print?

Contact us at observer@case.edu

opinion 11

observer.case.edu

opinion Editorial For years, Case Western Reserve University students have never had to ask how much a Regional Transit Authority (RTA) pass costs. We’ve known that, as part of our Cleveland cultural enrichment, we are given one each semester for the flat price of $25.

Needless to say, this is an absolute bargain, given that many other urban campuses don’t extend the same courtesy to their students or charge a much more exorbitant price.

But as our university’s contract with the RTA runs out, administrators and student leaders have begun asking a new question: how much should an RTA pass cost?

After sending out a wave of campus surveys over the past few weeks, the Undergraduate Student Government informed the student body we could be facing a price increase. As other costs of attendance have risen, our student passes have remained consistently priced, which suggests we’ve been getting the better end of our deal with the RTA. While students were 96 percent in favor of retaining the passes, a referendum is still needed to determine whether we would support a price increase.

Keep the RTA pass, no matter the cost To the Editorial Board, the answer is unequivocally clear: having access to mass transit is crucial to our undergraduate experience, and its benefits are well worth an increase in price.

While not everyone regularly uses their passes, the underlying convenience of having RTA passes cannot be understated.

Since most students have to purchase a parking pass to have their cars, the ability to get around the city with just a sticker on your Case ID is a substantial amenity.

If you’re trying to figure out how to get downtown for a show on Friday night, the HealthLine is always available. Do your friends want to do some Saturday shopping down in Ohio City? You can just hop on the Red Line.

For a sizable portion of the campus community, these passes are the primary mode of transportation. Some offcampus students don’t have cars and take the RTA to get to campus from their housing. Nursing, pre-medical and medical students often use routes like the HealthLine to get to and from their rotations or assignments. Others may have internships that take them to the Fortune 500 companies downtown or in other parts of the city. Even having your own car for these types of opportunities

can be irrelevant, given the absurd parking costs in these areas.

There are obvious advantages in terms of logistics for students. But the importance of mass transit also lies in its potential for urban sustainability and minimizing the effects of climate change in industrial areas. Cities like Cleveland are incredibly detrimental to the environment, with its large number of suburban commuters and portside power plants, factories and shipping facilities.

Needless to say, we cause a considerable amount of ecological damage. Our history with setting the Cuyahoga River on fire is well-known even outside the region, but our ongoing mistreatment of Lake Erie will have dire consequences in the coming years. Air quality alerts remain frequent, and as recently as 2017, issues with soot in the air have plagued the metropolitan area.

Mass transit in the form of buses, trains and better pedestrian infrastructure will most likely become imperative in the next few decades as cities are forced into sustainable practices by the effects of climate change. These modes of transportation catalyze basic, but still critical, improvements to our rate of energy consumption, air pollution

and emissions. The RTA has already worked on better preparing its routes for the future, adding buses that run on natural gas and recently acquiring a $2.6 million grant to make Cleveland’s West Side greener. Doing our part to support them now, rather than when car taxes or other commuter restrictions are put in place, better prepares students to participate in a more sustainable society. Good habits can only be developed, after all, if there are measures in place to support them.

If CWRU is going to be a truly forward-thinking university, these sorts of considerations must drive its policies related to student life. The image of CWRU as a bubble in part has to do with the manner in which it is almost tucked away from the rest of the city, and a failure to renew the RTA deal would only exacerbate this issue.

Whether we all realize it or not, we are a core institution of Cleveland, and that means we must do our part to be citizens of the city.

With the golden ticket, or more accurately silver sticker, of a cheap RTA pass, we expand our community beyond the boundaries of University Circle.

Cap and gown, nickel and dimed Dastardly Liberal Schemes

Steve Kerby As the academic year comes to a close, the eyes of the campus turn to commencement. Being a fourth-year student, if all goes well I will stride purposefully across the commencement stage and then stride purposefully off this campus.

But before any Spartan can burst out of the gate toward the expanse of the future, one final hurdle remains.

One must purchase a cap and gown from the university bookstore. In preparing for this seemingly trivial step, I found myself once again mired in a concentrated solution of what irks me about Case Western Reserve University.

A cap and gown are required to participate in any commencement or graduation ceremonies, according to the website describing the procedures of that end-of-semester celebration.

I was shocked to learn that the cap and gown pair cannot be rented for

graduation, and instead must be purchased for the exorbitant price of $62.62, with an added $10 fee if ordered after April 1. I visited the bookstore to purchase my cap and gown, only to discover they were identical to those I donned four years ago for my high school graduation which cost considerably less.

It goes without saying that the cap and gown, like anything purchased from this university, seem overpriced.

Moreso, I’m taken aback that renting the cap and gown is not an option. I will never use those silly robes again unless I’m trying to dress up like Albus Dumbledore, and therefore renting the regalia is a sensible option.

