In appreciation of this year’s Legacy Week celebrations, The Observer will be investigating and shedding light on a contentious period of Case Western Reserve University’s history: the early 2000s at CWRU, a time of logo and name changes, new residence halls, presidential debates and financial woes at the university. All of this rings true to modern experiences and worries at the school.
At the start of the 2003 school year, students at CWRU returned to University Circle with new banners draped overhead featuring a new logo. The largest change for students was the shortened name of the university, which changed from “CWRU” to “Case.” According to the university at the time, “research shows that the acronym CWRU is harder to pronounce and remember, and has little name recognition outside of the immediate region.”
The Observer Editorial Board of that year joked that students should “Hold on to those rare, collectible CWRU sweatshirts, because they’ll pay for your children’s education here someday.”
The change to the shortened name of “Case” was also accompanied by a new logo, which, much like the recent logo change, was met with intense community reactions. At the time, the Editorial Board summarized that it looked like “a bent paper clip” or a “crumpled Celtic knot.”
One supposed student, writing on an old course website, remarked, “I can’t believe they wasted millions of dollars on a logo, when the logo we had was perfectly [serviceable] and looked a hell of a lot better. i like the rising sun … this new one, it’s just crap. that’s all there is to it. and i will never buy it.”
That logo was eventually immortalized colloquially as the “fat man with a surfboard.”
While the reaction to the new logo on campus was swift, the financial implications that came with the new logo and branding took longer to fully realize. The first sign of trouble was at the start of the 2005-2006 academic year, when the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported that the school was suffering a deficit of $37 million and thus embarked on a cost-cutting program worth $17 million. Originally, this deficit was accounted for due to a decrease in federal funding, research and donations. Some blamed the deficit on national disasters, the Iraq War and the 9/11 attacks.
The new logo and shortened name are attributed to be the brainchild of CWRU President Edward M. Hundert. Now a lecturer of bioethics at Harvard University, Hundert and his administration led a large push to improve CWRU’s national image and recognition. A key cornerstone of this push was the updated logo and shortened name. He also pushed for a revitalization of the undergraduate general education curriculum, being the president who championed and oversaw the rollout of the now-ended SAGES program. At its implementation, students complained about the selection of classes to take, while faculty were annoyed by a lack of instructors to teach the courses. In February of that academic year, Hundert came under fire on local television due to “issues with Hundert’s style and management techniques.”
The SAGES program is one of the many reasons for Hundert’s eventual resignation. This push came in March of 2006 at the hands of the faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences. They voted 131 to 44 that they had no confidence in Hundert. The petition, which was originated by former Professor Lawrence Krauss, had enough signatures for the vote within 12 hours of its email being sent.
The main gripes of the College of Arts and Sciences faculty were threefold: fiscal and budget issues, mismanagement of programs such as the SAGES rollout and the alienation of donors and alumni. Professor Cyrus Taylor, who still teaches in the Department of Physics, told The Observer that Hundert “upset the Reserve Alumni with the name change.” Further, professors outlined how with this reduced amount of donations, programs such as SAGES were never able to be fully funded.
Professor Joe White, who still teaches in the Department of Political Science, told students at an open town hall that the issue was with his strategy that he called “hype and hope,” where Hundert instead claimed that nothing was to change at the university, that it was just a budget “challenge” and that cuts would be made among the administration. Many students at that town hall sided with Hundert, expressing dismay over what they saw as “personal” attacks against the president.
Despite the support of some students and the Board of Trustees, within 15 days of the vote of no-confidence, Hundert resigned, effective at the start of the 2006-2007 academic year.
It wasn’t until he left that many started to bridge the connection between the name and logo change and its direct impact on the university’s budgetary stance. In early 2006, many media outlets, ranging from the Chronicle of Higher Education to the Associated Press and the Harvard Crimson, attributed Hundert’s fall to poor fundraising efforts.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer first reported in a September 2006 article that one of the reasons leading to the university’s financial crisis was the new branding. A former VP of the Undergraduate Student Government, Adam Rupe, told The Observer in 2007, “The [logo] change angered alumni. Angered alumni stop giving money.”
While exact fundraising data from this time makes it hard to officially draw a connection between the two events, the CWRU community as a whole has associated the name change with a financial crisis, which then prompted Hundert’s resignation. Even the website for the 2026 bicentennial lists the financial deficits and the new university marketing in the same sentence on Hundert’s bio page.
It would be unfair to chalk up all of Hundert’s legacy to the controversial rebranding and associated financial struggles. During his tenure as president, he made considerable efforts to bolster community outreach and involvement efforts. Dennis Kunitch, former congressional representative, noted that “Dr. Hundert’s leadership, expertise and exceptional interpersonal abilities has created a new sense of partnership, possibility and energy within the Cleveland medical community.” Additionally, under his leadership, the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine was developed, which would eventually pave the way for further development of the Health Education Campus.
Hundert also advocated for the creation of a new student union building where Thwing Center currently is—a push that eventually led to Tinkham Veale University Center opening in 2014. Under his watch, CWRU also hosted the 2004 vice presidential debate between Dick Cheney and John Edwards in the Veale Convocation, Recreation and Athletic Center and began planning and construction of the Village at 115 complex for students, which many students saw as his most crowning legacy. It was the first construction of on-campus housing to take place at CWRU for more than 35 years. Many of the proposed changes from his 2005 campus master plan can be traced to developments today, from the Nord Family Greenway to the new Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Building.
By October of 2006, Interim President Gary Eastwood announced a “name change task force,” which drew a small amount of criticism at a time of greater financial uncertainty. The Observer’s Editorial Board argued that “A name change will only bring more disorder to an already divided campus, revealing to the world that Case is once more walking on thin ice,” noting the attention it would bring to the school for a second name change within five years.
By March 2007, the university changed its shortened name back to “Case Western Reserve,” and by September, a new logo was developed, which would be known as the “sunburst.” The sunburst remained the logo until the 2023 logo change.
Many parts of this decade ring true to contemporary experiences at CWRU, from the 2020 presidential debate, recent logo change, new residence hall construction and potential financial problems due to a cut in federal funding. Thus, the 2000s are a reminder of our university’s longevity in the face of crisis and what the community can do—staff, students and faculty—to impact CWRU’s course.