The Observer, Volume LIV, Issue 19, 2/17/23

Introducing The Case Western Reserve Observer

Shreyas Banerjee Executive Editor

You might have noticed that a couple of things are different around here. For the first time in 10 years, we have a new logo, color scheme and overall design. Beyond that, we also have a new name.

This has been a long time coming. Change is in the DNA of all universities as student bodies constantly turnover, but it is especially true at Case Western Reserve University. There are no long-standing traditions at this university because we are always trying something new in our search for our own identity. The Case Institute of Technology and Western Reserve University federation was only 56 years ago—28% of our 197-year history. As we have continued to deal with the aftereffects of the federation, our university has been markedly different each decade. This is not necessarily a bad thing.

In the very first Observer editorial (published on Sept. 5, 1969), we stated that “universities should be the last of the institutions in society to resist change.” We still hold that belief to our very core, and as the student body has changed, we—the student newspaper at CWRU—have changed along with it. The type of content we cover and how we cover it is constantly being revised as time continues. Meaning every 10 years or

SPORTS

so, we try to rethink how we present our journalism to the CWRU student body to remain relevant. Even though the paper has dramatically expanded our digital offerings over the past few years— especially since being forced to shift to complete online publica-

Men’s basketball soars to No. 1 in UAA rankings

dent guards Mitch Prendergast and Danny Frauenheim.

tion during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic—, our print product hasn’t changed much. We’ve made small adjustments here and there, but our overall design language dates back to 2013. While that design has served us well in the 2010s, it does not fit the sensibilities of the 2020s. For instance, in

2013, iOS 7 launched with Windows 8, introducing flat visual design to the masses through digital software. There was a turn towards simplicity, minimalism and modernity in most designs—including ours. While we don’t reject those shifts, the new decade gives us an opportunity to reflect on what worked about flat design and what did not. Furthermore, it allows us to reevaluate whether we can take design cues from the past that we had previously discarded.

To do so, we held a campuswide design logo contest, enlisting the best student graphic designers CWRU has to offer. This will always be the newspaper of and for the students, and we wanted to ensure that CWRU students had a voice in this process. We had many great submissions but ultimately went with a design submission from fourthyear computer science student John Mays. In his submission, Mays described his inspiration from software logos of the 1990s and older magazine designs while maintaining a modern simplicity. Mays wanted to create a design “reminiscent of older design attitudes, but original enough to be serviceable and ‘new’ feeling for at least a decade in the future.” We have a long legacy here at CWRU and The Observer—therefore, this marriage of the old and the new fit great with what we were searching for.

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Eldred Hall reopens as new student space on the Quad

The Case Western Reserve University men’s basketball team ended the weekend tied for the number one seed in the University Athletic Association conference after defeating the University of Rochester and Emory University on home court. The Spartans improved to 18-3 overall and 8-3 in conference play, achieving six consecutive conference wins for CWRU, the longest streak in program history.

These teams had already faced each other earlier in the year, where the Spartans lost by 16 against Rochester and by nine in overtime against Emory, making these wins even more significant for CWRU. Graduate guard Mitch Prendergast explains, “For these games we were really motivated since we had lost to both teams earlier in the season. We wanted to continue our winning streak and really worked hard this week at practice.” These two wins put the Spartans in the top-25 in the NCAA Division III rankings.

On Friday, Feb. 10 against Rochester, the team celebrated Senior Night, honoring fourth-year forwards Cole Frilling and Josh Levy, fourth-year guard Jason Lewis and graduate stu-

The night started with a steal and layup made by Levy followed by a defensive rebound by Frilling and a 3-pointer for a quick 5-0 Spartan lead. The Spartans had an incredible run the first 10 minutes, taking their largest lead of the night at 21 with 10:38 left after second-year guard Sam Trunley made a 3-point jump shot. For the remainder of the first half, the YellowJackets couldn’t close the gap and the Spartans held a 51-35 advantage. Levy led the team with 18 points, shooting 100% (4-4) from the 3-pt line and 88% (7-8) overall.

CWRU dominated most of the second half as well but Rochester managed to tie the game for the first time in the night with 23 seconds left in the game, pushing the game into overtime. Prendergast started the score with two free throws but the lead was neutralized by a Rochester dunk. Prendergast responded with a jumper to give CWRU a 2-point lead. With 2:20 left in the game, third-year guard Luke Thorburn made a key block to a Rochester layup which allowed him to score a jumper for the 4-point lead.

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As the student population increases at Case Western Reserve University, the need for more study and programming spaces also increases. Until recently, there has also been a lack of nonacademic spaces for students in one of campus’s busiest corners: the Case

Quad. That is about to change with the reopening of Eldred Hall, which will soon be available for students to use this Monday, Feb. 20.

The path to get here has been long. Eldred Hall first opened in 1898 as one of the first student spaces for the Adelbert College of Western Reserve University.

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Paola Van der Linden Costello Staff Writer

Shreyas Banerjee Executive Editor

Opening Feb. 20, the redesigned Eldred Hall is a space for students and student organizations to grow in their academic and creative pursuits. Shreyas Banerjee/The Observer

ELDRED from page 1

As student interests changed and the performing arts became a larger part of campus culture, the hall was renovated and remodeled in 1938, adding a theater, auditorium and dressing rooms for students to use. For a long period of time afterwards, Eldred was the home for the Department of Theater at CWRU, as well as various performing groups here such as Footlighters, IMPROVment and Players’ Theater Group. That usage came to an end after CWRU took up administration of an adjoining synagogue, The Temple-Tifereth Israel, and converted it into the Maltz Performing Arts Center (MPAC). This new theater space opened up in 2021 and became the new home of the Department of Theater, leaving Eldred abandoned and many student performing groups without a home. Unable to regularly perform at MPAC due to high rental costs, groups like Footlighters and Nritya were forced to perform at the unideal Excelsior Ballroom in Thwing, which lacks any built-in seating, proper stage equipment or lighting apparatus.

Seeing the need of the student body, members of the Students’ Presidents Roundtable banded together to propose a new use for Eldred. In their April 2021 proposal, delivered to Lou Stark, vice president of Student Affairs, and Scott Cowen, interim president of CWRU at the time, called on the administration to convert the abandoned Eldred into a student center, available as a “multifaceted, free space for students on campus … utilized for student group performances (i.e. Players’ Theatre Group, Footlighters, [IMPROVment], dance troupes, and cultural groups), practice rooms, and necessary storage expansion.” In the proposal, they posited that Eldred could be used as not only a home for art groups, but also as a social and study space on the Case Quad—something that is sorely lacking.

The proposal was approved following the inauguration of CWRU President Eric Kaler in summer 2021, along with the requisite renovations that needed to be com-

pleted in order for the old building to be brought to modern standards. Though the university mainly paid for renovations, student groups across campus contributed their funds to making it into a usable student space. The University Media Board (UMB) gave thousands of dollars to buy new theater and staging equipment to replace those that had been taken from Eldred following the move to Maltz, the Undergraduate Student Government (USG) contributed funds to buy lockers for additional storage space and the SEC Allocations Committee allotted money from their reserve fund to buy televisions, couches, tables, chairs and new flooring.

All the work will be coming to fruition this semester, with the soft launch of the new Eldred Hall. Though not all the furniture has arrived and some decor still needs to be installed, the space is ready for use by students to host programs and meetings. That starts this weekend, Saturday Feb. 18, with UMB hosting an open house “first look” so students can get acquainted with their new student space.

The new Eldred Hall will operate in a similar manner to the current Thwing Center, with the division of Student Centers running the new space and student organizations able to rent out rooms and the theater for free. As with Thwing, there is a 100% discount for reservations for recognized student organizations during normal hours of operation. Groups can rent out rooms for two hours and event spaces for up to eight hours through the Spartan Reservation System. Spaces available for reservation include the 152-seat theater, along with various meeting rooms and quiet rooms. The center is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. for students with their ID cards, though reservations can be made outside of normal operating hours.

Though the soft launch of the new Eldred Hall is happening this weekend, the grand opening and ceremony is not expected to happen until early April, as additional theming

has to occur to fully bring the center to life. This will include painted murals and rooms themed to specific cultural groups, with spaces dedicated to African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders and Indigenous peoples.

“The overall theme of Eldred is ‘how do we represent our community?’” Kristin Urig, the director of Student Centers said. “We have a diverse campus community and the hope is to spotlight our community as a whole within the spaces.”

With the opening of Eldred, Student Centers will have students staff the new hall just as they do with Thwing, Carlton and other student spaces, and are actively hiring to fill positions at the moment. The new Eldred will “be run by the students for the students,” as Urig says.

“It’s been a long time coming,” Urig says. “Just seeing it come to life, seeing students be able to get in and do their events and have their meetings, I think is what I’m most excited for.”

A biannual update, in accordance with Collin’s Law and anti-hazing modules

Cameron Ward Staff Writer

Students returning to Case Western Reserve University last academic year were greeted with a new anti-hazing requirement in the form of a module. This new requirement came in response to the deaths of Collin Wiant and Stone Foltz, students who were killed in 2018 and 2021, respectively, as a result of hazing rituals in their respective university’s fraternities. The module was created in light of the new legislation “Collin’s Law,” which requires hazing prevention training in Ohio colleges and universities. This includes all undergraduate students participating in on campus organizations, such as athletics, Greek Life and student activities, as well as all firstyear students. The module was also

encouraged for upperclass and graduate students, faculty and staff. In addition to these requirements, the law also requires that each participating university release a biannual report to be released in January and August of each year for five years.