I wish to ascribe the lack of rental options to some benevolent impulse by the university, but I have learned better after four years at CWRU. If there’s a penny of profit to be had, the university will usually scuttle in like Mr. Krabs and take what it can.

Perhaps my insinuation that the university is a penny-pinching miser is a bit strong, but my experience at

this school does not suggest otherwise.

Sending a simple electronic transcript by email costs $3.50. It seems like every item in the vending machine in Rockefeller Hall increases in price by five cents or so each year. We work and live at a multi-billion dollar university, the cost of which increases by over a thousand dollars every year. If that were not painful enough, our pockets seem picked clean of loose change at every turn, trying to turn a profit off vending machines, transcripts and flimsy graduation regalia. Is the administration not happy with over $60,000 a year in tuition?

So, we go to a rampantly capitalist institution, what else is new? The shallowness of the university’s adherence to moral causes is likewise on display for students purchasing caps and gowns. The university website proudly declares that the gowns are made from recycled material. This seems an admirable effort to promote sustainability, but it would certainly be much more sustainable to reuse the gowns year

after year instead of purchasing a new batch. This prioritization of profit to sustainability is the final nail in the coffin for my patience, as the university apparently cannot relent even on this trivial matter.

In a day and age in which overbearing capitalism seems to extend to every corner of private life, perhaps it is too optimistic to hope that there might be some refuge from the menace of Mr. Monopoly. I would hope that academia might be that safe haven, but CWRU has fallen short. Watching them half-heartedly chase the illusion of sustainability by taking pot shots at our wallets, I’ve resigned myself to getting my diploma and scooting away from what the administration views as a purely economic transaction.

Steve Kerby is a fourth-year physics and astronomy major who is going to Penn State University to pursue a doctorate in astronomy in the fall. His favorite musician is David Bowie.

CORRECTION: In Jordan Reif’s column of Issue 24, “Healthcare: We do not get what we pay for,” The Observer incorrectly stated the amount of money spent on healthcare per GDP as 8.5 percent, 9.5 percent and 7.7 percent in the U.S., Germany and the U.K., respectively. The correct values are 17.3 percent, 11.2 percent and 9.7 percent for the three countries. The numbers are corrected online. The Observer apologizes for the error.

The Observer is the weekly undergraduate student newspaper of Case Western Reserve University. Established in 1969, The Observer reports news affecting students and provides an editorial forum for the university community.

Unsigned editorials are typically written by the opinion editor but reflect the majority opinion of the senior editorial staff. Opinion columns are the views of their writers and not necessarily of The Observer staff. For advertising information, contact The Observer at (216) 302-4442 or e-mail observer-ads@case.edu.

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 Thwing Center 11111 Euclid Avenue, Suite 01, Cleveland, Ohio 44106. For policy and guidelines related to the submission of Letters to the Editor, refer to observer.case.edu/submit-a-letter.

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12 opinion

4/12/19

Social sciences and humanities courses deserve more credit Wish You Luck

Erya Du As we approach the end of the semester, stress levels have been turned up to the highest setting. For me, the Java projects have become even more laborious, the economics exams didn’t go as planned and even German has begun to challenge my confidence from time to time. It often happened at night that I started to regret taking 20 credit hours in total for this semester, since, from all viewpoints, six courses are a lot for a student.

However, my roommate, who majors in biomedical engineering, also has 20 credit hours but only five classes.

This situation led me to think about the course settings in colleges.

In most cases, STEM courses have four credit hours while social sciences and humanities, except for languages, only have three credit hours, which I consider incredibly unreasonable. Take myself as an example; I get four credit hours for Math 122. However, History 113, which I spend most of my time on, only counts for three credit hours.

I’m not implying calculus will be a cake walk for everyone, even though for me it has never been a hard class.

Anmol Nigam/Observer Archives Social science courses are often assigned fewer credit hours than those in the STEM departments, which often feels unfair. What must be done to give these classes the credit they deserve?

However, I am pretty sure that every student in my history class has to spend more than six hours outside class either for the readings, a quiz or a paper. I remember once we had to cover a whole book in one week. It was even more difficult for me since

English is not my first language, and while I found the Mandarin version eventually, it was still hard to digest.

Sometimes I think life would be much easier for me if I were an engineering major. I used to be a science student in high school.

Math, chemistry and biology are all subjects that I am good at.

Unreasonable credit hour assignments happen in science, technology, engineering and math courses as well. Yes, I am talking about computer science, and I cannot find any reason why it doesn’t deserve credit hours. For Matlab and Java, students take three lectures and one lab a week, totaling 200 minutes per week, but those courses are only three credit hours each. Not to mention, the Java projects require much time to work on after class.

