Ticker Stops Thanking, Starts Informing

A message that flashed "Thanks Ed" followed by "Foundation" had been running since Winter Break due to organizational delays within the Carolina Athletic Association.

The message was meant to recognize the Educational Foundation, which funded the news ticker.

On Tuesday night, the ticker began running times for upcoming basketball games and the results of recent basketball games and swim meets.

But the change came too late to inform students of one basketball distribution and several sports events that have been held since the beginning of the semester.

CAA President Tee Pruitt said the project was under the jurisdiction of Special Projects Co-coordinators Michael Songer and Adam Walters while it was getting off the ground last semester.

But now that the ticker is in place and secured, Pruitt said it is the responsibility of the CAA Sports Marketing Committee.

"It is their responsibility to handle all our sports marketing endeavors," he said.

"This is an exceptional opportunity for them to carry out these types of informative projects."

Trisha McWilliams, vice chairwoman of the marketing committee, said it is completely understandable that the ticker had not been changed recently.

"After break, we were just slow in getting it running," she said.

Pruitt attributed the delay to problems in getting the committee members organized.

"The beginning of the semester always presents some logistical hurdles with everyone's schedules," he said.

McWilliams said the committee did not meet the first week after break. The meeting last week had to be rescheduled because it was interrupted by Wednesday's basketball game against Clemson University.

But Songer said he was upset because the ticker was updated frequently during the fall semester.

He said he found the present delays frustrating.

"(The ticker) gives us a lot of potential to really raise awareness of UNC athletics," he said. "It's not being utilized that way."

Beginning this week, McWilliams said the committee plans to update the ticker every Monday and Thursday for the remainder of the semester.

McWilliams said the ticker will contain all the latest UNC sports news and that the updates will not stop for the rest of the semester.

"We apologize to everyone for being slow."

The University Editor can be reached at udesk@unc.edu.