January has come and passed. Six months since the implementation of this module, the first biannual report was recently made available. You can find the full report on the CWRU Public Safety website, but here is a summary of what the three pages detail:

The report first reiterates the university’s commitment to preventing hazing. It then outlines the goals of the Community Concerns Reporting System (CCRS). This system is designed to provide a process for students and staff to report “incidents

of hazing, perceived mistreatment, cultural/ethnic insensitivity, and bias against students” across campus. Students can use this streamlined system to report, or can always report to one of the many offices on campus who also deal with these incidents, such as the Threat Assessment and Behavioral Intervention Team (TABIT), the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards, the Office of the Dean of Students or the Division of Public Safety.

The report then moves on to the actual cases of hazing reported. There were only two incidents reported, both within five years previous to this program’s implementation. Though all personal information has been removed, the report still details the offending organization and the nature of the incident, as well as the dates

and the outcome of the investigation. The two incidents present in this report were both within Greek Life, in two separate fraternities here on campus, in the years 2017 and 2020. Both pertained to putting pressure on incoming members, and both incidents ended with mandated alcohol education and disciplinary action. Both cases are now resolved.

The next one of these reports should come out in August of this year, so be on the lookout for that update. For more information about CWRU’s anti-hazing policies, check out Collin’s Law on CWRU’s Public Safety website or at the Division of Student Affairs. For now, if you see an incident similar to those mentioned in the report or in Collin’s Law, make sure to report to TABIT or use the CCRS. All students have a right to be safe on campus.

Eldred’s 152-seat theater has long languished but will now be available to all students for performances and showcases. Shreyas Banerjee/The Observer

Shooting occurs at Michigan State hours after gunman threat at CWRU

Grace Johnson News Editor

On Monday night, Feb. 13, students, faculty and staff at Case Western Reserve University were told to shelter in place as a man wielding a gun was seen around campus. A barrage of texts, emails and phone calls from CWRU PD erupted, leaving students collectively holding their breath. Buildings were moved to card-access only, and students were all instructed to proceed with caution once the shelter-in-place order was lifted—still, the gunman was never found.

While this was a scary moment for the CWRU community, just an hour after the order was lifted, gunshots resounded at Michigan State University as a man fired at various MSU students.

This horrifying event led to the death of three undergraduate students and five others who were injured and are now in critical care. The three students killed were sophomore Arielle Anderson, junior Alexandria Verner and sophomore Brian Fraser. All three of these students hailed from Michigan originally and are survived by devastated families.

The gunman’s motives are not clear; he was found off-campus a few hours later with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. A note was also found in his pocket outlining a threat to two other private schools in New Jersey.

Perhaps most disturbingly, though, is the fact that this is the 67th mass shooting this year. In addition, a number of the students attending MSU were also students at Oxford High School and were witness to another school shooting, leaving four dead. This shooting had occurred just 14 months prior. This also happened the day before the five-year anniversary of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, which had left 17 dead and 17 critically injured.

We have a history of school shootings here at CWRU. In 2003, a man opened fire in the Peter B. Lewis Building with an assault rifle, even-

tually killing graduate student Norman Wallace and injuring others. For hours, the gunman held those inside hostage and the building was locked down, with a SWAT team eventually coming in and arresting the man responsible for the shooting.

While this was not considered a mass shooting, the family of Shawn Miller will have to live without him for the rest of their lives, as will the families of the three students killed at MSU and all the rest of the families whose lives will be forever changed due to the growing threat of gun violence across the country.

Following this, a number of political leaders, activists, universities and influential organizations issued statements condemning gun violence and called for policy change. NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson stated that, “Going to school should not be a life-threatening endeavor,” and many Michigan lawmakers second that, including Michigan House Majority Leader Ranjeev Puri, who went as far as to say “Fuck your thoughts and prayers … Thoughts and prayers without action and change are meaningless.”

President Joe Biden also issued a statement, claiming that this “should cause every American to exclaim ‘enough’ and demand that Congress take action.” Many other leaders are calling into question the efficacy of gun regulations and demanding a change in how the country handles catastrophe.

Many universities have also issued statements, such as The Ohio State University, which stated that “We grieve with you and will support you as a part of our Big Ten Family” on their Twitter account. The University of Michigan also released a statement, saying that “We wish for a speedy recovery of the wounded, and we pray for comfort and grace for the loved ones of those so suddenly lost.”

The CWRU community has yet to hear from President Eric Kaler on his thoughts on the matter, despite the fact that this tragedy could very well have occurred here just a few hours earlier.

CWRU Film Society

Friday, February 17, 2023 7:00 p.m., 10:00 p.m.

Pulp Fiction (1994)

Rated R (154 mins.)

Directed by: Quentin Tarantino

With John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Samuel L. Jackson Jules and Vincent are two hit men sent to retrieve a suitcase for mob boss Marsellus Wallace. Wallace has also asked Vincent to take his wife Mia out a few days later while he’s out of town. Butch is an aging boxer paid to lose a fight. Pumpkin and Honey Bunny just want to rob a coffee shop. The lives of all these people are woven together in a series of funny, bizarre, and uncalled-for incidents.

Saturday, February 18, 2023

Free Admission 7:00 p.m., 9:30 p.m.

Moonlight (2016)

Rated R (111 mins.)

Directed by: Barry Jenkins

With Mahershala Ali, Naomie Harris, Trevante Rhodesi

A young African-American gay man deals with his dysfunctional home life and comes of age in Miami during the “War on Drugs” era. The story of his struggle to find himself is told across three defining chapters in his life as he experiences the ecstasy, pain, and beauty of falling in love while grappling with his own sexuality.

General Admission $4.00

The Rock of Michigan State University is painted as a somber memorial to the victims of a mass shooting that left three students dead. Courtesy of Carlos Osorio/AP

Delving into the future of research at CWRU with VP Michael Oakes

Shreyas Banerjee Executive Editor

Case Western Reserve University is not just a university: it is a research university, and a good one at that. CWRU’s central mission is not just to instruct students but also to produce knowledge so that future generations may also be educated. Being a top 20 private research university in terms of expenditure on research and development, a huge draw of coming to CWRU is being around professors and researchers at the top of their field. The CWRU website heavily promotes this fact, noting that “99% of [CWRU] undergrads take part in experiential learning, including research, co-ops and internships” and that 16 Nobel laureates are affiliated with CWRU in some way, including Albert Michelson of the famous Michelson-Morley experiment.

As such, it was no surprise when President Eric Kaler came to CWRU promising to increase the university’s research expenditures and portfolio, especially considering he is a chemical engineer by trade with 10 patents and over 200 peer-reviewed papers to his name. In previous conversations with The Observer, he impressed the importance of building a more efficient apparatus to extract funds out of the federal government for research endeavors, and focusing on future-looking fields such as artificial intelligence and reducing climate change. A key part of this agenda was the creation of a new position at CWRU to oversee all research here: the senior vice president for research and technology management. In the words of President Kaler, “We’ve never had a person whose job it is to wake up every morning, thinking ‘How do I move the research agenda of Case Western Reserve forward,’ so that’s going to be a big effort.”

But what does the job entail? And who is the man now in charge of moving that research agenda forward?

To answer those questions, The Observer sat down with Dr. J. Michael Oakes, who was hired by President Kaler to be CWRU’s first senior vice president for research and technology management in May 2022. Having come from the University of Minnesota (UMN), just as President Kaler did, he was able to get right to work in July 2022. After seven months on the job, he has plenty of reflections to share.

The conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity.

So this job is a new position at CWRU and a big part of President Kaler’s agenda. What can you tell me about what the job means, what it entails and how you feel about it?

So every big research university has a vice president for research or something related, generally called the senior research officer. And at the big places, they tend to report directly to the president [of the university]. Here at CWRU, prior to President Kaler, the job reported to the provost, so you don’t get the access to the big boss. Eric Kaler changed that. And so with his agenda to substantially grow the research enterprise, having a person—in this case me—report directly to him to execute on his vision, the job is to, obviously, substantially grow the research enterprise, but [also] to help the faculty and the systems they interface with be better.

Which is to say, less friction for faculty to get interesting grants for whatever they’re working on, to make sure that the research administration part of the house—the bureaucracy—is as efficient and good working and compliant as possible. To make sure that our faculty and our research community has access to resources they need, whether it’s a machine or some new grant opportunity from the federal government or other sources. And so my job is, in some metaphorical way, cultivating an organization, a garden, where people can thrive, the researchers can thrive. That’s my job. So what are those inefficiencies that needed to be tackled when you came in?

A researcher, often a professor, wants to get a grant from the federal government. There are so many technical things that need to be done to get that grant submitted, much like a tax return. There are all kinds of rules and regulations. A researcher themself should not be expected to know all those nuanced rules and regulations. I want her to be creative, and doing science or whatever else she’s working on. So the bureaucracy begins with having the properly trained, properly empowered people that the researcher herself interfaces with to submit the grant. Then, of course, we might get the grant. And then there’s a bureaucracy around getting the money, getting it over to the researcher herself, so she can spend the money, hire our research team—maybe some students—and maybe a new machine or a computer or something fancy, so she can do the research.

