VOLUME 112, ISSUE 38
Acclaimed
rapper’s
appearance
cancelled
Sudden illness cited as
cause for late dropout
BY NICK PARKER
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR
East Coast hip-hop icon Nas, scheduled
to perform tonight in the Smith Center, has
canceled.
The rapper’s representatives contacted
Chris Lamb, president of the Carolina
Union Activities Board, at about 12:30 p.m.
Wednesday and canceled Nas’ performance.
Lamb said he was told that Nas had con
tracted a temporary stomach virus and that
he would be unable to travel to North
Carolina to perform.
“His agent (Steven Brush) called me up
and said (Nas) had been sick all night,”
Lamb said. “We were stunned ... (and)
unable to do anything to change it.”
The cancellation, which came less than
36 hours before the concert’s scheduled
start time, left event organizers impotent to
reorganize or reschedule.
At this point, all they can offer the 2,000
ticket-holders is a full refund at the location
where the ticket was purchased.
But for tonight, the Smith Center’s doors
will remain locked and its seats empty.
“A few of us will be down at the Dean
Dome to meet anyone that might not have
heard the bad news,” said Geri Borger, a
member of CUAB who led the public rela
tions push for the performance. “We want
to put a human face down there and let peo
ple know this is not our fault.”
But even if fault doesn’t belong with
CUAB, it still will have to deal with most of
the consequences.
Touting an overall budget of more than
$83,000 the largest sum CUAB commit
ted to any one event all year the failed
Nas concert will cost CUAB and University
students more than heartache.
“There was about SIO,OOO that we
poured entirely into advertising this thing,”
Lamb said. “And that money is lost. There is
nothing we can do to get that back.”
Luckily, the $50,000 allocated for Nas’
fee will transfer back into the general CUAB
fund.
And if next year’s CUAB members are
able to reschedule the show for a date in the
fall, Nas will knock SIO,OOO off his per
formance fee to compensate for prst losses.
“I would say it is about a 50-50 chance
we will be able to reschedule for next year,”
said Claire Anderson, 2004-05 CUAB pres
ident-select. “We will definitely be talking
with his people, trying to work something
out, but I just don’t know if it can happen. I
worry about the information that we do not
have yet.”
But everyone agrees that the greatest loss
isn’t monetary.
“It’s just unfortunate and heartbreaking
for those of us that have put three months
of work into planning, organizing and hyp
ing this thing —and it’s disappointing for
the students,” Lamb said.
“When you do volunteer work, you obvi
ously don’t do it for the money. The pro
gram is really the only reward, but we will
get to see nothing come to fruition. We
wanted to give this to the students, but now,
we CUAB and the students are all left
with nothing.”
Contact the AdE Editor
at artsdesk@unc.edu.
Half-century later, progress still a priority
Brown's effect on University lingers
BY CLAIRE DORRIER
STAFF WRITER
Stereotypes still exist, one of the
University’s highest awards is
named after a white supremacist
and racial justice is not always
guaranteed to minorities.
After 50 years of integration,
UNC is continuing efforts to make
minority students feel welcome on
campus, but some say the
University has a long way to go.
“There is always progress to be
made,” said Black Student
Movement President Erin Davis.
“We have to make sure there are
different outlets for people to learn
about other cultures.”
DIVERSIONS
ROUNDTWO
'Kill Bill. Vol. 2' embroiders, ends Tarantino's saga,
adding character development and detail PAGE 16
Serving the students and the University community since 1893
obr lailu oar Mrrl
gjS&jjfe Jig
► > , , C-'iJr-’ ’ &t ~iS
Hig 11 m idSSr > m
B■j H _ ‘/' Hp IH
'CL" m% 1% fTj^^BpP
H H
/ ,<; I Jra^
l J^^‘l . , Hß| ~~ m * 1 m t !9hb' I
S ~._ v -&>:■**& "■ -fIWF ||HBRl£fe. ■<&
r, vgf] ™ a|^
DTH/BRENT CLARK
UNC invested in Inspire Pharmaceuticals Inc., a start-up company in Durham that the University eventually made nearly
$3 million from after it went public in 2000. Three years later, UNC changed its investment strategy and sold its shares.
A SUCCESS STORY
Start-up is model for UNC spin-offs
BYNIRAVVORA
STAFF WRITER
Inspire Pharmaceuticals Inc.
gave the University’s technology
transfer office not only its greatest
financial success, but also a blue
print on how to bring UNC
research into the business world.
In 2003, the University cashed
out its stake in Inspire, making
nearly $3 million and concluding
its role in the life of its first-born
start-up company.
Developing new treatments for
conditions such as cystic fibrosis
and eye diseases, Inspire has
grown into a publicly traded,
S4OO million biotechnology com
pany.
But it could have been different.
The path from a laboratory con
cept to a Durham-based company
with 150 employees was riddled
with risks and obstacles.
Some problems were natural
since the process for developing
technologies at the University was
relatively new, and as it progressed,
Inspire laid the tracks for the 24
Many minority students said
that while officials must address
the stereotypes that still exist
throughout the University, the
changes will take time and effort.
One year after the Supreme
Court made its landmark decision
in the Brown v. Board of Education
case, black students were admitted
as undergraduates at UNC.
Today UNC has one of the high
est percentages of black students
among top universities throughout
the country, with blacks making up
about 11 percent of the student
body.