Of course, the people who determine course parameters have their own considerations for how they set them, and I don’t know the process as well as they do. However, I wonder if there will be a time when humanities and social sciences classes could be treated as being on the same plane as STEM classes in terms of workload. I especially hope that they will do better to take homework expectations into consideration.

The end of semester workload would feel much less arbitrary if credit was given where it’s due.

Erya Du is a first-year prelaw student double majoring in economics and international studies. She likes panda, deer and architecture.

APUSH-ing people out of history I Spit My Truth And It’s Brown

Viral Mistry

In my time at Case Western Reserve University, I’ve often received a diverse range of responses to any mention of the humanities classes I’ve been fortunate enough to take. The most common response, of course, has been “Oh, is that a SAGES?” I hear it less often now, as a fourthyear student, but I still generally hear surprised reactions. Is it really that strange for a biology student to be interested in the humanities and take classes in them? I often push back against this line of thinking.

Very frequently, I get the response “Oh no, I’m good, I took those APs in high school and didn’t like it.”

The Advanced Placement (AP) Exams, which many prospective students are likely studying for right now, are marketed as a way to help prepare high school students for collegiate education. A high score on an AP exam often allows a student to arrive at college with credit for some early prerequisites, saving time and money. As college tuition, especially at private institutions like CWRU, climbs astronomically relative to inflation, AP tests increasingly look like a solid investment. While a $94 registration fee can be a lot for many people, it pales in comparison to an equivalent course’s cost at CWRU, approximately $6,000.

I cannot and will not contest the material benefits of the AP Exams.

But I will contend that they are an important part of why people are increasingly shying away from the humanities, especially history.

History majors make up an all time low percent of the students who graduate each year, and the number of history majors has actually

declined, despite increased college enrollment. Of all majors, history has seen the greatest decline over the last several years, shrinking by over 20 percent in the number of degrees granted. Many have attributed this to the aftermath of the Great Recession leaving families with a focus on the financial payoff of a degree, making them unwilling to justify a degree that is perceived to be unlucrative.

I know first hand how much

they’ve never taken one thanks to their AP credits. Associate Professor Peter Shulman of our history department has discussed this before on Twitter and was the inspiration for this piece. He found that in the last twenty years, the number of AP history exams taken in the U.S. every year has risen by about 440 percent, from about 200,000 in 1997 to about 900,000 in 2018. In this same time, we have seen stagnation and then

“Part of what causes this cycle is that so many students simply don’t know what a real college history class looks like, since they’ve never taken one thanks to their AP credits.”

- Viral Mistry, on students taking history courses as an undergraduate student this infuriates humanities folk, who feel they need to constantly debate the value of their continued existence with STEM people who often mock them as being useless and unemployable. It infuriates me as well, and I’m certain it plays a role in the cycle that keeps students out of the humanities more broadly, especially at an institution like CWRU. Part of what causes this cycle is the fact that so many students simply don’t know what a real college history class looks like since

a drastic decline in the number of history majors. I do not think this is a coincidence.

CWRU currently only requires two “humanities” classes for graduation. A very significant number of students here are able to go a full four years without taking a single humanities class thanks to AP credits. Even if they have space for it in their schedule, they might shy away from it because of a negative impression of the fields from the AP classes they took in high school.

After all, it was supposed to give

you a sense of what a college class is like, right?

I always like to blow people’s minds by telling them how different collegiate and high school humanities classes are. Most of the AP history curriculum, at least when I took it, was focused around memorizing terms, facts and dates and taking multiple choice tests.

My college history classes, on the other hand, have been focused on learning about periods of time and social and historical contexts and analyzing trends and developments along different intellectual axes.

It’s about studying and advancing arguments about what happened and why it happened. No history professor at CWRU has ever asked me to memorize a date or name.

I’m not saying everyone should major in history, but I do think more people would benefit from giving it a shot and taking at least one history class before they graduate.

In research, I’ll be expected to advance new ideas and defend them, especially when they go against the grain. My biology classes, while important in establishing a baseline of knowledge, have done little to teach me to find my voice. My history classes, on the other hand, have made me more confident in my own perspective and refined and clear in my analysis. That will be valuable regardless of which career I seek.

After all, who could possibly have anything to fear from a thoughtful and informed public that understands historical context and speaks clearly about what they believe?

Viral Mistry is a fourth-year biology and cognitive science double major who is also minoring in chemistry, history and philosophy.

He wants a world with more hoagies and less hate.

opinion 13

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Don’t chalk Spitball McPheeters’ Musings Mary McPheeters It’s been awhile since Spitball has been chalked. That changed last week, when someone, or multiple people, drew a squirrel on Spitball and wrote “This is OUR campus.” and “Hey, whatcha doin’ under here?