There may be travel involved, subcontracts with other universities and compliance issues. Certain things are regulated very heavily such as nuclear material and interactions with human subjects. And we have to balance costs and speeds along with the bureaucracy. If people aren’t working together, all that friction makes you just want to cry. My job is to minimize that.

Speaking of grants from the federal government, you’re coming in at a moment where the federal government is pumping in billions more dollars into research and scientific technology than they have in decades. Are you seeing the effects of that?

We’re seeing the beginning of those effects. So the money is not yet available, but it’s coming. And so there’s two things, how do we as an institution get [funding] as much as we can for the greater good. It’s a competitive process in America—you don’t just get money because you are CWRU or Stanford—you compete with other researchers. So we have to make it so that our talented researchers have the tools they need and the support they need to seek and receive the money, and then actually spend it. That’s the research friction stuff. So the money’s available in unprecedented amounts. But every other researcher and every other big university is as hungry for it as our people are. And so it’s a competition and I need to make sure that our people can favorably compete.

I don’t know how familiar you are with CWRU history but we federated specifically in 1969 to receive grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF) that we otherwise would’ve had to compete for, so that competition has always been there.

It’s always a driving force. I mean, it’s a research university. It’s not a col-

lege. And so research is a big part of what we do and hopefully the model is, stemming from the Germans so many years ago, that the students benefit by working with faculty and sitting in a classroom with faculty who are cutting edge researchers. The thing I was taught, as a young undergrad at a research institution, was that your teacher is writing the textbook, not teaching the textbook. That’s what we try to cultivate around here.

So you have a PhD in sociology and have taught courses in research methods and ethics, along with social epidemiology. How does that shape your perspective?

I had a fascinating graduate school education. I was interested intellectually in how social forces drove health. I found a program that let me do epidemiology, sociology and economics: the social forces that drive health. And I got interested in ‘how do we know what we know,’ which is research methodology, statistics and related things. A couple aspects of that training in my career I think are helpful. One, I was always instinctively interdisciplinary. I am a person who thinks about questions and anyone who can help answer the question is welcome. Health isn’t just medicine. It isn’t just social norms, or economic forces or policy. It’s all of it. So I generally bring all these perspectives, as much as I can, to a question and then learn from others. So I’ve always tried to read and act widely. Much to my surprise, that approach has been useful as a university administrator, because I got to know the languages, the cultures and the interests of various subfields from biomedicine to statistics, to mathematics, to biology, to the social sciences and even some [of the] humanities. That I think helps me see the different professors’ perspectives easier.

It must have been an interesting time to be a social epidemiologist during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as a university administrator at UMN, when lots of grants were coming in from the federal government for anything related to public health and COVID-19.

We were growing 30% [in research grants]—terrific growth, for lots of reasons. So we have this scary time

where things are shaking, but yet there’s more and more money coming in, and more success happening, certainly in certain areas. So that’s where the leadership thing came in. How does one navigate that moment of, we’re shutting down this lab, and that lab is going gangbusters. That’s what my day was every day.

Those decisions must be difficult to make, yet you have to prioritize a research portfolio today. How do you do that?

I think my job is about setting the stage for the faculty and researchers. My job is to make sure they have all the tools, they have as little friction and they have as much knowledge and support as possible. If a professor wants to study question X or Y, that’s up to them. I want to make sure if they want to study question X, they can effectively. But I have some influence in how I spend my strategic budget. I want to incentivize sustainable manufacturing. I want to sustainably incentivize artificial intelligence. Well, that means I’m not incentivizing something else. These are the decisions a leader has to make every day.

Certain departments do get funded more just because their research is more expensive.

For better or worse research, universities are often judged or ranked on the total amount of money they spend on research. The NSF tracks this. And so like it or not, everybody gets ranked. And so we want to maintain higher ranking in the big game. And like every other ranking, there are flaws, but the rankings are the rankings and you don’t want to fall too far behind, or you lose prestige.

What made you want to come to CWRU? What do you think of CWRU today?

I had the privilege of working… with President Kaler at UMN. I just became a fan of his as a leader. He’s a decisive leader who I think really understands what a research university is and must do in society. It’s a very special institution and he deeply gets it. So I got to work with him there and then when he came here. I was, in my moment of life, ready to seek an alternative. I was having a good run in UMN. But I sent him a letter and said, ‘I’d like to come [to CWRU].’’

Taking his new position as VP for research and technology management by the reins, Michael Oakes is excited to help CWRU’s researchers obtain federal grants. Courtesy of CWRU

We talked and went through the whole process of selection. After a couple of interviews here, I would have been deeply disappointed had I not got the job. I mean, there’s so much to do. So much tremendous opportunity and so much talent. I was excited, and knowing [Kaler] professionally I thought would give him and me an advantage. We don’t have to get to know each other. I kind of know his jam. He knows my strengths and weaknesses. And so we could go faster; there’s no two or three years getting to know each other and we could immediately hit the ground running and hopefully help CWRU.

Going back, I am struck at the talent around CWRU from amazing faculty to some amazing students. Obviously, there needs to be some work. Some of the infrastructure–the lab buildings and such—are obviously dated. I think that some of our relationships with our fellow institutions can be better optimized for win-wins. That includes the hospital systems, corporations, the federal government and even [the] local government.

Speaking of partnerships, a lot of research includes private partnerships, public partnerships and a lot of intellectual property. What role does CWRU have in terms of managing our own commercialization capacities? How do we make sure that our research benefits the public to the greatest extent?

So, the basic model is that the

research university does the knowledge discovery and that some of that becomes scaled up for use—that’s the transfer, or commercialization, part of it. We have a Technology Transfer Office that reports to me, and they do things on IP, they do things on finding ways for this new device, drug, whatever it might be, to…people who can scale—typically other companies. Universities aren’t good and should not be good at scaling stuff up for production. Companies of various forms take that and run with it to hopefully save people’s lives, whether it’s a vaccine or a safer car, whatever it might be. So we think a lot about that. I’d like CWRU to have more opportunities for small business and technology incubation, a bit of a nursery if you will, for proto-businesses to get going. Part of my agenda is to have more space, more initiatives and more investment in technology transfer, which means maybe a building to do it. It means, as well, connecting with venture capitalists and corporations who might bring in investment to further things along, then maybe buy it and scale it and help people live better lives. That’s part of what a research university does. Every big place does it. We’re pretty good at it here. I need to make it go even better.

There are plans for a new research center on the Case Quad, which might give some of that new space. What can you tell me about that?

That’s the forthcoming Interdisciplinary Science and Education

Building or ISEB. It’s an absolute necessity for this university and for its research enterprise. We’re going to spend about $300 million and take about 200,000 square feet. As far as design, we want to have more openness with the MLK Drive across the street so CWRU becomes more open to its community neighbors, and to make the Quad more inviting. So the architects are trying to work out how to do both those things and have a bunch of labs. What interests me in my role is the inside of the building and the social processes. How many wet labs? How many dry labs? It’s not going to be a teaching building, per se. Of course, at a research university students hopefully learn by participating in research so there’s some overlap. But it’s not classroom space. It’s obviously mostly science and engineering, but what does that mean? Whole departments won’t go there, but rather research teams. One of the questions that is on my desk is how do we put the research teams in the right part of the building so they interact, collide, mash up, learn and benefit from one another. You don’t want all the chemists on the fourth floor and the engineers on the first floor. You got to kind of mix them up a little bit.

That departmental segregation sounds like our current science buildings.

Right, but this is what a modern science and engineering building looks like. This should merely be the next important thing at CWRU. We have to build more of these kinds of

spaces for students and for research and all this stuff to grow and thrive as a university.

So I’m already thinking about the next building in my head. President Kaler wants to cut the ribbon in the fall of 2026, which is the bicentennial for CWRU.

I think one of the fascinating themed ideas about a building like this is that we’re not only building it for ourselves, but for those who will follow us. This building, hopefully, will be productive for 75 years. So how do we imagine what those who will follow will need in the upcoming decades. I’m in love with that idea. I’ve always been in awe of people who started putting stones together for some sort of cathedral, knowing they wouldn’t finish it. And those who would pick up the last stone knowing that they didn’t start it.

Speaking of legacy, what do you hope to leave behind at CWRU?

Look, I’d like to be able to build some things and reduce the friction, help with the building, help with the incubator, help with faculty and students. But I’ll tell you what I really would like people to say: “Michael Oakes cared.” It seems so corny.

But, I care about research, I care about the community, I care about health disparities. That’s my heart.

So the building is great, but what I’m trying to do is to say that a place like CWRU—a research university—can, hopefully through my leadership, have a more positive impact on human flourishing.

That’s really the goal. Caring.

The Case Quad could look dramatically different with the university’s proposed new research center (center right) replacing Yost Hall. Courtesy of CWRU

A Harmony of Industrial Noise: “This Stupid World”

TJ Disabato Staff Writer

On Feb. 10, the gloomy masters of melancholic longing, Yo La Tengo, released their 17th studio album in nearly 40 years. The album calls back to many of the themes that made the band successful in the 1990s, and a mainstay in the playlists of many millennials still. Michael Hann of The Guardian perfectly captures the essence of their spirit, describing them as “the quietest loud band, or loudest quiet band in the world.” In their blending of harsh, and at times dissonant instrumentals, the band’s soft vocals and new-age ballads lull fans into a world of introspection.

