This year is the fourth year since the concert’s formation, and the event will host six bands: Pete McDonald & The Black Oaks, Fat City, The Rust Buckets, The Blues Birds, Foster Brown and Julie Patton & Paul Van Curen.

“Each band has at least one member that works in the conservation field,” said Pete McDonald, the singer of Pete McDonald & The Black Oaks and the director of stewardship for Western Reserve Land Conservancy (WRLC).

McDonald has coordinated the event since its creation; his workplace hosts the event. He first became involved with this conservancy after pursuing music full-time for a few years.

“I realized music was gonna be a hard life for me,” said McDonald.

After this realization, McDonald immediately threw himself into another field that he was passionate about: land conservation. When he started working for WRLC, he noticed a very consistent coincidence. “You go to meetings of conservationists and you notice the pattern of a lot of musicians being there,” he said.

McDonald, who had already developed a positive relationship with the Beachland Ballroom, decided to design the Conservation Rocks! concert to give different bands an opportunity to perform among friends and colleagues, and also to raise awareness about land conservancy.

It is not difficult for McDonald to carry on his identities as a land conservationist and a musician. “Music’s a big passion of mine,” he said. “I take it wherever I go.”

His band, Pete McDonald & The Black Oaks, is folk rock with songs reminiscent Neil Young, Bob Dylan, and some more modern folk musicians.

The other performers must have passions similar to McDonald’s, considering the popularity that Conservation Rocks! has gained since its establishment. Last year, the show attracted about 250 to 300 people to the Beachland Ballroom. This year, the concert will bring more bands to the stage than in the past, choosing to have shorter sets to keep the show moving quickly.

McDonald has been “really satisfied with its popularity,” as has the venue itself. “Beachland Ballroom feels it’s successful too so they have us back,” he said. The bands performing this year have also had a positive response. “All the people in the bands are excited and friendly about the event,” he said.

Each band will bring a different and unique sound to the stage, ranging from folk to blues to rock. All the bands have at least one member involved with land conservation, spanning from bluebird conservation to gardening.

At the end of the night, the bands will crowd onto the stage, join each other, and jam together one last time in an exciting finish.

Though the show will definitely help spread a message of conservation in all its different forms, McDonald never ceased to emphasize one of the most important reasons for having the show: “Just to have fun.”

The funds raised at the event help to mainly cover the cost of putting on the concert, but the WRLC makes a small amount each year. Regardless, the money will eventually find its way into helping different efforts. “Any revenue goes toward land conservancy in one way or another,” said McDonald.

Tickets cost $10 in advance and $13 at the door, and can be purchased through the Beachland Ballroom website or at the

WRLC’s new conservation center on Chagrin River Road.

“If you’re interested in the environment or land conservation, you don’t have to know anybody playing. You don’t have to know anybody going there, but if you go you’ll meet a lot of the greatest conservationists in the area,” said McDonald. “It’ll be a lot of fun.”

Beachland Ballroom’s doors open at 6 p.m. and the show begins at 6:30 p.m.

In the second half of the play, the show takes a definite shift in genre. It’s quite severe actually. I felt like I had come back from the intermission to a different play. Suddenly, conflicts between characters that seemed benign become malignant (as does a breast cancer scare). Eve admits that there is nothing about her daughter but her money that anyone could love, an assessment later proved by Henry. Like a rotten cherry on top, Maggie gets fired on Christmas. Now, after years of growing tired of the standard rom-com formula with its passé happy endings, I initially thought a departure would be refreshing. Indeed, the play reveals itself, in the second half, to be a sadistic satire that exposes the hollowness of idealistic love, free of practical considerations. Instead of bringing this point home at the end of its narrative, the play muddles its conclusion. I suspect that this was intentional i.e. the point of the play was to leave the ending open to interpretation. While that may have work in a play with deep, well-constructed characters, the stock rom-com cast of “Rich Girl” does not lend itself to such esoteric ruminations about human happiness.

All of the characters in this play, without exception, are one-dimensional cardboard cutouts. They all have mono-directional aims that dictate the choices they make throughout the play. Eve has her eyes only on money and perpetuating her wealth through her daughter’s succession to the head of her non-profit organization. Claudine desperately seeks someone to love her. Henry wants to make art, and Maggie wants everyone to be happy. These desires dictate how the characters interact with each other. More often than not, this leads not to complex relationships between the characters but rather to a series of ultimatums that drive the plot toward its murky close. Only in Claudine do we actually see some internal conflict, but it does little to change the overall atmosphere. That being said, the actors do an excellent job of bringing these characters to some sort of half-life. Quite often actually, I forgot how one-dimensional these characters are and could enjoy the individual scenes between them. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to make up for the writing.