Wanna cuddle?” on it.

It is precisely the noticeable lack of chalking recently that makes this incident feel extremely intentional, along with the statement that this is “OUR” campus. It seems like this student is trying to say that we should be chalking Spitball, simply because it sits on our campus. Unfortunately, whatever the intent was, these messages inspired another message later in the week: a drawing of a nose and the words “smells like potato to me.”

Let’s ignore university policy for a moment and pretend that chalking on art is allowed.

Why would anyone want to? There are walkways everywhere, many of which students are allowed to chalk.

That being said, chalking doesn’t seem to be an efficient form of PR, so why do it at all? What is there to be gained from defacing art?

Our Spitball sculpture is one of three original sculptures by artist Tony Smith. The other two sit in the Menil Gallery in Houston and the Baltimore Museum of Art, meaning

that they do not endure the same disrespect.

And our disrespect is not unnoticed by the art world. The Sculpture Center, a non-profit arts organization here in Cleveland, laments that “Spitball is an incredibly disrespected and underappreciated piece of sculpture where it is located, suffering almost constant vandalism. Students and student groups like to use Spitball as a billboard to advertise their events in chalk, which I consider a complete shame” on their website.

Is that really how we, as a university, want to be seen by the art world? As people who disrespect art?

Technically, the chalk itself is not damaging to the sculpture. What’s damaging—to both the structure and paint—is when unqualified students or groundskeepers wash off the chalk.

Since it’s an outdoor sculpture, it is meant to withstand the weather and occasionally be cleaned by professionals but professionals only.

We’ve been ignoring university policy until now, so let’s review it. According to university posting policy, “Chalking on vertical surfaces, buildings, artwork, covered walkways or non-university pedestrian walkways. Use of acrylics, ink, spray-chalk and paint is strictly prohibited.”

In Steve Kerby’s opinion piece last week, he wrote that “a whisper ran through the student body” and that one day, the chalking just stopped. I’d

like to point out that the no-chalking policy has existed at least since the fall 2017 semester. It wasn’t just some shift in university policy or the official word by the administration that helped stop students chalking Spitball.

It was students who championed for Spitball.

One of those students is fourthyear art history and theater major JP Peralta. After spending the summer of 2017 researching the sculptures on campus, he wrote a post on the Case Western Reserve Class of 2021— Official Facebook page detailing the reasons why we, as students, should refrain from chalking Spitball.

Here’s the summary of reasons in his post: it’s an incredibly important piece by a prominent American sculptor, the inside of the sculpture is rusting away from chalk being constantly washed off, Spitball is valued at somewhere around two million dollars and chalking on the sculpture is against university policy. Peralta compares chalking on Spitball to taping over the Mona Lisa because to the art world they’re the exact same thing and ends with a plea to the community to show the world that we deserve this sculpture.

Another one of those students is me, a third-year mathematics major.

Last semester when a fraternity on campus was planning to chalk Spitball as part of an event, I emailed their president and pleaded for them

to choose not to chalk Spitball. It worked. They listened. Spitball remained chalk-free.

Students in the arts and humanities have also shown their support, especially this past week after the new chalk on Spitball and Kerby’s opinion piece.

So I’d say I disagree with Kerby’s idea that the chalking stopped because of the administration or whispers or changed policies. The chalking stopped because we, as a student body, chose to start paying more respect towards Spitball. I say that we should choose to do so once again, but this time with the university’s help.

Rather than putting up a fence or a guard as Kerby suggested, why not just put up a sign? Even something as simple as that would help. Beyond that, the university could make a stronger effort to educate students about this and other sculptures on campus. I would love to see the university hire a conservator to come examine our campus artwork and make sure we are properly caring for them.

If the university doesn’t want to do any of these things, the student body can show it cares by never chalking Spitball again.

Mary McPheeters is a thirdyear mathematics major. Their only aspiration is to be employed after graduating.

Striking a balance as a student leader Unsolicited Opinion Won Hee Kim One of the hardest parts of having a leadership role in a campus organization is time management.

As the spring semester winds down, many clubs have started the process of electing and training new officers, transitioning power to other, usually younger, members. As someone with senior status and experience as an officer, I can’t help but be worried: Are they ready? Will they be responsible?

It’s not a lack of faith in underclassmen that makes me ponder this but rather my own troubles with leadership in the past. I have been in leadership roles for clubs since my first year. Some of the titles were nominal, and I didn’t actually do much before I eventually stopped going to club meetings. Others I have remained loyal to and have perhaps dedicated too much time into them, to the point where the role interfered with my ability to do schoolwork.

But it wasn’t supposed to be this way. Leadership positions in college should be mutually beneficial for the club and the person in the role.

Students become leaders for various reasons. Sometimes, it’s because they truly care about an organization and its future.