Composed of husband and wife Ira Kaplan (lead singer and guitarist) and Georgia Hubley (on drums and vocals), as well as bassist James McNew, the group formed in Hoboken, New Jersey in 1984. Since then, they have produced such seminal works as their 1993 release “Painful,” 2000’s “And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out” and what many consider to be their masterpiece, “I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One” in 1997. Many outsiders, and even fans of the group, might wonder how they could keep their signature style of music going for so

long without it becoming repetitive. However, the band’s music is constantly evolving, even when they’re performing an already recorded song. There is always room for improvisation in their music, due to their heavy instrumentals, which can often be slightly adapted. This allows the band to not only release new music, but also make twists on old classics.

The album opens with their final single release, “Sinatra Drive Breakdown,” a seven-minute long introduction to the overarching theme of

darkness they were exploring before the pandemic halted its production. Other singles from the album include “Fallout” and “Aselestine,” the first one being a more upbeat song—by Yo La Tengo’s standards. The latter feels like one of many examples of Hubley reading us poetry, the instrumentals giving us something to hold onto while we eagerly wait for her voice to come back between verses. “Tonight’s Episode” lends vocal duty to McNew, while feedback-driven guitar captures our attention until disrupted by chant-

like background vocals and catchy piano chords. In the back half of the album, “Apology Letter” and “Brain Capers” back-to-back show the band’s fearless ability to mix levels of noise and genre without bleeding ideas together, and losing the full emotion of each individual song. The album closes with “Miles Away,” a track with elements of electric pop that sounds like an even more depressed Moby cover group. Despite this, the album is an astonishing accomplishment for the threesome, and certainly deserves more widespread praise than it will likely receive.

The entire album feels like something out of a forgotten era, a time in which this kind of noise pop dominated the alternative and indie musicscape. It also feels like something out of the golden era of Yo La Tengo—as if fans could ever get tired of listening to their previously released music, and needed something fresh. Fortunately for fans, this album proves they are still ahead of their time as originals and continue to make up phenomenal music, showing no sign of slowing down. This feeling of nostalgia can be experienced all across the country as they go on tour to promote their album, including a Mar. 22 stop in Cleveland at the Beachland Ballroom.

In their 17th studio album “This Stupid World,” Yo La Tengo returns to their melancholic, noise pop roots. Courtesy of Matador Records

“Hogwarts Legacy”: The dark cloud of controversy hanging over the wizarding world

Joey Gonzalez Life Editor

The recent release of Warner Brothers’ “Hogwarts Legacy,” an open-world role-playing game set in the “Harry Potter” universe, has been riddled with controversy and ethical dilemmas. Reviews for the game—at least the ones that focus solely on the actual game—have been raving about “Hogwarts Legacy,” from the graphics to the actual quests and customization. And the option of becoming a dark wizard has certainly inspired its fair share of memes across almost every platform.

Despite the controversy surrounding the game, “Hogwarts Legacy” has smashed several gamerelated records. It already holds the second-largest player count in 24 hours for a PC game with 783,277 players as of Feb. 11. Sales for the first week have been up 80% from last year’s hit “Elden Ring.” 82% of sales have been on Playstation 5, with the remaining 18% split between Xbox and PC. “Hogwarts Legacy” is expected to continually decimate records, especially after it releases on the older generation consoles and the Nintendo Switch in April and July, respectively.

Although the premise of the game isn’t revolutionary, the game is itself teeming with magic. The open-world aspect of the game allows players to experience life surrounding Hogwarts in familiar locations like Hogsmeade and the Forbidden Forest and some that have never before been seen, like the Ravenclaw common room. The game follows a quintessential quest system, where your character follows a primary quest-line and the player approaches side characters to unlock others. In the game, quests can vary from doing various projects, to accessing new spells, to flying around the map and discov-

ering new locations. With the addition of potion-making, herbology and magical creature zoology, there are hours of wizarding content for fans to enjoy. But access to the wizarding world comes at a moral cost.

The release of “Hogwarts Legacy’’ also comes with criticism about the ethics of participating in the “Harry Potter” universe in light of transphobic comments from creator J. K. Rowling. While the comments are unfortunately not a new development, Rowling has main-

and the company has stated that they will continue to include more members of the LGBTQ+ community. Despite Rowling’s relative exclusion from the creative process, there is still a widespread boycott of the game for ethical reasons. Most people involved in the boycott don’t want to financially support Rowling, even if she was uninvolved in the process of making the game. Many have been vocal on social media about getting others to not support Rowling or the game,

criticism. The couple announced their intention to stream the game and immediately received criticism on Twitter. They later clarified that they did not pay for the game and were not supporting Rowling monetarily, but donating proceeds from the stream to The Trevor Project— an organization that focuses on the prevention of suicide among atrisk youths, specifically members of the LGBTQ+ community. Despite these statements, the couple faced heavy criticism during the stream. They even changed the chat setting to subscriber only, but people began paying for subscriptions just to harass them. The couple was then forced to abruptly end their stream when they were brought to tears over the hate messages they were receiving. While the desire to boycott the game is understandable and admirable, harassing small content creators, especially those who have not contributed to the franchise and who are actively donating to support at-risk groups, is completely unacceptable.

tained her bigoted position regarding trans people. Warner Bros. has faced heavy backlash for continuing to release “Harry Potter” content amid the controversy over Rowling’s statements and in response have to remove Rowling from the creative process, specifically with “Hogwarts Legacy.” However, as it is her intellectual property, she will continue to profit off the franchise. They have also made minor attempts to mitigate the damage of Rowling’s comments, striving for more inclusivity across “Harry Potter” projects. “Hogwarts Legacy’’ features the first trans character in the franchise, Sirona Ryan,

but some have taken the movement too far.

Critics of the game and Rowling’s beliefs have been harassing small content creators for playing or streaming “Hogwarts Legacy.” A website titled “Have they streamed that wizard game,” acted as a database for the names of all streamers who played the game. It was used to allow people who do not support Rowling to know which streamers to stay away from. However, it became used to harass those streamers. An account who streams and reviews games on Twitch, Girlfriend Reviews, found themselves at the receiving end of some of this

At the end of the day, the decision to play “Hogwarts Legacy” is an entirely individual one. Whether you are able to separate the game from J. K. Rowling’s personal beliefs or don’t agree with participating in the franchise, it is ultimately up to each person to decide. If you’re interested in playing the game or just want to experience that childhood nostalgia again, you’re not a bad person. And we shouldn’t be harassing content creators who are doing their best to mitigate contributing to Rowling’s bigoted beliefs.

“Hogwarts Legacy” is available on PC, Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X and S for those who want to experience the magic. The game will also be released on other consoles later in the year so if you want to participate, but don’t want to buy a new console, there’s no need to worry.

“Hogwarts Legacy” is the current game dominating the cultural discourse, but it hasn’t been around its gameplay but rather J. K. Rowling, the creator of “Harry Potter,” and her controversial views. Courtesy of Warner Bros. Games

“The release of ‘Hogwarts Legacy’ also comes with criticism about the ethics of participating in the “Harry Potter” universe in light of transphobic comments from creator J. K. Rowling. While the comments are unfortunately not a new development, Rowling has maintained her bigoted position regarding trans people.”

Fun

Tarun’s LOLs

Horoscope

The signs as places to go on a date

Aquarium

Weekly Tarot

Eight of Cups (Reversed)

Sometimes that gut feeling to leave a relationship is just fear of commitment, fight it and be happy with your valentine.

Strength (Upright)

Museum of Art

Passionate and fiery love awaits you, are you ready?

The Chariot (Upright)

Netflix and Chill

West Side Market

The Sweet Spot

Why change what’s already present? If you’re single, don’t be afraid to stay that way right now. If you’re in a relationship, it’s looking pretty good!

The Lovers (Reversed)

If you’re having issues with your significant other, I can tell. Communicate or buy them chocolates, you both need it.

Nine of Wands (Reversed)

You may be experiencing some defeat in your romantic endeavors. That’s okay, look inward and do not let outside factors change how you love yourself.

Botanical Garden

Algebra Teahouse

Coffeehouse

Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse

Movie Theater

Eight of Swords (Reversed)

Don’t be afraid to date on a budget; it’s the time spent not the money.

Page of Wands (Reversed)

Although a failed attempt to slide has buffered your confidence, try, try, and try again.

The Magician (Reversed)

Not everything may be what it seems with the person you’re currently talking to.

Seven of Coins (Upright)

You are making good progress in love, whether that means getting closer to someone or understanding what you want out of a relationship.

Seven of Cups (Upright)

You know what you want! Now go out there and find it.

Build The Pho

Mitchell’s

Four of Swords (Reversed)

You need to take a break between relationships to heal from each and learn how to be better each time.

Three of Cups (Upright)

A short-lived but exciting relationship is coming your way.

