CLEVELAND Remembering shooting victim, Case Western moves forward

One new program is bio-science entrepreneurship.
By JoANNE VIVIANO
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
CLEVELAND -- A glass-and-silver plaque sits on a reception desk at the entrance of the Peter B. Lewis Building at Case Western Reserve University.
Its etching reads: "Norman Eugene Wallace, April 22, 1973-May 9, 2003."
"We're going to have a plant here, all the time," said Beth Younger, a business administration graduate student who was in the same class as Wallace in the building's Weatherhead School of Management.
Behind the reception area, Younger pointed to a row of benches and round tables outside the cafe in this airy building with high ceilings.
This is where Wallace sat with friends when a gunman stormed though a side entrance, killing Wallace, of Youngstown.
Biswanath Halder, 62, of Cleveland, is being held without bond and charged with aggravated murder. Police allege he fired several hundred rounds during a seven-hour standoff. About 90 people were in the building, many trapped for hours.
'Kind of surreal'
Younger was not there. She and several friends were headed to a wedding. Some would have been in the building if not for the event.
"Where Norman was sitting, it's where everybody sits. It's so open, so there's really nowhere to go," she said. "It's an amazing thing. Sometimes I go down and sit there and it just hits me. ... It's kind of surreal. You walk by and you can't believe that happened."
Because the slaying took place the week after spring term finals, Younger said she expects it will be more difficult in the fall, when the full class returns and Wallace is not with them.
But she said everyone has been inspired by the way Wallace's family celebrated his life in the days after his death. Wallace was a graduate of Youngstown State University who was working on his master's degree at Case.
"It's made it easier for students to move on and remember him, rather than mourn that he's gone," she said.
On the rebound
Weatherhead Dean Mohsen Anvari discussed ways in which the school has rebounded and his plans for it.
"This organization really came back together in an amazing way," he said Friday. "This event was so profound. The people who went through this experience will never be the same." The community pulled through and gained strength that has only added to the school's excellence, he added.
Anvari said he hopes to reach out more to the community to make Northeast Ohio understand what the rest of the nation already sees about the school, which consistently ranks high among business schools in the state, nation and world.
"It's no secret Case has been a little insulated," he said. "Today we're coming out. We want to open it all up."
Anvari said a strategic plan is in place that could make Case Western as well-known in the business world as the Cleveland Clinic is in the medical world. Among focal points are faculty research, the hiring of "world-class" thinkers, a new undergraduate research program and a new bio-science entrepreneurship program.
Lecture series
Anvari said outreach will also include a new speakers series. The "Weatherhead Bold Thinkers Series" will bring to campus on July 12 two-time Pulitzer Prize nominee William Poundstone, author of "How Would You Move Mount Fuji?"
Anvari said the tragedy at the school in May will not leave a negative mark on Weatherhead, but only make its community stronger. He said the university's security system was reviewed after the shooting, but not much will be changed.
"This is a random act of violence that can occur anywhere. Our intention is not to turn this university into a fortress," he said. "We certainly don't have the intention of closing the campus to the world. We want to open it up."