Sometimes they become leaders on a whim, or because the organization needed a warm body in the role.

Sometimes, it’s because they—or their parents—think that it would look good on their resume.

Leadership roles are not supposed to be about the titles or the little section of a resume that says “Leadership” or “Extracurriculars.”

When students focus too much on the title, they end up overloading themselves in their search to add more titles, or they ignore the things that they can gain from being in a leadership role: skills.

My personal experience as president of Writers Writing Words, a creative writing club, has taught me professionalism, copywriting skills and confidence talking in front of people. As event coordinator, I learned to create and finish projects, to coordinate people, to make sure things get done and to make posters. My roles helped not only in expanding the club but also in teaching me applicable skills that have prepared me for my part-time jobs and a career in the real world. It was mutually beneficial.

On the other hand, it shouldn’t be a full-time job either. Especially in my first two years, I had trouble. I didn’t have the support structure that I do now, and because of that, I ended up dedicating too much time on things that I shouldn’t have. It was useful to the club, but it also drained me. Students are people too, and they have responsibilities beyond their clubs, one of which is their education.

Being a leader is all about striking a balance, but it’s difficult to keep this in mind when you’re busy.

Instead, what you can do is take care of preparing your successors now, as the transition of power happens. Whether you are a current, past or future officer of the club, you need to have a conversation about what the club officers get out of it and what they are putting in. Remember the goals, and after a semester or so, review them and see if the goals have been met. If there is something concrete in your agenda,

Elias Hatzandonis/Observer

Student organizations and leadership roles can begin to overwhelm you.

How do you balance generating resume items with maintaining your sanity?

then it’s more likely that it will be seen to.

Also, for what it matters, I apologize to the clubs that I have ghosted in the past. I’ll make sure

not to include you on my resume.

Won Hee Kim is a third-year English major with minors in creative writing and economics.

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sports

4/12/19

The More Yoo Know

The Origin of the Ohio-Michigan Rivalry Ryan Yoo Staff Reporter The University of Michigan-Ohio State University football rivalry is often considered to be one of the biggest (and the most heated) rivalries in American football history. Since their first game in 1897, the two teams have met 115 times on the football field, most recently on Nov. 24, 2018 when the Ohio State Buckeyes defeated the Michigan Wolverines 62-39.

This rivalry can be traced back to the Toledo War in 1835-36, which was fought between the states of Michigan and Ohio. The states were in disagreement over the location of the Michigan-

Ohio border. Although the war did not result in any casualties, the war laid the foundations for years of bitter disputes and angry exchanges between fans of the scarlet and grey and the maize and blue.

In 1787, Congress drafted the Northwest Ordinance, which decreed that the 260,000 square miles around the Great Lakes would be divided into new states.

The Northwest Ordinance described the border between Ohio and Michigan to be “an east and west line drawn through the southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan” until it intersects with Lake Erie.

Congress used the Mitchell Map (which was considered to be the most

Courtesy of owlcation.com An error in placing the borders between Ohio and Michigan created an area of land known as the Toledo Strip. The states disagreed over who should be allowed the land, resulting in the Toledo War.

accurate map of the region at the time) to draw this border. The Mitchell Map, however, put the southern tip of Lake Michigan five to eight miles north of the actual tip of the lake.

This caused the Toledo area to be part of Ohio, which was, and remains to be, an important agricultural and industrial region. The land west of Toledo is a prime area for agriculture due to its well-drained and fertile soil, and it is where staple crops like corn and wheat are grown. Additionally, the Erie Canal was built during the time period, linking the area to the Eastern seaboard and New York City to the Midwest. This allowed the area to become a major shipping and migration route.

In 1803, the government discovered the inaccuracy in the location of the tip of Lake Michigan. The dispute heated up in 1833, when Michigan sought entrance to the Union, citing the Northwest Ordinance to determine the correct boundary between the two states. When the boundaries where drawn on the map, an overlap was discovered due to the previous mistake. The area in the overlap was labeled the Toledo Strip.

Ohio lobbied to block the entrance to the Union until they agreed on the border set by Ohio, which placed the Toledo Strip in Ohio. Naturally, Michigan objected. Congress, fed up with this dispute, decided to block Michigan’s entrance into the Union until the two states figured out the borders, putting the residents of the

Toledo Strip in a state of limbo for a couple of decades.

In order to enrage Michigan, Ohio formed Lucas County, which included a portion of the Toledo Strip. In response, Michigan enacted the Pains and Penalties Act in February 1835, which declared that anyone in the strip that supported Ohio could be jailed for up to five years and fined $1,000 (roughly $25,000 today).