Crossword

What we’ve been listening to

Pink + White

Remi Wolf

Sara Khorshidi

Rich Girl

Daryl Hall & John Oates

Beau Bilinovich

Pink + White

Remi Wolf

Sara Khorshidi

Don’t Let Me Down

The Beatles

Sophia Popkin

Dance In Room Song

Sipper

ACROSS

Ho Ho

32 “___ will always love you” (Whitney Houston lyric)

34 Target of a medicated dog collar

36 “Goodness me, absolutely not!’

38 Major Texas industry

39 Goes pffft

40 Refusing to accept reality

41 See 67-Across

42 Color akin to turquoise

46 ___ Row (London street known for its tailors)

47 Modern lead-in to currency

48 Like some watermelons or brackets

49 Subject of many baa-a-ad puns?

51 Orchard beverage

53 Babe

54 Wolf sounds

59 ___ favor (Spanish “please”)

60 Praiseful poem

61 President pro ___

63 Bit of Winter Olympics equipment

64 Folded edge

Clay Preusch

Sherry, She Needs Me

The Beach Boys

Shreyas Banerjee

VIRGO’S GROOVE

Beyoncé

Karuna Lakhiani

No Scrubs TLC

Shifra Narasimhan

Forever Alone

Kakkmaddafakka

Auden Koetters

Sunn

Goth Babe

Tarun Sepuri

Valentine's Day at CWRU

by Mulan Ma

Word Search: Former Observer

Executive Editors

EDDIE KEREKES

EILEEN HERMAN

KATIE WIESER

KEVIN SMITH

MATT HOOKE

MICHAEL MCKENNA

NATHAN LESCH

RACHEL CRAFT

TAYLOR MORAN

TYLER HOFFMAN

East Palestine’s environmental disaster is a transparency disaster as well

Editorial Board

On Feb. 3, a devastating train derailment occurred in East Palestine, Ohio, spreading toxic chemicals across the area. While previously some officials were saying that the spilled and burning chemicals were no longer hazardous, more developments have since occurred, reiterating how devastating the effects have been to the surrounding area. Residents were urged to evacuate the town, and while some authorities are saying it is safe to come back, residents are wary. The dubious air quality, emergence of dead animals and water contamination has only become more apparent.

There is no clear answer as to whether or not the water is contaminated in the municipal system in East Palestine or the Ohio River— while water and air have been tested, public representatives have come out with conflicting statements, and there is uncertainty about the possible long-term effects. There seems to be no one steering the ship. This lack of organization extends to disclosure of information to the public as well. The public has been given clashing information, with consistent miscommunication between townsfolk and officials. While the E.P.A. says they have not “detected contaminants at ‘levels of concern,’” reports of dead fish and chickens have started to emerge from residents around the area. Similarly, while some officials have stated the water is fine, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine advised residents not to drink the water and drink bottled water instead. It’s been two weeks since the hazardous accident, but the East Palestine community has no clear answer as to what to do or what they should be worried about.

Even Environmental Activist Erin Brockovich commented on the incident, specifically expressing how the misinformation and unclarity surrounding the situation is “very frustrating and concerning.” Brockovich

called out “local, state, and federal” public officials, telling them to “show up” and “act like you care about what’s going on in your backyard in this country.”

As an activist, Brockovich investigated the illnesses and health conditions in Hinkley, California that she suspected were caused by contaminated groundwater. As a whistleblower, she was instrumental in the case against Pacific Gas & Electric— the energy company that polluted the groundwater but hid that information from residents. Thanks to the immense help Brockovich provided, the case was settled for over $300 million. Clearly, Brokovich is familiar with environmental disasters caused by corporations. However, Brokovich’s words don’t just carry weight for the residents of East Palestine, they illustrate how there is still a lack of transparency when it comes to environmental disasters.

While the situation in East Palestine has not been buried like in the PG&E case from the 1990s, it also has not been at the forefront of national media outlets until now, two weeks after the train cars initially derailed and ignited, nor have officials been forthcoming about critical safety information. In both situations, officials and businessmen alike have been protecting their reputations rather than helping people. Between the National Transportation Safety Board being vague about their investigative effort and the causes of the derailment and local police acting on directions to arrest reporters on site, the truth has been buried with prejudice.

It is incredibly alarming that in the 30 years since Brockovich reported on the disaster in Hinkley, not much has changed in regard to transparency of man-made environmental disasters. East Palestine, or any other similarly affected community, doesn’t deserve this worry and hazard, and we as humans deserve to have our health and safety be put above monetary ambitions.

The Case Western Reserve Observer

Established in 1969 by the undergraduate students of Case Western Reserve University

Shreyas Banerjee Executive Editor & Publisher

PRINT

Sara Khorshidi Director of Print

Grace Johnson News Editor

Joey Gonzalez Life Editor

Karuna Lakhiani Opinion Editor

Puneet Bansal Sports Editor

Beau Bilinovich Development Editor

Mulan Ma Engagement Editor

Shivangi Nanda Copy Editor

Lexy Jensen Copy Editor

Rachel Alexander Copy Editor

Elie Aoun Copy Editor

Kate Gordon Copy Editor

DIGITAL MEDIA

Joce Ortiz Director of Digital Media

Sophia Popkin Social Media Editor

Clay Preusch Photo Editor

Collin Wong Web Editor

DESIGN

Tarun Sepuri Director of Design

Shifra Narasimhan Layout Designer

Auden Koetters Layout Designer

Catherine Choi Layout Designer

Tyler Vu Graphic Designer

BUSINESS

Khushali Desai Director of Business Operations

Matthew Chang Business Manager

Mohit Kosuru Business Manager

Ryan Chang Business Manager

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 via e-mail at observer@ 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.

The Observer is a proud member of CWRU’s University Media Board. Follow The Observer on Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and Instagram @cwruobserver.

California’s crisis: why the state needs to rethink its water infrastructure

Aambar Agarwal Social Media Manager

Last month, California was slammed with severe storms and torrential rains, causing flooding, mudslides, power outages and deaths. It was record-breaking; San Francisco experienced its wettest 10-day pe-

riod since 1871. At one point, 90% of California’s population was under a flood watch. Yet, despite the remarkable precipitation, California is still in drought. Why?

The reason boils down to how the state collects and stores water.

Continued on page 10

Tyler Vu/The Observer

The jury: holding power beyond that one can bear

Catherine Choi

Contributing Editor

TW: Sexual Assault

In “To Kill A Mockingbird” by Harper Lee, Tom Robinson was put on trial for allegedly raping Mayella Ewell. Though it was evident that Robinson was innocent both to spectators and the presiding judge, he was declared guilty in a completely legal manner. Considering the time the novel is set in—when the Civil Rights Act had not yet been established—the Southern all-white jury was prone to predetermine African American defendants to be guilty before the beginning of the trial.

The fifth amendment in the U.S. Constitution states, “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation.” Accordingly, in the U.S., six- to

twelve-member juries are selected through a process that includes disqualifying potential members from participating based on a number of factors, including displaying bias. The jury then decides on a verdict after the trial. However, this system has a lot of flaws.

For instance, in the case of Tom Robinson—despite being a fictional story—bias significantly impacted the verdict. Even though potential jurors go through a process to examine bias and filter out those who are unlikely to hold a neutral stance throughout the trial, some biases may go unnoticed or may even be unintentional. Implicit bias is “a form of bias that occurs automatically and unintentionally, that nevertheless affects judgments, decisions, and behaviors,” according to the National Institutes of Health. Those with a skewed perception of race, gender, religion, political orientation or ethnicity—of which even they are unaware of—may end up focusing on the evidence that is in their bias’ favor, making it hard to make a thorough decision with a neutral stance.

CALIFORNIA from page 11

Due to limited storage space and an inability to fully capture and treat the water, most of the rain that fell flowed into the Pacific Ocean, rendering it unusable.

However, if California does not design and build storm water systems capable of capturing, storing and treating more of the rainfall, the state will be in dire trouble. The intensity of extreme weather and climate events will only worsen with time as humans continue fueling climate change.

Last month’s storms, for example, were record-breaking due to the effects of climate change. Their root cause was atmospheric rivers. Atmospheric rivers are streams of moisture from the tropics that form through the evaporation of warm ocean water. They typically deliver much of the state’s annual precipitation. As global temperatures rise due to climate change, the air is warmer

and carries more moisture—resulting in the atmospheric rivers unleashing more precipitation. This year’s atmospheric rivers were further coupled with a bomb cyclone, which only increased their intensity.

Atmospheric rivers are not the only weather event strengthened by climate change. California—which usually oscillates between wet and dry periods—has dealt with drought numerous times in the past. However, the state has been in severe drought for nearly three years. The American West itself is in its driest 22-year period in over 1,200 years. The severity of the drought can be attributed to climate change; global warming increases evaporation on land, reducing surface water and drying out vegetation.

Droughts result in water shortages—California’s current crisis. Most state reservoirs are below their historical average capacity, with Lake

OBSERVER from page 1

As for our legacy, we thought it was time for an even bigger shift: changing our name. For 54 years, we have served the CWRU campus community as “The Observer.” The name harkens back to the 1830s Hudson abolitionist newspaper, The Observer and Telegraph, which students of Western Reserve University widely read. Before the federation of the university, our predecessor papers went by “The Case Tech” and “The Reserve Tribune”—embracing their university’s names as part of their masthead. Other college-student newspapers—such as The Harvard Crimson and The Stanford Daily— typically do the same. While I cannot say for sure, part of me believes that we here at The Observer never integrated anything from “Case Western

Reserve University” into our own name; this is probably because, at the time, we did not have an attachment to our new institution. There was much tension as to what elements to take from Case and what elements to take from Reserve—our identity as a whole institution was very much an open question. My personal theory is that perhaps to remain neutral, the newspaper chose to discard both names and simply be “The Observer” for all—whether they came from Case or Reserve.