But before black students
attended UNC, prominent white
www.dailytarheel.com
UNC start-up companies to follow.
“It was a big risk but you had to
take it,” said Richard Boucher, co
founder of Inspire and faculty
member in the School of Medicine.
Unable to license Boucher’s cys
tic fibrosis research to existing
pharmaceutical companies in
1995, UNC’s Office of Technology
Development helped arrange the
creation of anew company that
could evolve the early-stage
research.
“We were actually creating the
licensee,” said Mark Crowell, the
director of the technology devel
opment office.
The research of Boucher and his
colleagues had difficulty making it
out of the labs. In 1995, the office’s
first year, Inspire became a start
up company because the estab
lished private sector believed the
cystic fibrosis drug market small
and unprofitable.
“One thing that many people
don’t realize is that they think
SEE INSPIRE, PAGE 7
supremacists controlled the
University, including Cornelia
Phillips Spencer, who is associated
with the reopening of the
University in 1875.
“We can’t punish the University
because of its
past, but it
needs to
acknowledge
history and
make it readily
accessible to
students,” Davis
INSIDE
More coverage
of Brown v.
Board of
Education
PAGE 12
said.
Debate recently has sparked
over the Bell Award, which is given
to outstanding women and is
named after Spencer. Graduate
student Yonni Chapman has
encouraged officials to consider
UNC plans
to give cash
to ventures
BY TRISTAN SHOOK
STAFF WRITER
Technology from the University’s laboratories
has helped launch dozens of UNC-affiliated
start-up companies and has raised the prospects
for large revenue returns.
Now, investment strategists with the UNC
Management Cos. want a piece of the potential
profits.
Through the management company, which
controls the University’s $1 billion endowment,
UNC began a S2O million venture capital fund
to invest money in start-up companies associ
ated with the University.
But problems between the company’s man
agement and its board of directors have delayed
its debut until at least the end of the year, and it
might be years before UNC sees significant
profits.
SEE CAPITAL, PAGE 7
renaming the award because it can
be offensive to minorities.
“The thing that is significant
about the Bell Award today is that
... it is the highest award for women
in the University and is named after
a white supremacist,” Chapman
said. “That shows that the habits of
the past are not all the way gone.”
Ben Singer, 2002 senior class
president, helped create the
Unsung Founders Memorial in
2002, which comipemorates the
slave workers who built the
University. Construction is now
under way on the project.
Singer said that the past is a
painful thing to think about and
that the University, at times, is not
SEE INTEGRATION, PAGE 12
SPORTS
BATS COME ALIVE
The Tar Heels trounce UNC-Greensboro 10-3, barely
missing a shutout in the last inning PAGE 13
Student
Congress
to revise,
fix code
Unclear election rules
sparked group’s effort
BY LIZZIE STEWART
STAFF WRITER
As the Board of Elections investigated
multiple allegations against former student
body president candidates Matt Calabria
and Lily West, it was forced to operate
under a Student Code many say is vague
and open to interpretation.
Unclear were points such as how long the
board had to make a decision, whether its
meetings should be open to the public and
who should advise them in interpreting the
code.
Debate emerged regarding the need to
update the code and address contradictions
within its language.
In response, Student Congress will spend
the summer overhauling the code to clari
fy parts of it that are ambiguous and will fix
minor discrepancies.
“They want to make it something they
can refer to without question,” Speaker
Charlie Anderson said. “Right now it’s open
to interpretation.”
Congress hopes to clearly define the role
of solicitor general, which played an advis
ing role in the Board of Elections investiga
tion of alleged campaign violations by
Calabria and West.
Former Student Attorney General
Jonathan Slain acted as the solicitor gener
al, even though the position is typically held
by someone else within the Honor Court
system.
“We wouldn’t have had any friction this
year when the whole election thing
occurred if there had been a solicitor gen
eral in place,” Slain said.
Though the code currently outlines the
solicitor general as someone within the
Honor Court system, Anderson said the
position should be filled by someone out
side the auspices of student government.
But Slain disagreed, saying the position
still should be drawn from the Honor Court
system for now.
“I don’t think there’s a need for an inde
pendent position,” Slain said. “I think that
it makes more sense to at least try the cur
rent method before we attempt to create a
new method.”
Speaker Pro Tern Jen Orr said the solic
itor general should have a great knowledge
of the code in order to interpret it accu
rately.
“It’s come to our attention that we need
to outline what the rules should be for a
person in this position,” Orr said.
At the same time, Orr said, it’s difficult
to find someone with that expertise who is
outside of the realm of student govern
ment.
Parker Wiseman, chairman Of the ethics
committee, said the code needs to accu
rately reflect how student government is
operating.
“It’s good to have a group of people... to
make sure that the code accurately reflects
what actually transpires, and what actual
ly transpires reflects what the code says
should transpire,” Wiseman said.
And the election code in particular is
SEE STUDENT CODE, PAGE 8
m Xl \
1 yMjPPS J
C-3- JKbL ti
OTH FILE PHOTO
Black Student Movement members vote at a November 1967 meeting
to support a petition for heavier recruitment of qualified black students.
WRITHE!
TODAY Partly cloudy, H 84, L 60
FRIDAY Mostly sunny, H 87, L 61
SATURDAY Partly cloudy, H 86, L 57
THURSDAY, APRIL 22, 2004
&