The set design was also failed to support the teetering plot. Like “Good People,” “Rich Girl” employed a very naturalistic design. A better comparison might be last season’s “In the Next Room,” which also appeared on the Second Stage. However, unlike “Good People” or “In the Next Room,” in which the sets reinforced the themes presented in the respective plots, the set of “Rich Girl” does nothing for the story. Instead, it looks mostly like a set for a TV show, something that prompted a terrible thought to spawn in my head. I asked myself, why should I see this here on stage when it could just as easily be on TV? I should never find myself making a comparison between TV and theatre since the two mediums have different purposes. Rather, it demonstrates the flaw of the set design which focused too hard on being naturalistic and not enough on atmosphere or theme.

There is only one time where the set is used to explore a theme of the plot. It is when Eve addresses her audience on a CNBC program about money matters. The first instance of such a scene provided a nice introduction for her character and set the stage for the play. However, the repeated use of the device was bothersome. It seemed to be used to give the play a sense of pace and chart the changes in the characters’ situations as well as to make certain statements about the themes concerning financial security and relationship in the play.

Ultimately, the monologues were trite and vacillated between parodying actual financial gurus like Suze Orman and taking themselves too seriously. This could be said of the overall play itself and proves to be its quintessential flaw. It fails to take a standpoint either as a satire of the rich-poor rom-com genre or to simply indulge in the genre itself. And no, standing somewhere in the middle is not a viable standpoint either.

 Main features of the event included a t-shirt giveaway from the University Programming Board, booths by student organizations, and free food from a variety of local restaurants, including Indian Flame, the Jolly Scholar, and Melt.

 The booths featured at the event exemplified the diversity of student groups on campus. Molly Hudelson, a senior who was at the event representing the Warner Music Group, said, “I really like setting up a booth at these types of events because it not only allows me to promote artists, but allows me to interact with people one-on-one.”

Thwing Study Over, a long-standing campus tradition, is organized by a student committee, who plan the proceedings from inception to execution. Co-chair of logistics on the Thwing Study Over planning committee, Aditya Rengaswamy, thought the event was a success, noting that Thwing Study Over had “epic food, epic fun, and was the only place on campus where a line for a t-shirt never ends.”

 The event was run primarily by volunteers from the Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity.  Volunteer coordinator Jenna Lichtenberg said that the event was a wonderful opportunity for Alpha Phi Omega brothers to get service hours, while encouraging people to join next semester. The brothers could be seen all over the event wearing their blue and gold APO jerseys, and did everything from running the cotton candy machine to standing by garbage bins sorting trash into recyclables, compost, and landfill items.

With finals looming, Thwing Study Over provided an opportunity for students to take a study break from finals, and highlighted the work of on-campus groups.

However, much of the surrounding community was excited for Springfest 2013.

Yesterday, crowds gathered at North Residential Village (NRV) field to peruse a variety of booths, visit several inflatable rentals and congregate at the large stage in the corner of the football field. Free items were given out at random, including t-shirts, cups and stickers bearing the logos of their respective organizations.

While many students were excited for the opportunity to stash away free swag, the real center of Springfest was the music.

First on stage was CWRU student Jordan Genovese, performing acoustic country-influenced songs. Her relaxed sound was calm, catchy ,and a great way to start off the rising action of the following performers.

Next up was The New 30s, winner of Spot Night’s competitive Battle of the Bands. Their songs picked up the speed a bit with groovy saxophone riffs and a harder rock feel. This show was both exciting and interesting and featured a variety of well-known covers and original pieces.

When rapper King Chip had his turn, even distracted students flocked to the stage. King Chip’s heavy bass beats consistently shook the ground, and his audience progressively grew during the performance. This show was a little difficult to endure without a migraine, but there is no denying that King Chip knew how to please a crowd.

After King Chip’s blasting rap performance, we were not able to attend Slug Party and instead used a meal swipe to redeem dinner at the cookout nearby. We returned to the field in time for the headlining band, the pop-rock group, The Maine.

As booths were torn down and inflatables stored away, students gathered closer to the stage, with many laying down in the turf or on picnic blankets.

While waiting for the band to arrive on stage, a mix of electronic, pop and rock music entertained the soon-to-be audience. Many people played catch with frisbees and footballs, trying to kill time before the big show.

When The Maine finally did arrive, the crowd near the stage grew larger. Some students even climbed to the roof of the nearby parking garage to have a bird’s eye view of the band.   The Maine’s show was well-timed and entertaining. They played many singles, joked with audience members and even signed autographs and took pictures with fans afterwards.