While that may have been the right choice at the time, I personally believe that our institutions have spent enough years married together for us to embrace both our Case and Reserve heritages.

Observer founder Paul

Another reason that the jury system should be reevaluated is because of the tendencies and habits of the human brain. Juries are selected from various population groups at random, and a majority of people attempt to avoid serving jury duty. Legal documents are drenched with complicated jargon, making it likely for people to cherry-pick the information that is easy for them to digest rather than going through the strenuous process of thoroughly reviewing all of the evidence and paperwork that is a part of the case. This prevents the jury from having a comprehensive view of the case as a whole. In other countries that utilize the civil law system, the judge makes the decision based on the rules written in the law. Juries are nonexistent or hold no power other than as a reference. Allowing lay people with no legal knowledge nor the ability to make complicated judgments to provide a verdict may lead to misjudgment.

Although the current U.S. jury system has its pros and cons, there are ways to make the system much more effective. For example, some

countries in Europe compose the jury with people in the legal field, while others have a jury, but only use their decision as a reference rather than as definitive decision makers.

In “To Kill a Mockingbird,” two children asked their lawyer father Atticus why Mayella Ewell’s father kept threatening those involved in Robinson’s trial even though he got what he wanted. Atticus responded by saying that although the jury may have decided in his favor, Ewell was aware that the people did not believe him. As a result, Ewell was forced to try to cover his tracks and the Ewells were ostracized from their neighborhood. As illustrated by this case based on very real circumstances, people may not necessarily not care about deciding who is innocent or guilty in a court of law, but instead want to prove that their beliefs are correct. Further, it is likely that many people may make a verdict based on pathos rather than logic and facts. Having someone with zero expertise in the legal field having control of someone’s fate can lead to tragic effects, even if they are a legally selected jury.

Mead and Powell, the country’s largest reservoirs, badly depleted.

To deal with the lack of water, the state has enacted a few water conservation regulations on water suppliers and citizens while laying out future infrastructure goals. They have done little else. Hence, even after such extreme precipitation, California continues to be in severe drought.

With greenhouse gas emissions not stopping anytime soon, California must act now before the water shortage worsens. But how?

Firstly, California needs a greater storage capacity. Currently, water is contained in the snowpack, reservoirs and groundwater aquifers. However, when rain falls quickly in such large amounts, the snowpack is not formed at lower elevations, reservoirs are filled up too swiftly and water cannot enter aquifers fast enough. In the face of extreme pre-

cipitation, California needs to store water more effectively. For instance, the state could construct more reservoirs, directly increasing storage capacity.

Secondly, California must improve its methods of capturing storm water. When water falls too fast and creates a hazard, the state tries to remove it from the land as quickly as possible, allowing it to drain into the Pacific Ocean. Rather than wasting so much stormwater, California should instead create floodplains and permit the stormwater to slowly accumulate in aquifers, replenishing groundwater.

Finally, more water treatment facilities must be constructed and properly maintained to keep up with the increased collection and storage of stormwater.

If California acts quickly, it might just survive the worst of climate change.

Kerson

once told me, “Case Western Reserve University is decidedly not a long, unwieldy name. It is a name steeped in American history and the ongoing solutions to its challenges. We should be justly proud of the entire name. Western Reserve means Connecticut’s effort to keep slavery out of Ohio at a time when Virginia wanted to bring that defective, cruel economic system into a then brand-new territory. Case means society’s effort to improve itself through new technology. Western Reserve’s historic effort to establish a just economy is needed to govern Case’s effort to bring us new machines. There is no other university which institutionally understands the necessary interrelationship between the two goals and to keep them in harmony for the

betterment of society.”

I couldn’t agree more with Kerson. It is time to embrace our whole name and the legacy that comes with it across CWRU—including our student newspaper. Henceforth, we shall be known as “The Case Western Reserve Observer.” While we will continue referring to ourselves as “The Observer” in shorthand, our new name sets us up for the next 50 years.

Hopefully, this paper will be around for decades to come and will change accordingly with the times. I believe our new logo, design and name is the right decision for this time. I hope you think so too, and continue to patronize us with your readership as we continue documenting the story of CWRU.

Why internet boycotts don’t work

much negativity to their brand?

What the story of “Velma” and Nike have in common is that a tidal wave of negative attention didn’t harm them. Rather, it bolstered their brand and pushed their product into the popular consciousness. Despite the horrible reviews, “Velma” received a steady flow of hatewatchers, which made it the fourthmost watched show at the time of its release. It is now being renewed for a second season. And in the days following Nike’s ad, their revenue increased dramatically in contrast to the Dow Jones industrial average, which had fallen precipitously that week.

Whether by accident or on purpose, the phenomenon of negative attention leading to success is increasingly common. The reason why is because the phrase “there’s no such thing as bad publicity” has taken on a new life in the information age. Internet algorithms are structured so that exciting anger is much more likely to be seen than comparatively boring content that doesn’t enrage you. Now, bad publicity is the best kind of publicity.

what was the result? We don’t have access to an alternate universe in which trans advocates collectively decided to do something else with their time, but I’d be willing to bet that the inadvertent free advertising helped the game much more than any faithful boycotters might’ve hurt it.

And more importantly, think about what a failed boycott looks like to someone not invested in the topic at hand. Now that the dust has settled, trans advocates look weak, and transphobia looks powerful— even if the vast majority of people who bought the game did so with no political goal. Bystanders have been trained by this incident to point and laugh at trans people for trying and failing to attack a stupid video game.

Milo Vetter Staff Writer

On Jan. 12, the TV show “Velma” was released on HBO Max to almost universally negative reviews. The show currently stands at a 41% critic score and a 7% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which really says something about who gets to be called a “critic.” Basically everyone interested in TV shows took a turn making fun of it. Nearly every aspect about the show is horrible—the disregard to the source material, the mediocre animation, the unlikable characters and the awful writing.

Years earlier, something similar

happened to Nike, the shoe company. In September 2018, Nike released a commercial featuring the anti-racist activist and football player Colin Kaepernick, whose famous kneeling during the national anthem to protest police brutality sparked discussions about the political role of sports players. When this commercial came out, conservatives got so angry that they tried to boycott Nike for, uh, collaborating with someone who thinks that racism is a problem. Putting aside the questionable motives of the boycotters, here’s the kicker: Nike’s advertising department knew beyond all reasonable doubt that this would happen. So why did they purposely incite so

Cocky or confident?

Enya Eettickal Staff Writer

As a member of the mock trial team here at Case Western Reserve University, I spend much of my time—namely weekends—with some very big personalities from all over the country. A significant part of these activities comes down to being judged on presence and presentation, even though this is insanely subjective. However, there are traceable patterns of what qualities are well received—judges tend to love people who are credible, pleasant and notably attentive. But one polarizing trait that most competitors have is confidence. At least, everyone will say it’s confidence. But it’s hard to understand why it is polarizing. Why is it that some audiences react positively to confidence in performers, but others may be averse?

The answer, in my mind, is that there’s a difference between the types of confidence people have. Specifically, there’s a difference between being confident and being cocky. Even at first glance, both words have different connotations, and it can be hard to discern the difference even with practice. At what point does confidence become cockiness? How do you temper cockiness? There are

a few questions to examine here. That is why it is important to explore why cockiness is undesirable in comparison to confidence.

In this case, defining these terms is part of the solution. Confidence and cockiness are both characteristics that result from a strong sense of self and often help with decisionmaking. Their big difference lies in the mindsets associated with them and understanding of those around them.

Confidence is rooted in the idea that you are proficient at certain tasks or great at merely existing. Confidence is the textbook characteristic everyone is told to build. Cockiness has those same qualities, but added is the aspect of thinking that one is more proficient than the people around them, and that’s where the split in work ethic comes as well. People who are confident in their abilities have an awareness of why and how they are good at what they do. They understand the work they’ve had to put in to get to where they are, and are willing to sustain that work and effort to maintain their abilities. Cocky people don’t have that. Even if they were once confident and worked to get themselves to a certain skill level or image, they lose sight of who they were and become wrapped up in who they

This is all good if you’re a company seeking to make your product popular, but what if you’re trying to do the opposite? This phenomenon makes a potential boycott extremely difficult to pull off, because for every person you convince not to buy a product online, there are 10 more people who are hearing about the product for the first time because you’re loudly convincing someone not to get it.

This exact thing just happened last week with the controversial release of a game called “Hogwarts Legacy,” which, as the name implies, takes place within the “Harry Potter” world. Upon its announcement, some trans rights advocates called for a boycott of the game due to its direct financial ties to J.K. Rowling—the thought leader of a widespread hate movement against trans people. This sentiment against the game was fairly well known, but

now are instead. As a result, they convince themselves that they are inherently superior to others, not accounting for any privileges they may have or changes that occurred over time.

