The Daily Tar Heel

Serving the students and the University community since 1893

°F
Friday June 24th

Unc Athletics And Student Athletes

Graduate student Jill Shippee poses for a portrait at the Eddie Smith Field House on May 23, 2022.

UNC graduate thrower Jill Shippee: ACC record-holder and student-athlete advocate

By Abigail Keller | May. 23

  • As a star goalkeeper at Shenendehowa High School in Clifton Park, N.Y., UNC track and field star Jill Shippee initially had her sights set on playing soccer in college. 
  • In the fall of 2017, Shippee came into the UNC track and field program as a first-year on the throwing squad. She staked her claim inside the circle instantly. 
  • Now, as a graduate student closing out her last track season as a Tar Heel, Shippee holds the school and ACC women’s hammer throw record of 69.76 meters.

Read More »
A SpotterEDU device sits at the front of the room in Hanes 117 as a student writes on the blackboard underneath on Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2019.

How UNC got the tech to track men's basketball, football players' class attendance

By Hannah McClellan | Oct. 17, 2019

Emails and financial agreements received by the DTH through multiple public records requests reveal details of the lead-up to and implementation at UNC of SpotterEDU. The technology, developed and operated by a Chicago-based consulting firm, tracks the class attendance of student-athletes through beacon devices with an automatic Bluetooth connection to their smartphones.  Early last month, the DTH reported the existence of the new program at UNC. While the University declined at the time to state which sports it is using the new technology for, new documents suggest that SpotterEDU has been applied only to select players from the football and men's basketball teams.

Read More »

UNC tracking student-athlete class attendance through third-party beacon tech

By Hannah McClellan | Sep. 5, 2019

As an attempt to make sure the athletics attendance policy is being upheld by student-athletes, new beacon technology has been installed in classrooms throughout the University. The purpose of the beacons are to communicate with mobile devices to ensure that the athletes are attending class and in class for the duration of the period.  Though the technology is promised by its distributing organization to be non-invasive and that the software lacks tracking capabilities outside of the classroom; some UNC professors are concerned that the technology poses a privacy threat and surveils student-athletes, with the potential to spread into further supervision of student whereabouts. 

Read More »