6
Wednesday, December 4, 2002
December Graduates Prepare to Walk
By Ami Shah
Staff Writer
By Dec. 20, UNC’s 2002 fall semes
ter will be nothing more than a memo
ry-
While most undergraduates will be
on a three-week hiatus from classes, a
handful of seniors will return to cam
pus for UNC’s December
Commencement ceremony.
“Everyone is on break when we
graduate,” said Nolan Beall, a psychol
ogy and political science major who
will be graduating in December.
“We are on break too, but it’s a
more permanent break.”
December Commencement, which
will take place at 2 p.m. Dec. 20 at the
Smith Center, is notably smaller than
UNC’s traditional May
Commencement ceremony.
In May 2002, there were more than
4,000 degree-seeking candidates.
Although the December
Commencement ceremony also
includes August graduates, it remains
relatively small in comparison to May
Commencement. About 1,052 seniors
will receive their degrees at the
December ceremonies.
“Sometimes I feel like I’m the only
one graduating,” said Salman Yusaf, a
business major planning on graduating
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Jane Smith, associate director of
University events, said the December
Commencement’s smaller size is the
reason the ceremony does not take
place at Kenan Stadium.
“More students simply complete
degrees in May, so number-wise, the
Dean Smith Center better accommo
dates the December graduates,” Smith
said.
Ayana Griffin, a communications
major also planning on graduating this
month, is quick to dismiss the percep
tion that December Commencement
often goes unnoticed.
“I see just as many announcements
for December and feel well-prepared
in terms of knowing what to do,”
Griffin said.
Yusaf thinks a premier public uni
versity such as UNC should have
secured a speaker as highly touted as
the May Commencement speaker.
Professor James Leloudis is sched
uled to deliver the Commencement
address at the December ceremony.
“Look at the Commencement
speaker for May - Bill Cosby,” Yusaf
said. “I don’t even know who the
December Commencement speaker
is.”
Leloudis, a 1977 UNC alumnus,
serves as a history professor, associate
dean for the Honors Program and
director of thejames M. Johnston
Center for Undergraduate Excellence
at UNC.
Elsabet Fisseha, a senior also gradu
ating in December, said she thinks pro
fessors often deliver better addresses.
“I don’t think that one speaker will
do better job than another just because
he is more famous,” Fisseha said.
Yusaf said that despite the differ
ences, there are perks to graduating in
December.
Yusaf took summer classes to com
plete his major requirements in time
for December graduation so he could
travel and pursue an internship in the
spring.
Because of less competition, Yusaf
said he thinks it is easier for December
graduates to get a job or internship.
Griffin, however, disagrees.
“Because of the economy and
September 11, getting a job is difficult
either way,” she said.“ Although I think
I am getting a head start.”
Regardless of whether it’s December
or May, their accomplishments cannot
be diminished.
They entered as undergraduates and
will leave as UNC alumni.
The Features Editor can be reached at
features@unc.edu.
News
Industry Combats Increased Cable Theft
By Jack Kimball
Staff Writer
Cable companies are combatting ris
ing cable theft on national and local lev
els with commercials and improved
cable technology.
The cable industry is using paid com
mercials in its anti-cable theft campaign,
which is the most commonly known
method of informing people of the prob
lem. Also, technological advancements,
such as the use of digital cable instead of
analog cable, make theft almost impos
sible and are more subtle ways of pre
venting it.
Kathy Thornton, attorney for the
N.C. Cable Telecommunications
Association, said cable theft is not a vic
timless crime - the victims are the pay
ing customers whose cable bills
increase. “(Cable theft) has certainly
increased in the last four or five years.”
Brad Phillips, Time Warner Cable’s
vice president of government and pub
lic affairs for the Raleigh area, including
Orange County, said the campaign to
stop unauthorized use of cable is not a
new one and will continue. “It’s an
ongoing campaign,” he said. “We are
constantly vigilant about cable theft.”
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Nilda Gumbs, the assistant director in
the Office of Cable Theft for the
National Cable and
Telecommunications Association, said
the demographics for cable theft could
not be attributed to one population
group. “(Cable theft) crosses every
demographic boundary you could pos
sibly imagine,” Gumbs said.
But the college-aged population is at
least one demographic partly responsi
ble for the rise in cable theft.
A UNC student who wanted to
remain anonymous said he and his suit
emates in Granville Towers share one
cable box between them.
He said the method they employed to
steal cable was to have one person pay
for the cable box and the four of them
split the cost. Each obtained use of the
cable by splicing wires between the acti
vated box and other boxes that are not
activated.
“We’re sharing between a lot of peo
ple,” he said. “I didn’t really see any
thing wrong with it.”
A 1999 study by the NCTA said the
cable industry ioses $6.6 billion in rev
enue per year. The figure does not
include money lost to unauthorized
viewing of pay-per-view programming.
By Gregory E. Paul
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Gumbs estimated that there are 30 to 50
criminal cable theft cases pending
nationally.
Some people use decoders and de
scramblers to steal programming. A sin
gle illegal decoder will cost the cable
industry $3,849 in lost revenue over its
lifetime. Cable de-scramblers are illegal
in only 32 states.
Thornton said the cable theft aware
ness campaign has attracted the atten
tion the problem deserves and has had
helped get the laws enforced. “I think
we’re seeing a greater willingness of
local law enforcement officials to pros
ecute cable theft crimes,” she said.
Under the 1998 Digital Millennium
Copyright Act, all persons who “manu
facture, import, offer to the public, pro
vide, or otherwise traffic” copyrighted
technology measures are subject to up to
$500,000 in fines and five years in
prison for the first offense.
Gumbs said that although the NCTA
did support the Millennium Act, it still
remains to be tested practically. “If the
law hasn’t been tested, you can’t know if
it’s doable.”
The City Editor can be reached
at citydesk@unc.edu.
(C)2002 Tribune Media Services. Inc.
All rights reserved.
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