The problems that stem from cockiness are pretty self-explanatory. Cocky people are bound to overestimate their abilities. When they assume they are skilled or superior inherently, they forget the importance of working to develop or retain abilities. But despite what they assume, practice and work are still necessary to maintain their skills. So when they abandon developing that skill with their unfounded assumption about innate talent, they’re prone to being humbled quickly. Reality checks may come at the time they least expect it.

Beyond that, there’s also the issue of cocky people simply being unlikeable. This goes back to my anecdote about performers. Cockiness is relatively easy to identify, and while it may be hard to spot the difference between confident and cocky people at first glance, cocky people are easy to identify once you spend any time with them. It’s most noticeable in how they treat others— whether that be body language that conveys disgust or condescending manners of speaking. No one wants

A reality we need to grapple with is the fact that boycotts organized on the internet simply don’t work. If you examine famous successful boycotts throughout history—such as the Montgomery bus boycott or the Delano grape strike and boycott—they were generally local, specific and didn’t involve the internet. More importantly, they were backed up by a central organization, like an activist group or labor union. In short, not all boycotts are useless, but ones that start online certainly are.

This, however, does not take you off the hook for unethical consumption on a personal level. The act of avoiding consumption of unethical products is still a moral virtue— though not a moral necessity. Convincing someone to not consume a product on an interpersonal level is still a good thing. You just have to be careful about advocating for largescale boycotts online, because you have no way of knowing if you’ll do more harm than good. Being in the digital age means that we have to be wary of the effects that our internet speech has and doubly suspicious of any calls to make something irrelevant and unpopular by talking about it passionately in the middle of the public square.

to be patronized and treated poorly, or watch others around them being regarded similarly.

The unfortunate part of all this is that cocky people often don’t know they are cocky. They don’t understand what part of their personality is turning people away from them. And because a lack of self-awareness is a fundamental part of being cocky, it’s difficult for them to identify it. However, the silver lining is that the difference between cocky and confident isn’t a huge one—therefore, the work that someone needs to evolve from cocky to confident is minimal.

Once someone has identified, accepted and decided to temper their cockiness, which they may be more inclined to do if they get humbled, they probably can. Developing selfawareness and rededicating time to working hard is often enough to put them in a position where others will positively receive their strong sense of self.

However, while it’s possible to fix the problem of cockiness, there’s no guarantee that someone will change. Being in a situation where cocky people are actively having their behavior checked expedites the experience—but there are no guarantees even then. All you can do is hope that the social response will be a good wake-up call.

Tyler Vu/The Observer

MEN’S BASKETBALL from page 1

pulling it out was big for us.”

“The Rochester game was a great win for us,” added Frilling. “The whole team had been looking forward to that game for a while since they beat us up pretty bad last time we played so it was really great to get the win and keep rolling. Josh [Levy] was huge in the Rochester game as well. All of us on the team know what he can do because we see it in practice everyday so I’m really glad he got to show our fans and everyone watching what he’s capable of. We’ve got a ton of great players on our team and I’m extremely happy for him.”

Frauenheim also recorded a double-double, his second this season and the third of his career, with 11 points and 10 assists. Frilling scored 13 points and 9 rebounds and Trunley had 12 points.

a layup setting the score at 100-67 and ultimately finished the game 102-75.

Frauenheim added 23 points to the score and added another double-double to his record. Rashid matched his career-high with 21 points, shooting 7-10 from the floor. Third-year forward Ian Elam and Frilling led with 7 rebounds each. Overall, the Spartans shot 59.7% from the field with a total of 19 assists and 36 rebounds.

The YellowJackets responded with a 3-pointer to put the score at 88-87 with 29 seconds left. After an intense play, Rochester committed a technical foul with three seconds left by attempting to call a timeout when they had none left. This allowed Frilling to make 2 free throws to seal the game 90-87.

Overall, the team shot 43.4% from the field and recorded 44 rebounds and 23 assists. Levy, who had his first starting game of his career, led all players with 22 points.

Levy says, “It was an amazing game and definitely a night to remember.”

Prendergast recorded the first double-double of his career with 14 points and 10 rebounds. He applauded Levy’s play and stressed the importance of the win, especially during overtime, saying, “We came out really strong thanks to Josh [Levy]. It was also really good for us to get some late game practice too. We had only had one overtime game prior to this one and we lost, so getting another overtime and

Thornburn opened the Sunday game with a layup, giving the Spartans a lead they would never lose for the remainder of the evening. The closest Emory came to tying the game was after they made a layup with 10:21 left in the first half, putting the score at 18-20. However, after a steal by Frilling followed by Frauenheim’s layup, the Spartans went on a 12-2 run. This left the score at 32-20 with 6:59 left on the clock. Second-year forward Umar Rashid scored the last 4 points of the first half for the Spartans with a 3-pointer with 1:13 left and a free throw with 56 seconds left. The first half ended with the Eagles trailing by 15 points at 50-35.

The Spartans continued with great gameplay throughout the second half, leading by at least 13 for the rest of the way and 20 in the last 10 minutes. They took the largest lead of the game after Lewis made

Prendergast led the score with a season-high 29 points, shooting 7-12 from the 3-point range and 10-15 overall. He was named to the D3Hoops.com Team of the Week and earned the UAA Men’s Basketball Athlete of the Week honor. Prendergast, however, emphasized the importance of team effort, especially their ability to just make the shots, saying, “We were able to hit a lot of shots. When we are hitting our 3’s, we are a tough team to beat. We also passed the ball really well and played very unselfishly which allowed us to get open looks. It was a really good weekend for us and now we are excited to go to St. Louis and play WashU for first place in the conference.”

Head Coach Todd McGuinness was selected as the NCAA Division III Coach of the Week after these two wins. This is the third time that Coach McGuinness has earned this award.

In their next away game against Washington University in St. Louis on Feb. 17, the Spartans will be competing for sole possession of the No. 1 seed in the UAA. They will also be facing the University of Chicago on Feb. 19 and Carnegie Mellon University on Feb. 25.

Women’s basketball defeats Rochester, falls to Emory

Paola Van der Linden Costello Staff Writer

The Case Western Reserve University women’s basketball team celebrated a win against No. 25 University of Rochester on Friday, Feb. 10 but suffered a loss against Emory University on Sunday, Feb. 12. The team moved to 14-8 overall and 5-6 in the University Athletic Association conference, leaving CWRU at No. 6 in the conference standings.

The win against Rochester was especially meaningful as CWRU recorded their first win over a ranked team since 2020 and their first win over Rochester since 2014. Though the Spartans struggled to make their baskets the last time they faced the YellowJackets on the road, the Spartans dominated on offense at home.

Fourth-year guard/forward Isabella Mills led all players with 24 points, 10 rebounds and 6 assists, notching her third double-double of the season and the 10th of her career. The team shot 44.4% overall and had 42 rebounds and 17 assists total.

The first quarter started with both teams trading 3-pointers to even the score 3-3. The Spartans took their first lead of the night after Mills made another 3-pointer with 5:53 remaining in the first quarter. Maintaining incredible ball movement, the Spartans finished the first

quarter up 27-16 led by Mills going 3/4 from 3-point range and bringing in 11 points.

The YellowJackets trailed the entire second quarter as well, only cutting the lead to 6 after a layup was made with 5:14 left in this quarter. However, after second-year guard/ forward Lucy Vanderbeck made a 3-point jump shot with 4:49 left, the Spartans finished the half up 40-28.

CWRU’s largest lead of the night came in the third quarter with 39 seconds left after first-year guard/ forward Emily Plachta hit two free throws for the 58-40 Spartan advantage. The third quarter ended with the Spartans being up a 14 point lead, and the YellowJackets, once again, failing to catch up.

Third-year forward Kayla Characklis led the dominant fourth quarter with 11 points and 4 rebounds. Characklis’s jumper sealed the game as the Spartans won it 78-60.

“We knew we were better than that and we knew we had something to prove,” said Characklis about how important this game was to the team, especially after the 24-point loss last time. “We came in strong and kept it going.”

The Spartans celebrated Senior Day on Sunday in their game against Emory and honored Mills and fourth-year guard Claire Poulton. Second-year forward Evie Miller led the team with 10 points and Mills with 6 rebounds. It was a

low scoring game for the Spartans, only scoring 48 points by the end of the game. The team shot just 27.1% from the field goal range compared to Emory’s 57.4%, ultimately leading to their demise.

The Spartans had their largest lead of the night in the first quarter after Characklis made a layup. However, the Eagles quickly caught up and made it difficult on offense for CWRU. By the end of the first quarter the Spartans were down

9, a gap that grew to 19 by the end of the first half. Despite attempts made to catch up, CWRU couldn’t close the gap. The Eagles had their largest lead of the night with 5:16 remaining in the game and ultimately won 79-48.

The Spartans will conclude their season on the road, facing Washington University in St. Louis on Feb. 17, the University of Chicago on Feb. 19 and Carnegie Mellon University on Feb. 25.

Graduate guard Mitch Prendergast scored a season-high 29 points in a game against Emory, helping him earn recognition as the UAA Men’s Basketball Athlete of the Week. Courtesy of CWRU Athletics

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Second-year guard/forward Lucy Vanderbeck scores 11 points, helping CWRU secure a long-awaited victory against the University of Rochester. Courtesy of CWRU Athletics

Chiefs edge past Eagles 38-35 in Super Bowl LVII

Ishan Kulkarni Staff Writer

On Feb. 12, a beautiful and sunny Sunday in the Arizona desert, the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles, the champions of the AFC and the NFC, respectively, faced off in Super Bowl LVII.