We got a chance to briefly speak with The Maine’s lead singer, John O’Callaghan, while fighting our way through the mob of fans surrounding him. His favorite part of the performance was the weather.”We haven’t felt a nice day like this in a while,” said O’Callaghan. He added, “Hopefully we can do it again.”

King Chip had also noticed the wonderful weather of the day, repeating the phrase “We got the Sun out in Cleveland. What!” very excitedly throughout his performance.

Altogether, Springfest seemed to be a great success. Booths received plenty of attention, and when the music slowed down during breaks, students had many fun ways to spend their time.

For the first time in a while, Cleveland’s weather cooperated with CWRU’s plans. Springfest truly finished the year off with a celebration that drew in students and the surrounding campus community.

When Glenn Nicholls, vice president for student affairs, first arrived at Case Western Reserve University, the campus was a different place. Long-demolished buildings still stood, the Internet – then “CWRUnet” – was just being installed, and cc’ing a colleague required a sturdy pen and carbon paper.

While the scenery and technology has changed, many would argue the student body’s administrative advocate has not. This past Friday – in between policy revisions and staff meetings – Nicholls shared reflections on more than 25 years of service and his predictions on what lies ahead for both himself and the university.

Another day at the office

On an otherwise routine Sunday afternoon in June 1991, Glenn Nicholls returned home to see the red light flashing on his answering machine. The resulting message relayed that flames were billowing from Adelbert Hall, which housed the office of the president and the majority of his cabinet.

Nicholls, who worked in Yost Hall, arrived Monday morning to discover he was one of the few campus administrators who still had an office. He witnessed campus leadership clinging to their briefcases, because it was the only thing they took home with them for the weekend. “It was one of those mornings when I thought ‘I’m just going to listen,’” he said.

The fire displaced twenty university offices, and their analog phone lines were re-established along tables in Crawford 13 and 14 so the business of the institution could continue. “It really was remarkable,” Nicholls said. The fire caused an estimated $10 to 15 million in damage, and many offices never returned to the building. The Office of Student Affairs was added as a new tenant.

Nicholls’ office, with its Dell desktop computer and flanking wing-backed chairs, serves as an interesting representation for how both he and the university have changed this past-quarter century. New technologies and pedagogies have arrived, but Nicholls’ focus on listening rather than demanding has remained.

Retiring vice president for student affairs Glenn Nicholls

Looking to the past and present

“The Village at 115 is something I feel especially good about and for a whole lot of reasons,” Nicholls said, gazing reflectively to the corner of his office. “For one, it’s just a great facility. But even more importantly, it was the product of a long process of a lot of conversations with students about the nature of their experience, the kind of experience they wanted to have, and our belief… in the progression of the undergraduate experience.”

The construction of the Village at 115 and these conversations with students led to the residential experience students have come to know, with a First-Year, Second-Year, and Upperclass Experience.

According to Nicholls, one of the biggest changes he has come to observe is the increasing number of students who will engage in these experiences.

“For years, we had classes of 700 to 800 students,” Nicholls explained. “Then we made the decision to grow to 1000, and now we’re making a decision to grow more, and it makes a real difference,” he said.

Nicholls explained this change represents a good move for the university, though he understands there will be related growing pains. “There were growing pains when we went to 1000,” he noted.

He realizes the university will need to develop additional space to accommodate the students and explained contingency plans are in place depending on how large the next first-year class is. “The timeline will be uncomfortable, but we’ll get there,” he said. “When you work on it, other alternatives pop up.”

He does not believe this will be a major hindrance on the next vice president for student affairs, though. “I see my successor having a lot more opportunities than challenges. This is a tremendously interesting time in higher education,” he said, citing recent revelations such as Massively Open Online Classrooms (MOOCs).

The road ahead

During his time at CWRU, many students have come to know Nicholls for his quiet voice and unhindered advocacy for students. This past Tuesday at the Dorothy Pijan Student Leadership Awards, Undergraduate Student Government president James Hale complemented Nicholls for his non-authoritarian leadership style and championing of the student voice.

“I would hope to be that sort of [person],” Nicholls said. “It makes too much sense to understand [students] and be an advocate for them.”

As he prepares to step down from his position, Nicholls expressed confidence in his team, who will continue to advocate for students after his retirement. “I have had the privilege to work with a lot of really good people and experienced, committed leadership,” he said. “The next person in my role will have this benefit.”

When asked what advice he would give the next vice president, Nicholls recommended they “get acquainted with, appreciate, and respect the staff and students and the strengths they have.”