A cold war soon erupted between the two states, with each trying to oneup the other. Soon after the Ohio legislature voted to approve a $300,000 military budget, Michigan approved a $315,000 military budget. No actual fighting occurred between the two states, except for a small scuffle which lead to a Michigan sheriff being stabbed.

Although the sheriff’s wound was not fatal, the attack led to peace talks between the two states and troops were withdrawn from the area. Despite this, the two states continued to bicker until December 1836 when Congress offered them a compromise. Michigan could give up the Toledo Strip to Ohio in exchange for statehood and a chunk of the Upper Peninsula. Michigan had spent so much money maintaining the presence of militia in the strip that the state had no choice but to accept.

Even a hundred years after the war, Ohioans and Michiganders still have a fierce rivalry. But instead of fighting about the borders between states, it’s about showing superiority on the football field.

Athlete Spotlight

Passion for life drives second-year club soccer player Nicholas Kamlet Staff Reporter This week the Athlete Spotlight is focusing on second-year club soccer player Naomi Kane, rather than a varsity athlete. She has played soccer ever since she can remember and loves spending time with others who share her passion. Kane also is a Chemistry 111 Supplemental Instruction leader where she gets to interact with firstyear engineers on a frequent basis. In her free time, she loves to cook, paint and write.

What is your favorite part of being on club soccer? Why? I love being on this team because it’s a great way to connect with people I wouldn’t otherwise meet. I’ve played soccer my whole life, and it’s nice to share that appreciation for the game with people who care about soccer as much I do.

Do you have any games that you remember being particularly special? Why?

Spring semester last year against BGSU (Bowling Green State University). I took a free kick to the face, which made the experience pretty memorable.

Another fun game was our first as a women’s team. We ended up beating CSU (Cleveland State University) 10-0 which was a great start to my time on the team.

Aside from soccer, what else are you involved in on campus? Can you explain what you do in them?

I’m a Chemistry 111 Supplemental Instruction leader, which essentially is me getting to interact with a ton of freshmen engineering students and helping them better understand chemistry as applied to engineering. I also do research in a chemical engineering lab and just started a new project studying the plausibility of repairing enamel using self-assembling peptides.

Why are you majoring in economics and minoring in chemistry? What interests you about it?

It’s a pretty weird combination, but I’ve always been interested in science and math. I don’t think people realize that economics is extremely mathheavy, and I’m always amazed at how an economist can use math and statistics to model and understand human behavior, labor markets, etc. I’m especially interested in studying the inefficiencies of our healthcare system and ways to potentially fix them.

What are your favorite free time activities? Why? I love to cook, paint and started writing again earlier this year. I tried to get into crocheting too, but that mostly involved me yelling at the yarn when it wouldn’t cooperate.

What is your favorite quote or what inspires you?

“I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you’re proud of. If you find that you’re not, I hope you have the courage to start all over again” (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button)

Courtesy of Naomi Kane/Facebook

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15

Track and field continues success

Chris Heerman/Observer The teamwork of the men’s track and field team earned them first place at the Marv Frye Invitational.

David Chang Staff Reporter The Case Western Reserve University’s track and field teams again split to compete in two different meets last weekend. The throwers traveled to the Bob Kahn Invitational at Oberlin College, while the rest of the team competed in the Marv Frye Invitational hosted by Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio. The men’s team placed first out of 10 teams, claiming nine topthree finishes, while the women’s

team took home sixth.

First place finishers include fourth-year Spartan Ananth Suresh and second-year teammate Jordan Butler. Suresh won the triple jump event with a mark of 13.89 meters, and Butler recorded a mark of 6.73 meters to take home the top spot in long jump. Suresh also finished third in the long jump with a mark of 6.44 meters. Third-year runner Michael Hradesky finished first in the 800-meter race with a time of 1:56.46, followed by first-year teammate Logan Singer with a time of 1:56.65.

Second place finishers for the men’s team include third-year hurdler Mitchell Webb in 110-meter hurdles with a time of 16.17 and third-year Jonathan Haling in the 200-meter dash, who finished the event in 22.47 seconds. The 4x100-meter relay team of third-year sprinter Darius Inzar, second-year teammate Musa Hakim Jr. and first-year Spartans Corey King and Juan Perez finished third with a time of 44.01.

For the women, graduate student Cassandra Laios broke her hammer toss record again, increasing it to 54.52 meters this week. In addition

to hammer, Laios also placed first in the shot put with a mark of 13.37 meters, and second in discus with a mark of 40.19 meters. Fourth-year Shannon Carroll placed first in javelin with a throw of 36.04 meters.

As for the women’s track team, third-year Spartan Brianna Rees claimed second in the 400- meter dash and second-year distance runner Olivia Battistoni placed second in the 5,000-meter run. In the 1,500-meter run, fourth-year Spartan Jennifer Hoffmann placed second, crossing the finish line at 4:55.57, followed by second-year teammate Kiera Olson in third at 4:57.70.