The Chiefs were coming off backto-back playoff games decided by just one score, beating the Jacksonville Jaguars 27-20 in the divisional round and the Cincinnati Bengals 23-20 in the AFC championship game. On the other hand, the Eagles came into the Super Bowl with dominant wins over the New York Giants and the San Francisco 49ers. The Eagles’ defense held both teams to just 7 points while the offense scored 38 and 31 against both teams, respectively. Both teams were in great form coming into the championship, and the game did not disappoint.

The Chiefs won the coin toss and elected to give possession to the Eagles for the first drive. The Eagles, who have been one of the best teams in the NFL on opening drives, set the tone of the game early, taking the ball downfield from their 25yard line and scoring the first touchdown. Quarterback Jalen Hurts showed his elite passing and scrambling abilities to gain yards for the Eagles before rushing the ball into the endzone for the first of his three rushing touchdowns on the day.

The Chiefs responded with a touchdown of their own, going down the field in less than three and a half minutes. The Patrick MahomesTravis Kelce connection was strong as tight end Kelce caught two passes for 38 yards, one of them being an 18-yard touchdown pass. Quarterback Mahomes also scrambled for 8 yards, showing everyone that his ankle—which he had injured in the previous playoff game against the Jaguars—wasn’t going to be a problem.

The next two drives resulted in stops as the Chiefs’ defense forced the Eagles to punt, and the Eagles’ defense held the Chiefs to a 42yard field goal attempt, which they missed. The Eagles had great field position on their next possession and took advantage as Hurts threw a deep 45-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver A.J. Brown, increas-

ing their lead to 14-7.

The Chiefs were unable to make anything of their next possession and it ended in a punt. During the Eagles’ next drive, Hurts fumbled the ball and Chiefs’ linebacker Nick Bolton recovered the fumble and returned it for a 36-yard touchdown to tie the game 14-14. The Eagles remained poised, however, and demonstrated their offensive prowess during the next drive. The team chose to take a risk on fourth-and-5, resulting in a 28-yard Hurts rush. With only 16 yards between them and the endzone, the Eagles were in a good position for the end of their drive. In his second rushing touchdown of the night, Hurts brought the ball in to put the Eagles ahead 21-14.

The Chiefs, with a little more than two minutes to go in the half, struggled to get a first down. Mahomes appeared to reinjure his ankle on a third-and-15 play when he was tackled by linebacker T. J. Edwards, and was seen grimacing in pain as he went to the bench. The Eagles closed out the first half with a field goal to put them up a commanding 24-14.

After a riveting performance by Rihanna, the Chiefs blasted open

Pictures of the Week

the second half with a strong 75yard drive resulting in a touchdown. Mahomes looked unbothered by his ankle as he rushed for 14 yards on the drive. The Chiefs made good use of both their passing and rushing game to close in on the Eagles.

On the Eagles’ next drive, the Chiefs’ defense immobilized the offense inside the red zone and forced a field goal attempt, keeping the game at a one-possession difference. The Chiefs’ offense then retook the field. Mahomes connected with wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster four times for a combined 38 yards. The drive ended with a 5-yard pass from Mahomes to wide receiver Kadarius Toney for a touchdown and the first Chiefs lead of the game at 28-27.

Kansas City’s defense then came up with yet another stop, forcing the Eagles to punt the ball after going three-and-out. Toney returned the punt for 65 yards, the longest return in Super Bowl history, to set up the Chiefs with great field position that led to a touchdown and a 35-27.

With a little more than nine minutes left in the fourth quarter, the Eagles drove down the field quickly via a 45-yard pass from Hurts to wide receiver DeVonta Smith. Hurts then notched his third and final

rushing touchdown of the day and successfully completed a 2-point conversion to tie the game 35-35.

The Chiefs slowly moved the ball up the field to run down the clock on the next possession. Mahomes kept the momentum going and rushed for 26 yards in a crucial play. With 1:54 left in the game on third-and-8, the Eagles’ defense conceded a crucial penalty as cornerback James Bradberry was called for a defensive holding. The penalty automatically resulted in a Chiefs’ first down.

The Eagles then used their final timeout to buy them some time. The Chiefs chose to kneel and take the five-yard penalty before setting up a 27-yard field goal attempt. With the Lombardi trophy on the line, Chiefs’ kicker Harrison Butker nailed the kick and the Chiefs took the lead 38-35.

The Eagles had eight seconds left to come up with something but failed to move the ball, losing in a heartbreaking incomplete pass. This Super Bowl win was the Chiefs’ second in the last four years and Mahomes was announced as the Super Bowl MVP. The game wrapped up an exciting 2022-2023 NFL season with many already looking forward to the next season.

After leading the Kansas City Chiefs to a close win over the Philadelphia Eagles, Patrick Mahomes was named the MVP of Super Bowl LVII. Courtesy of Gregory Shamus/Getty Images

Shifra Narasimhan/The Observer

Tarun Sepuri/The Observer

CWRU renames men’s basketball locker room after Mark Termini

Puneet Bansal Sports Editor

Prior to the game against the University of Rochester on Friday, Feb. 10, Case Western Reserve University announced the official renaming and dedication of the Mark Termini Men’s Basketball Locker Room.

The locker room is named after former Spartan basketball athlete Mark Termini, whose contributions funded the space’s renovation. The modernized locker space includes new lockers, carpeting, refrigerators, wall art and audio-visual technology.

“I think the name change and the renovations to the locker room are great,” said second-year forward Umar Rashid. “Although I’ve never met Mr. Termini, I think it’s amazing the amount of support he has for us and it’s great that he is giving back as much as he is … Mr. Termini was a great player for [CWRU] and we are all very grateful for what he has accomplished and continues to do for this program.”

“It is great to be able to walk in and be reminded of Mark Termini and the legacy he left on the basketball program,” added graduate student guard Mitch Prendergast. “It is definitely inspiring for us.”

When asked what the best new locker room feature is, Rashid said, “I can say with certainty that the team’s favorite new addition to the locker room is our speaker that gets the team turned up.”

Prendergast agreed, saying, “Now

we are able to listen to music before games, and really blast it after big wins.”

Termini, who played for CWRU from 1974-1978 and was inducted into the Spartan Club Hall of Fame in 1994, ranks in the top 15 players in school history, with 1,161 career points. He is also fifth all-time in career assists with 258.

“I understand and respect the dedication, discipline, and effort required to play and coach Varsity Basketball at CWRU,” said Termini in an interview with the CWRU Athletic Department. “I am pleased to acknowledge those efforts and support the program in this small way.”

After attending CWRU, Termini established a sports agency titled Mark Termini Associates Inc., which has represented professional basketball players, coaches and executives for more than 35 years. Termini has negotiated more than $2 billion in professional sports contracts, including the landscape-changing return of LeBron James to Cleveland in 2014.

“Mark remains one of the most prominent players in program history, and his generosity since the end of his playing days will allow his impact to be felt by generations of Spartan players to come,” said head coach Todd McGuinness. “We are grateful to have his support as we continue our quest to compete for conference and national championships.”

Termini’s constant support is incredibly appreciated by everyone on the team as emphasized by Prender-

Alumnus Mark Termini, previously a member of CWRU’s men’s basketball team, has since founded his own sports agency and represented a plethora of professional players. Courtesy of CWRU Athletics

gast, who added that when Termini saw “a picture of the locker room and … the fridge was empty, he immediately made sure that we had drinks in there the next day. Even though this seems little, it really meant a lot to us.”

The Spartans are currently tied for first in the University Athletic Association rankings. They are in the midst of one of the best seasons in program history, sporting an 18-3 overall record and 8-3 in the UAA. They have won six straight conference games—the best streak in CWRU history. CWRU will conclude their season on the road, hop-

Scores and Upcoming Games

Women’s Basketball

Wrestling

Men’s Tennis

CWRU vs UAA Championship (2/11) 3rd (36 pts)

CWRU vs NCAA Central Regional (2/25-26)

CWRU vs NCAA Championships (3/10-11)

Indoor Track & Field

CWRU vs Indoor All-Ohio Championships (2/11) -

Men’s team: 5/14 (50.5 pts)

Women’s team: 3/13 (80 pts)

CWRU vs Ed Finnigan GCC Invite (2/17)

ing to return to the DIII NCAA tournament for a deep playoff run.

There is no doubt that the hard work and constant support of CWRU players, coaches, parents and alumni play a pivotal role in enabling our athletics programs to succeed at the highest levels.

“With the basketball program really starting to become successful, it means a lot to us to have alumni supporting us,” reflected Prendergast. “Now after having the Mark Termini locker room, we are again reminded that while these wins mean a lot to us, we also have a lot of backing behind the scenes as well.”

Men’s Basketball

Women’s Tennis

Wittenberg (2/11) - W 9-0

CWRU at Washington & Lee (2/17)

CWRU vs Chris Newport (2/18)

Swimming & Diving

CWRU vs UAA Championships (2/8-11) -

Men’s team: 6th (627 pts)

Women’s team: 6th (794 pts)

CWRU vs Midwest Invitational (2/17-18)