“Don’t be afraid to make changes,” he added. “It would be a tragedy to not change things because they have been around for a long time. You need to learn the campus, know its strengths, and understand its bumps and wrinkles.”

An avid fan of hiking and national parks, Nicholls is looking forward to spending more time outdoors while periodically managing special projects for the university. He also wants to travel to the only state he has yet to visit: Mississippi.

“[My wife and I] always tried to do things with our daughters. Since we lost [her] five years ago, one of the things I’ve personally wanted to do is structure very concrete time to do things with our daughters. We enjoy hiking, and we have miles of trails to pursue,” he said.

With that, the eyes of CWRU’s best listener creased behind silver-framed glasses as he began reciting a poem by Jim Harrison. Already memorized, it was the first poem he read from a seres of volumes givem to him at the Students Who Make a Difference Luncheon.

In the Upper Peninsula of Michigan
and mountains of the Mexican border
I’ve followed the calls of birds
that don’t exist into thickets
and up canyons. I’m unsure
if all of me returned.

That bar is the Jolly Scholar tonight and tomorrow, Saturday April 27, when Stephen Sondheim’s famous musical “Assassins” hits the main stage, or bench, or seat. And the story may begin by Booth taking the seat next to you.

“This may be the first time that Case Western Reserve University has had a dinner theatre production,” said director Mike Suglio. “This is a completely unique experience because we utilize the space in full.”

“You’ll never see a show like this anywhere else,” continued Suglio.

And he’s right: the Jolly Scholar is a unique space indeed, even for a bar. But imagine a near 40-person cast, pit, and staff for a musical in the space as well, not to mention the amount of evil infiltrating everyone involved.

“We don’t often get the opportunity to be truly despicable human beings, and it doesn’t affect the rest of our lives,” said Andrew Deike, CWRU alumnus and actor who portrays John Wilkes Booth.

Michael Knobloch, who acts as Lee Harvey Oswald, agreed. “We see these people as villains, but the show gives a background as to who they may have been.”

Sometimes the actors had to figure out who they are on stage. Alexis Attinoto plays Sara Jane Moore, the attempted assassin of president Gerald Ford, and had only a small description of her character: very little is known about her other than her foiled plot and her life afterwards. She then had to imagine: what was she like? What drove her to try to kill? Characters like the Proprietor and the Balladeer try to lead the audience to answer these questions.

The Proprietor sells each assassin the gun he or she uses to kill while the Balladeer attempts to act as “the voice of reason,” said Knobloch, who also plays both with conviction. But why should one person play these dichotic personalities?

“[Suglio] wanted to cast the same person in these two roles to juxtapose each other,” said Knobloch. Each vignette features an assassin battling their desire to kill in order to be heard, and while the Proprietor gave them the means to do so, the Balladeer tries to convince them otherwise. Then Booth “tips each [character] over the edge,” said Deike.

“Each assassin, in their respective time, feels… like an outsider. Booth gives them the answer [to their problems]: ‘Kill the president,’” he said. Booth set this precedent by killing Abraham Lincoln, the first assassinated head of the United States.

Transcending time and place, the musical brings together the influences and aftermaths of these killers, forever in the minds of citizens for what they did. Without them, some of our most beloved presidents may not have been as loved as they are. They may have been remembered completely differently.

“Assassins” is full of contrasts, and the music embodies this. At an emotional pivot point of the play, Booth toys with the thought of killing himself. Right after he commits suicide, the music immediately becomes a ragtime jingle, making the audience feel upbeat after the disturbing event.

To learn more about the negative figures emblazoned in history books forever, come to the Jolly Scholar at 7 p.m. to order food and drink in time for the show to begin. Tickets are on sale at the restaurant and bar from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. today, as well as at the door and on the Facebook event page.

Not only is this a great end to the semester, but you also receive a 10 percent discount of your entire bill for attending. The production will be hosting an after-party at the venue on both nights, so come early, stay late, and enjoy a great piece of theatre made possible by an enthusiastic and incredibly talented cast and crew.

The Year to Come

There’s a lot of 2013 left, and here are some of the biggest, most anticipated albums still to come.

That day it wasn’t due to mountains of work.

Gunshots were echoing through the Peter B. Lewis building.

A disgruntled Case Western Reserve University alum had entered the building armed with two semi-automatic pistols. Breaking through a back door with a sledgehammer, 62-year old Biswanath Halder began a shooting spree, delusionally trying to bring down an “evil empire.”

He killed a 30-year old graduate student, Norman Wallace, and wounded several others.

