VOLUME 114, ISSUE 18
Drop deadline extended
BY KELLY GIEDRAITIS
STAFF WRITER
Effective this fall, students will have two extra
weeks to decide whether to drop a course.
The Faculty. Council voted unanimously
Friday to extend the deadline to drop a class
from six weeks to eight weeks, allowing students
to gather more information before lightening
their loads.
“For the bulk of students’ courses there is
very little information available by the drop
deadline,” said Bobbi Owen, senior associate
dean of undergraduate education.
The registrar’s office reports that many stu
dents request to drop courses after they receive
midterm grades, usually during the seventh or
eight week of classes.
The extension will make it easier to drop
courses in which students are doing poorly. The
withdrawal will not appear on transcripts.
The council also passed two other resolu
tions, effective fall 2007, that aim to boost the
University’s graduation and retention rates.
BOILING POINT
Tar Heels avoid upset
to advance to Elite 8
BY JACOB KARABELL
SENIOR WRITER
CLEVELAND Sylvia Hatchell almost
fainted.
With North Carolina tied with Purdue with
21 seconds remaining in the Sweet 16 show
down, Hatchell diagrammed a play lvory
Latta curling off a ball screen at the top of the
key and cutting toward the basket.
But instead of the ball going to Latta as
planned, Latta suddenly yelled “Camille!” to
inbounder La’Tangela Atkinson. Atkinson
quickly abandoned the
script and heaved a full
court pass to Camille Little,
who had the ball knocked
away by Boilermaker
Sharika Webb.
WOMEN'S
BASKETBALL
UNC 70
Purdue ....... 68
Fortunately for Hatchell and her conscious
ness, the Tar Heels retained possession. And
when they ran the coach’s original play, Latta
scored on a driving layup to lift UNC to a 70-
68 win at Quicken Loans Arena on Sunday.
The Tar Heels (32-1) advance to battle sec
ond-seeded Tennessee in the Elite Eight on
Tuesday night.
“I’ve got a pretty gopd baseball arm,”
Atkinson said. “I was just happy that I got
the pass to Camille, and we had a chance to
SEE CLOSE CALL, PAGE 7
#1 UNCVs!#2TENNESSEE
Time: Tuesday
Location: Cleveland
Watch: ESPN2
Listen: News Talk 1360 WCHL
Page 14: £rlana Larkins dominates
inside in Sunday's win.
Online: Photos from the weekend.
Festival likes its
comedy Black
2nd annual event hailed a success
BY MARGARET HAIR
SENIOR WRITER
In the opening moments of
his act Saturday night, greeted
by camera flashes and raucous
applause, comedian Lewis
Black expressed his fondness
for Chapel Hill: “I have way too
much fun here.”
“Lewis Black & Friends,” the
marquee event of the second
annual Carolina Comedy Festival,
presented almost three hours of
CORRECTION
Due to a reporting error,
Friday’s front page article “Top’
policy administrator to leave
UNC” misstates when Jerry
Lucido will assume a post at
the University of Southern
California. He will start the
position Aug. 1. The Daily Tar
Heel apologizes for the error.
Serving the students and the University community since 1893
®hr latly oar Mctl
One resolution requires that all students
maintain a 2.0 grade point average to remain
eligible for enrollment, and the second creates
an academic probation period for students who
do not meet the standard.
“This is a well-considered set of recommen
dations, and I applaud the faculty for taking
these steps,” Chancellor James Moeser said to
the council after the measure were passed.
He said UNC has an excellent graduation rate
but lags behind its most distinguished peers.
“The main concern... was really how to make
the system work better so that students who are
failing or in danger of failing can get help rela
tively quickly” said Clayton Koelb, a member of
the educational policy committee, which intro
duced the changes.
The University requires that students attain
progressively higher levels of performance
lighter GPA standards for first-year students that
increase in difficulty by academic year.
Proponents of the measure said that the cur
rent system is complicated and that it allows
- Jfi
- ’. ** , • HBl JllljK
fflgggfr
w wmi .kmM
DTH/BRANDON SMITH
Point guard Ivory latta (2) battles for two of her 19 points in Sunday's nail-biter win against Purdue.
Latta sealed the game for the Tar Heels with a last-second layup to send UNC into the next round
comedy to a capacity crowd in
Memorial Hall.
Rory
Albanese,
senior pro
ducer for
“The Daily
Show,” the
show on
INSIDE
English author
Nick Hornby
visits campus.
PAGE 4
which Black gained much of
his fame, opened the evening
SEE LEWIS BLACK, PAGE 7
Online I dailyter!ieel.com
PAGING THE DOCTOR Report reveals
a desperate need for pyschiatrists in state
EDITOR'S BLOG Results of the DTH's
Opinion Page redesign lunch bunch
OPINION BLOG Reaction to spam
e-mail received from a University address
www.dailytarheel.com
students to build a record that is not on track to
meet the 2.0 GPA required for graduation.
Beginning in fall 2007, a student whose GPA
falls below the required level will be placed on
academic probation. Instead of receiving a
written notice of academic warning, students
will meet with an adviser and have one semes
ter to bring up their grades, Owen said.
If a student’s GPA remains below 2.0 for two
consecutive semesters, that student will not
be able to register for courses during the next
term. Summer or online courses would be the
only available options to boost grades.
Faculty Council members agreed that the
measures will not serve as a deterrent to failing
students but instead will improve performance.
“I’m convinced that we’ve increased the
vigor of our classes,” Moeser said. “We will see
what is already a great graduation and reten
tion rate increase.”