First-year jumper Kathryn LeMoine placed third in triple jump with her mark of 9.81 meters.

Third-year Spartan Dominic Oddo competed in the 2019 Outdoor All-Ohio Combined Event Championships in New Concord, Ohio, where he represented the Spartans well, finishing first in the decathlon.

Oddo’s score of 6,097 points resulted from four first-place and two second-place finishes. His first place finishes included long jump with a mark of 6.31 meters, discus with a mark of 28.05 meters, javelin with a throw of 43.38 meters and high jump at 1.85 meters. Oddo placed second in the 100-meter dash with a time of 11.34 and in the pole vault with a mark of 3.74 meters.

His cumulative score leads the University Athletic Association, ranking sixth in Division III overall. Following his first place finish, Oddo earned the honor of Spartan Club Athlete of the Week. His first place finish also earned him five points towards the Outdoor All-Ohio Division III Championships in Delaware, on Saturday, April 13.

Spartans dominate rival CMU Andrew Ford Staff Reporter As the weather heated up, so too did the Case Western Reserve University softball team.

The Spartans won three of their four home games against Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) on April 5 and 6.

CWRU dominated the first day of competition, winning the two games 6-0 and 8-0. Third-year pitcher Ilissa Hamilton threw a shutout en route to the first Spartan victory, including 10 strikeouts. At the plate, second-year stars Arisa Cleaveland and Dusstyn Reynolds batted in five of the six runs.

Their five runs all came in the fifth inning, handing the Spartans a comfortable lead to close out the game. Firstyear designated player Liv Thomas doubled to right field to drive in the sixth run.

Reynolds’ bat stayed hot, hitting another home run in the later game and collecting a total of three RBIs. Second-year pitcher Sidney Brannam started and finished the five inning game that was capped off in the fifth with a game-ending home run by second-year rotation player Hope Yashnik, who came in to pinch hit in

the bottom of the fifth.

On Saturday, the Tartans proved to be more competitive than they were on Friday. CWRU won again in the opening game, but it was much closer this time around: 5-4. The Spartans struck fast and in a flurry, getting four runners across home plate in the second inning. Thomas would hit a home run in the bottom of the fifth to extend the lead to 5-0. But CMU came back with four runs in the top of the sixth to trim the deficit to one.

However, Hamilton, who threw another complete game, would hold the Tartans to just those four runs, closing out the seventh to secure the Spartan victory.

Although they played extremely well all weekend, CWRU could not close out the sweep, falling 7-1 in the final game of the series. Third-year first baseman Nicole Carty drove in a run in the bottom of the first to take an early Spartan lead, but CWRU’s bats froze up for the rest of the game. The Tartans got on the board in the fourth inning, extended the lead in the fifth and never looked back after that. The win was the first University Athletic Association (UAA) win this season for CMU. Through their first six games of conference play, CWRU sits in third

place behind Emory University and Brandeis University. Reynolds currently leads the UAA in RBIs (26) and is tied for the lead in home runs with Thomas, each of whom has

five.

The Spartans travel next to Brandeis University on April 12 and 13 to face off against the top team in the conference.

Courtesy of Jon Schwartz/CWRU Athletics The Spartans won three of their four games against Carnegie Mellon University.

sports Baseball sweeps four game series at NYU

Courtesy of CWRU Athletics The Spartans swept their four game series against NYU, picking up their first two UAA wins of the year.

Sanjay Annigeri Staff Reporter The Case Western Reserve University baseball team picked up its first win and series win in conference play, outhitting New York University (NYU) with 6-5, 6-0, 3-1 and 5-3 victories on Saturday, April 6 and Sunday, April 7. The team also picked up a 7-2 victory at home on Wednesday, April 3 against Baldwin Wallace University.

Against Baldwin Wallace, the bats were hot, and the pitching was solid.

Five pitchers held the Yellow Jackets to four hits, three walks and two unearned runs throughout the game.

Third-year starter Casey McConihe started the game with two scoreless innings. During this time, the Spartan bats were active, scoring three runs on singles by fourth-year

third baseman Jacob Kucia, secondyear right fielder Benjamin Stawicki and McConihe.

First-year right-hander Willem Bouma also pitched a pair of scoreless innings, and the Spartans plated two more runs on a bases-loaded walk by second-year catcher Jake Ryan and a Kucia double.

Third-year pitcher Paul Slota added two more hitless innings and Ryan added to the run count. Fourthyear lefty Corey Brown pitched a shutout seventh inning, and thirdyear Scott Kutschke gave up two unearned runs. Regardless of this, the Spartans won comfortably.

