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VOLUME 115, ISSUE 37 WRIGHT SAYS GOODBYE FRESHMAN PHENOM EYES LOTTERY PICK, ‘99-99’ PERCENT TO STAY IN DRAFT BY BRANDON STATON SENIOR WRITER North Carolina freshman Brandan Wright looked a little different Monday when he entered the press room at the Smith Center. When Wright first came to campus from Nashville, Tenn., his jersey seemed to swallow him whole. Now the 6-foot-9, 205-pounder looked sturdy and poised to assert himself as a man. The soft-spoken ACC Rookie of the Year took a seat alongside UNC coach Roy Williams and matter-of-factly declared himself eligible for the 2007 NBA draft. “You gotta grow up sometime,” Wright said. “I just chose to grow up a few years jarlier than most young people do.” Wright and Williams both said the Majority of the decision was based on iVright’s ability to provide for his family, uid his decision to enter the league should io so quite nicely. First-round selections for the NBA draft ire guaranteed two years on their contract down from three in 2006. If Wright were selected in the lottery, the first 14 picks, lis contract would be worth no less than M 376,900 in his first year. “I think that he is definitely a top-10 Tick,” Williams said. “I think there’s a great jossibility my ‘guess-timate’ if you’ll let ne put it that way that he would be either lie third, fourth or fifth pick in the draft. “I don’t think that there is any way that le would slide past six or seven, but con servatively speaking, I think you can say xsp 10 without any question.” If Wright is selected with the third Tverall draft pick, which is where many n addition to Williams feel he is likely :o be taken, he would make $3,121,500 in his first year and $3,355,600 in his second. After the two years that a first-round Iraft pick is guaranteed, the team has an jption for the third and fourth seasons, iach of which has an assigned salary with i raise built in each year. When asked about signing with an igent, Wright seemed a little uneasy about speaking on the subject, to which his coach stepped in to clarify. “We are going to talk to some agents and get some information,” Williams said. ‘But he’s not rushing out the door to sign Students treated to Spike Lee unplugged BY HARRY KAPLOWITZ ARTS EDITOR “An Evening with Spike Lee,” Monday night’s Carolina Union Activities Board-sponsored lecture from the award-winning direc tor of “Do the Right Thing,” gave students a rare look at America through the frames of one of its most vocal critics. But it was in the near by Graham Memorial lounge where select faculty and student RL2II2IIIM’ with the ArtsPwk For quotables from Lee's lecture: apps.dailytarheel .com/blogs/categ ory/newsroom leaders got the chance to tackle those issues head-on. In a sold-out lecture that car ried a reduced $12,500 price tag, Lee touched on an array of social, cultural and political issues. And he even found time to discuss aspects of his 20-year film career. “Filmmaking chose me,” Lee said while discussing his start at New York University. “I didn’t choose filmmaking.” Other addressed topics includ ed the recent Don Imus-Rutgers University controversy, the Duke University lacrosse scandal, the war in Iraq, how to be happy in post-college life and the politics of consumerism, particularly with hip hop and gangsta rap. “It’s exploitation of die highest order, and we have to be respon sible as consumers,” Lee said of a gangsta rap culture that he views Online | dailytarhecl.com GIFT GIVERS The senior class achieves its participation goal for the class gift READY TO GO Seniors take part in an information expo on life after college GIVING THEM A VOICE Program tells community's stories through performances Serving the students and the University community since 1893 ®ljr !atlij ®ar Mrrl I— .jib jaßi DTH/LOGAN PRICE Brandan Wright addresses his future plans at a press conference Monday with coach Roy Williams at his side. Wright said his decision to turn pro was based on his need to support his family and his status as a likely lottery pick. The NBA Draft takes place June 28 in New York. with an agent to get anew moped or any thing like that.” But he added that Wright is “99.99” per cent sure that he’ll stay in the draft. While many Carolina players have turned pro early, Williams and his pre decessors have built their program on the ideal that loyalty is the true measure of their success. , ,**** To that, Wright indicated that his depar ture from the college campus is hardly a permanent one. “The reason why I came to Carolina was to get an excellent education along TIMOTHY REESE Spike Lee autographs a book for CUAB film committee chairman Andrew Carlberg at the reception Monday in Graham Memorial. as an example of society buying into “the okie-dok.” “Don’t go for the okie-dok,” he said. “That’s where the trap is.” He pointed to the Imus contro versy as an example of the power of consumer choice. Lee also fielded about 15 ques tions from audience members, ranging from the symbolism in his films to ways the UNC com munity can successfully bridge the racial divide on campus. After the lecture ran long, select audience members attend ed a CUAB-sponsored reception at Graham Memorial. This setting allowed Lee to let SEE SPIKE LEE, PAGE 6 city | page 5 LOST AND FOUND With a man wanted on Chapel Hill assault charges apprehended in Maryland, local authorities now are pursuing his extradition. | www.dailytarheel.com with the great athletic program. I do intend on coming back and earning my degree. “fm giving up my academic eligibility to UNC, but I’m not giving up my academic career.” Wright is just the second freshman in North Carolina history to leave for the NBA after only one season in Chapel Hill. Marvin Williams did so after the Tar Heels’ national championship win in 2005 and was picked second overall. Though Wright’s stay was short, the impression he made won’t soon be for Athletes struggle as students BY LESLIE WILLIAMS, PETER