Contact the News Editor
at udesk@unc.edu.
Taheri-Azar letter, testimony aired in court
BfisSwr wm
DTH/LOGAN PRICE
Taheri-Azar silently reads the Quran in court Friday during his probable
cause hearing. Taheri-Azar jotted down notes in the text several times:
City j page 2
KITE RUNNERS
The annual Carrboro Kite Fly
gets off the ground at Hank
Anderson 111 Community Park
on Sunday. Both young and
old take to the skies.
Class sections
subject to cuts
BY KATIE HOFFMANN
ASSISTANT UNIVERSITY EDITOR
It’s something every student at
UNC is familiar with: waking up
at 9:30 a.m. on a Saturday, open
ing five Web browser windows and
preparing their fingers to relent
lessly hit the “back” button.
It’s just a part of students’ efforts
MONDAY
SPOTLIGHT
tures they’ve been eyeing.
Many students are forced to
rethink their class selections
because low faculty resources
and increased enrollment have
reduced the frequency with which
certain classes are offered.
And for the most part, adminis
trators say, their hands are tied.
This weekend, thousands of ris
ing seniors logged onto Student
Central to register for fall classes,
creating the typical bottleneck that
occurs when students battle for the
few spots in high-demand classes.
“It’s kind of like when you call
in to a radio station,” said senior
Vanessa Holder. “You call in, hang
SEE OFFERINGS, PAGE 6
Students drop,
others pay price
BY KATIE HOFFMANN
ASSISTANT UNIVERSITY EDITOR
Dropping a class is a necessary
reality of college. But the ramifica
tions are sometimes overlooked.
Students who sign up for more
classes than they plan on taking
often prevent students from being
able to register in those courses
leaving empty seats and frus
trated students.
Of the 15,992 undergraduate
students last semester, 31.5 per-
Scheduling shuffle
With such large shifts in undergraduate course registration, students become
frustrated by not being able to take a class that later opens up when others
drop the course. In fall 2005, 2,797 students did not change their schedule and
in spring 2005, about 3,310 students kept their original shedule.
S I |B 6to 9 hours
g? J * dropped
of BBWBBW M 3-6 hours
|1 dropped
1/1 i _ .5 to 3 hours
“ dropped
f si 1 -
MB 3-6 hours
m added
wm
§ Hi H| 6to 9 hours
£ ™ added
3,000 2,000 1,000 0 1,000 2,000 3,000
SOURCE: OFFICE OF THE UNIVERSITY REGISTRAR
BY JESSICA SCHONBERG
ASSISTANT CITY EDITOR
New details about the March 3
incident in which UNC alumnus
Mohammad Reza Taheri-Azar, 22,
drove an SUV through the Pit were
revealed at a hearing in District
Court in Hillsborough on Friday.
Judge Joe Buckner found prob
able cause to pursue charges of nine
counts of attempted first degree
murder, five counts of assault with
a deadly weapon with intent to kill,
inflicting serious injury and four
counts of assault with a deadly
weapon with intent to kill.
Taheri-Azar, the Tehran, Iran,
native who has confessed to hit
ting nine people with a rented Jeep
in the incident, silently read the
Quran throughout the hearing.
city | page 10
THE BIGGEST LOSER
City schools teachers look to
shed pounds as part of
nutrition month efforts.
Officials have made an effort
at offering healthier foods.
MONDAY, MARCH 27, 2006
Classes not offered in
the past four semesters
ENGL 155 Queer Latina/o
Literature, Performance and
Visual Art (WMST 152) (3)
Explores literature, performance
art, film and photos by Latinas and
Latinos whose works might be
described as "queer."
BIOL 183 Organismal Structure
and Diversity in the Southern
Appalachian Mountains (4)
An examination of the field biology
of local fungi, plants or animals of the
Appalachian Mountains. The taxonomy,
ecology, life history and behavior of the
organisms will be explored in both the
laboratory and the field.
HIST 170 lntroduction to Oral
History (FOLK 174) (3)
Introduces students to the uses of
interviews in historical research.
Questions of ethics, interpretation
and the construction of memory will
be explored, and interviewing skills
will be developed through field work.
SOURCE: The Undergraduate Bulletin
and the University registrar
to nab a spot
in one of those
intriguing lec-
cent dropped credit hours, with
3.5 percent dropping three or
more hours.
Many students said they pur
posely cushion class loads to evalu
ate which classes they like or dislike
and then cut a course loose.
“I don’t know how hard my
classes are going to be this fall,”
said junior Megan Paul, who
allowed herself some course flex-
SEE DROPS, PAGE 6
He continues to be held in
Central Prison in Raleigh with $5.5
million bail. If convicted, he could
face about 150 years in prison.
District Attorney Jim Woodall
called six witnesses during the
hearing freshman Alex Slater,
a student who was hit by the car;
junior Bernard Holloway, sopho
more Brian Seymour and freshman
Jennifer Beilis, who witnessed the
incident; Ross Barbee, the patrol
officer who first responded to
the scene; and Matthew Dodson,
the investigating officer from the
Department of Public Safety. Public
Defender James Williams chose not
to call any witnesses.
Woodall said the case now will
SEE TAHERI-AZAR, PAGE 6
today in history
MARCH 27,1949...
More than 1,500 students
and Chapel Hill residents
come to UNC President Frank
Porter Githam's home for his
last Sunday open house.
DTH/FEIIDING CAGE
weather
Sunny
H 63, L 39
index
police log 2
calendar 2
crossword 9
edit 8
sports 14