The offensive firepower continued against NYU. In the first game, the Spartans took an early lead with run-scoring singles by Kucia, McConihe and fourth-year second baseman Rocco Maue.

NYU answered backed with a

run and a two-run double to cut into the lead. Both teams cooled off, but NYU took the lead in the bottom of the eighth inning on a two-out runscoring single.

In the top of the ninth, the Spartans came back. First-year outfielder Cole Jarrett hit his first career home run to tie the score at five. Maue then drove in the go-ahead run on a chopper over the third baseman.

Kutschke picked up the save to ensure a win.

In the second game, Spartan firstyear pitcher Nick Denove threw a complete game shutout, and the offense was able to put up six runs.

McConihe opened the scoring in the second inning with a double that brought Stawicki home. Third-year outfielder Noah Mehrle’s base hit also brought McConihe home, giving the Spartans an early two-run lead.

Mehrle continued a hot hitting

streak with a home run in the fifth inning and a run-scoring single to bring McConihe home in the seventh inning. Jarrett scored on a wild pitch, and Maue hit a single to score Mehrle. The Spartans scored three runs in the seventh and were able to win commandingly.

In the third game, the team had to battle hard to come back and win in extra innings.

Bouma gave up an early run the top of the first, but Ryan hit a solo home run in the bottom of the third inning to tie the score at one.

Strong relief pitching by secondyear righty Tony Smodilla kept the game knotted up.

Fourth-year outfielder Jacob Petel had a base hit in the 11th inning to drive home Maue. McConihe followed up with a sacrifice fly, bringing Ryan home. The Spartans took a 3-1 lead and didn’t look back.

In the final game of the series, the Spartans struck early.

NYU scored early in the top of the first, which the Spartans answered back with a catcher’s interference call that scored Mehrle. Maue then hit a two-run single, and a Ryan sacrifice fly gave the Spartans a 4-1 lead.

McConihe, Slota and Kutschke worked to limit the NYU bats.

Kucia added to the lead in the eighth inning with a solo home run and the team comfortably went on to win.

The Spartans finished the weekend with four wins, bringing their overall season record to 17-8 and University Athletic Association record to 4-2.

The team will continue conference play at Emory University, meeting the Eagles in Atlanta for a four-game series from Friday, April 12 to Sunday, April 14.

Women’s tennis bounces back with winning weekend Claire Nordt Sports Editor The Case Western Reserve University women’s tennis team faced Oberlin College last weekend on the Carlton Courts.

The home court advantage proved useful, as the Spartans bested their opponents 7-2.

The day began with doubles matches.

CWRU played well, winning two of the three matches. The first-year duo of Sneha Karnam and Shreyaa Mukund gave the Spartans an early lead with their win at second doubles. First-year teammates Nidhi Jha and Kristin Jones added to the Spartan lead with a win at third doubles.

At first doubles, the duo of second-year

students Madeleine Paolucci and Nicole Cardwell were unable to pull out a win, but the Spartans remained in the lead heading into singles play.

The CWRU women continued their success, again losing only one match.

Cardwell competed at first singles, earning a 6-2, 6-4 victory. Karnam followed with a 6-2, 6-1 win at second singles. The victories continued to third and fourth singles. Mukund took third singles with a 6-2, 6-2 win and Jha finished her match with a 6-1, 6-0 win. The fifth win for the Spartans came at sixth singles, where Jones bested her opponent 6-2, 6-3. At fifth singles, first-year Spartan Eliza Georgiades fell 6-2, 6-3, the only Spartan loss at singles.

The following day, the women com-

peted against John Carroll University. Just as they had the day before, the Spartans won two of their three doubles matches.

Paolucci and Cardwell claimed an 8-1 lead at first doubles to start the day for CWRU. Karnam and Mukund followed with an 8-3 win at second doubles, putting CWRU up two. At third doubles, Jha teamed up with sophomore Mira Amin.

The duo fell 8-5 to their opponent, but the Spartans maintained the lead at the start of singles matches.

Cardwell defeated her opponent at second singles to increase the lead for the Spartans. John Carroll then defeated Paolucci at first singles. CWRU claimed the next match when Karnam bested her opponent at fourth singles with a 6-2, 6-0 win. The next two points went to John

Carroll when Mukund and Jones fell at fifth and sixth singles, respectively. The losses tied the score 4-4 with one match left to be completed. Amin played for the Spartans in third singles. She secured the deciding point, finishing her match with a 4-6, 6-1, 10-7 victory. The 5-4 victory gave the Spartans their second win of the weekend. The two victories snapped a three-match losing streak for the women and brought their overall record to 7-7.

The team will return to action next weekend when they travel to Chicago to face Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Chicago. Washington University is currently ranked 16th in Division III and the University of Chicago is ranked ninth, whereas CWRU ranks 31st.