It took seven hours before he was subdued by a Cleveland police department SWAT team.

Seven hours where students and faculty were trapped in offices as the pops of gunshots ripped through particle board, bent on creating as much destruction as possible. Seven hours where those trapped coped with their situation, mostly through email, as they communicated both with others in the building and loved ones outside. Seven hours where the campus and surrounding community held its breath, waiting for news that the violence had subsided. Seven hours until Halder surrendered to authorities, suffering from two gunshot wounds, but alive.

Seven hours of chaos.

However, looking back ten years later, the chaos isn’t what stands out to Collopy. He isn’t trying to diminish the events of what happened that day. It doesn’t seem to be a coping mechanism. He just says that what happened after the shooting sticks out more clearly in his mind. The larger campus community came together to support the fifty who were trapped.

“That evening was an extremely intense turning up of caring, warmth, affection and attention from colleagues across campus,” Collopy said, adding, “And it wasn’t only campus, but the local community as well. When I got home, there were candles at houses up and down the street.”

Collopy says that one of the things that helped him come to terms with his experience was a later reunion between those trapped in the building and their rescuers.

Organized by then president of CWRU Edward M. Hundert, and Cleveland mayor Jane Campbell, the event culminated with a standing ovation for the SWAT team who had entered PBL under fire.

But this year, for this anniversary, according to Collopy, there is no memorial planned, or reunion that will be held. He might gather with some colleagues who were in the building at the time of the shooting, but those plans are still up in the air.

He sees the merits in both discussing the event, and remaining silent; understands both why others would want to let the past be, and also why those believe that the past shouldn’t be forgotten.

Collopy says every year, he is “acutely” aware of the day, but doesn’t see a “profound obligation” to “elevate the day”.

It’s an event best remembered quietly.

-Mike McKenna, News Editor

The university was taken aback. CWRU police were unarmed and relied on the University Circle Police Department for armed response. “Things weren’t as sophisticated back then,” says vice president for campus services Dick Jameson, “in terms of rapid response. It clearly wasn’t as developed as it is now. We didn’t have the alert systems in place.”

To notify the campus of an active shooter situation, fairly primitive communication technology was in wide use. Security relied on a combination of email, phone trees, and fax messages to get the word out, even as response officers cordoned off the area quickly. The university now employs more speedy alert tools, like the Rave text message system. Says Jameson, “That was the state of communications at the time, if you will. Much has evolved since then.”

In addition to upgrading alert systems, the university established its own independent police department. They recruited experienced officers, some with SWAT experience. Officers attended the police academy and were certified with the state. “It worked out very well,” says CWRU Police chief Arthur Hardee, “our former security officers knew the campus very well so they helped train our new police officers to adjust to the campus itself.”

According to Hardee, the state of campus security has vastly improved since the foundation of the department in 2006. “We’ve had some crime on campus, but through the police department we’ve been able to alleviate a lot of the crime that’s been occurring around in the community and also on campus.”

The number of officers in the department has increased steadily since 2006, with a combination of certified police and security officers. “That number has grown considerably and deliberately over the past five or six years since we started the police department,” says Jameson. “We’ve expanded the capacity and coverage of the campus.”

Since the shooting, CWRU Police has also changed the way in which they respond to active shooter situations. Rather than focusing exclusively on SWAT-type assaults on barricaded shooters, such as the one at PBL, the CWRU police department now utilizes a rapid response philosophy, reinforced by training and semi-annual on-campus exercises. “The nature of response has changed and developed. [...] The officers are trained to get to the situation quickly and be able to identify, and if needed deal with, the shooter without waiting for a barricade situation. [...] You can’t sit outside and wait for the troops to arrive anymore,” says Jameson.

In addition to modifying the way in which they respond during a shooting, CWRU Police have taken a new approach that may stop shootings before they happen. Prior to the shooting, Halder made multiple threats, but the proper mechanisms were not in place to evaluate them. “There was no formal threat assessment team prior to the PBL shooting,” says Jameson, “It simply didn’t exist.”

In response to the shooting, the university reexamined the way in which threats are evaluated, founding BRAC (Behavioural Risk Assessment Committee), to assess and address threats on campus. Now called TABIT (Threat Assessment Behavioral Intervention Team), the program evaluates threats in a formalized fashion with a cross-campus team consisting of staff from CWRU Police, Student Affairs, Counseling Services, and other relevant organizations.

Across the board, university security policy has changed drastically since the events in 2003. Rapid response, increased police and security staff, and a formalized threat response system represent a discernable shift in university policy, one that Case Police hopes will better address an active shooter situation.