WYLIE AND JEREMY WATSON SPECIAL TO THE DTH Student-athletes receiving ath letic scholarships are less likely than their peers to graduate from North Carolina’s four ACC uni versities: Duke, N.C. State, Wake Forest and UNC-Chapel Hill. But many are unwilling to accept low graduation @ m The state of l/r athletics: /MtfSh Part 2 of 4 V^YN rates as a necessary consequence of athletic success. “It’s an absolutely wonder ful thing to produce athletes of the quality, capacity and perfor mance that the system turns out,” said Hodding Carter 111, former president and now a member of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics and professor of leadership and pub lic policy at UNC-CH. “It is a sick joke to say any of that performance has anything to do with what they are actually getting out of the university edu cational system.” Striking out in class Less than two-thirds ofUNC-CH baseball players on scholarship have graduated in each of the past five six-year periods, known as cohorts, that the NCAA uses for graduation rates. UNC-CH had an especially poor year in 2004, reporting a zero percent graduation rate for baseball players receiving aid. The problem is not confined to Chapel Hill. gotten. “You’re seeing one of the greatest young sters that has ever lived,” Williams said at the conclusion, with tears welling up in his eyes. “That’s the tough part of coaching, is having to lose somebody after only coach ing him for one year. I will miss Brandan Wright’s game only during the game. “But I will miss everything else about Brandan Wright every single day.” Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu. Grad rates of ACC baseball players Overall, fewer baseball players in North Carolina's four ACC universities are graduating annually. While the exception, N.C. State has graduated no more than one-third of each class in the last five years. ■ Duke E ioo r- > jm ■ Wake Forest S X, ■ UNC | 80 - ■ N.C. State | 20 ‘ ■“ ° 2002 2003 2W " 2005 ' 2006 ’ SOURCE: WWW.NCAA.ORG • DTH/ALUE WASSUM Determining athletics graduation rates What it th six-year cohort rate? The six-year cohort is one mea sure the NCAA uses to track graduation rates of a group entering an institution in a given year. To be considered a graduate by this standard, a student must receive a degree at an institution within six years of entering. Why use the six-year cohort? It follows the guidelines used Of the four N.C. ACC schools, only Duke graduates baseball players on scholarship in similar proportion to its student body. Ninety-one percent of those play ers have graduated in the past five years, compared with 94 percent of the student body. N.C. State is the only one of the la colina | page 12 ADI6S CON AMOR Our final Spanish-section of the year features stories on an area high-school soccer team, how Latinos identify themselves and Chispa's Latino Grammys. for the general student body, making comparisons between athletes and the overall group possible. How does it differ from other measures used by the NCAA? Unlike the Graduation Success Rate, the six-year cohort rate does not include transfers into or out of a program, even if those athletes earned a degree elsewhere. four with upward-trending num bers. However, less than one-third of the baseball team’s players who received aid in the past five years received degrees. But Megan Albidrez, associate director of N.C. State’s Academic SEE ACADEMICS, PAGE 6 this day in history APRIL 24,1953... Former UNC president Frank Porter Graham dedicates the N.C. Memorial Hospital, School of Dentistry and School of Nursing in a ceremony at Kenan Stadium. TUESDAY, APRIL 24, 2007 return seeking routine Some students able to forgive BY ERIN FRANCE STATE & NATIONAL EDITOR BLACKSBURG, Va. - The first day back to class for Virginia Tech students began with a morning cer emony honoring the 32 students and faculty killed by senior English major Seung- Hui Cho. Thirty-two white balloons were released with the strike of a bell in front of 33 small stones placed in a A The Aftermath semi-circle on the wide expanse of the field known as the Drillfield. The 33rd marker, placed between Matthew Gwaltney’s and Dan O’Neil’s, was for Cho, who killed himself at the end of his rampage; it was removed later Monday. There still is a sizable showing of flowers and notes in the place where his stone lay. “He was still a person, too,” junior Matthew Quinn said. “He was still a Hokie.” In this community of more than 25,000 students, there are signs of forgiveness toward the gunman, but it is not a consensus. There were not many on campus willing to talk to the media Monday, and while the campus population spiked from last week, it was far from a normal spring day. There are a lot of students back, but this is pretty sparse,” graduate student Amy Tanner said. “I think it will be just a slow, long week.” Instructors received e-mails from the Va. Tech administration encouraging them to mention last week’s events in their classes. Ting Cai, a graduate student, is teaching a general chemistry class today and said he cannot predict how many of his students will attend. “We’re only going to meet for 15 minutes,” he said. “I think I’ll proba bly start with a moment of silence.” Teachers are using Monday and Tuesday to assess the grades and conditions of their students before finishing the semester. Exams are optional in calculat ing students’ final grades. Andrew Blando, a junior ocean ic engineer, said he still is debating the different options. “I don’t want to feel like I’m tak ing advantage of the situation,” he said. The students remaining on campus Monday were searching for normalcy. Many students experienced abbreviated classes along with reminders of the last week, such as signs on the outside of all aca demic and residence halls curtail- SEE VIRGINIA TECH, PAGE 6 weather Partly y y, cloudy H 83, L 60 index police log 2 calendar 2 games 5 sports 9 opinion 10
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