Hannah McClellan
Articles
Orange County high school seniors petition against drive-thru graduation
Having lost many parts of their final year of high school to COVID-19, including prom, awards nights and other senior activities, many Orange County seniors are relying on their graduation to be one final hurrah.
Kipos Greek Taverna closes on Franklin Street, to reopen in new Chapel Hill location
Kipos Greek Taverna's owners have closed their Franklin Street location, but plan to reopen in a new Chapel Hill location. The decision was a “direct result” of having to temporarily close due to the COVID-19 pandemic, said owner Giorgios Bakatsias. Other Chapel Hill restaurants are facing more uncertainty — making it unclear how many will be able to reopen after the pandemic.
Interfraternity Council guest speaker sparks controversy for alleged misogynistic comments
On Feb. 16, UNC’s Interfraternity Council hosted an event addressing personal development and mental health that has since been criticized by student leaders as offensive, misogynistic and otherwise problematic. Keynote speaker David Hagan described his speech as "intentionally blunt, graphic and filled with profanity," designed that way to resonate with young men. But Memorial Hall staff complained the speech made them uncomfortable, and some student leaders are still pressing for more public accountability from the IFC, asking the council to apologize for the event and commit to violence prevention training.
Some at UNC have privacy, data security concerns with using Zoom platform for learning
Following UNC's official transition to fully remote classes last month amid the increasing danger of COVID-19's spread, Zoom Video Communications Inc. is now the home of most academic lectures and discussions. There are Zoom office hours, Zoom study groups and, at the end of a long day, some have even hosted Zoom cocktail parties. However, Zoom collects a wide array of user data on its video conferencing service, and concerns are being raised by some about potential pitfalls of the San Jose, California-based company's rapidly increasing popularity. So how secure is the online, face-to-face meeting platform that University students and faculty suddenly find themselves using for hours on end every day?
Unmarked graves of enslaved people demonstrate Chapel Hill's dark past
“With all the intense emotional reaction over the fall of an abstract monument to slave-owning soldiers, you might think people might be up in arms about actual bodies in the ground that have gone unremembered.” About three miles from UNC’s campus, nearly 100 enslaved people are buried in unmarked graves at a historic family cemetery. Located only a short walk from the Rizzo Center, the exact details of the cemetery’s ownership and maintenance were unclear to the University when The Daily Tar Heel began investigating the property. Currently, an on-site marker states that the cemetery contains approximately 120 graves but makes no mention of the 100 enslaved people buried there.
Waitlists and frustrations grow as UNC's computer science department tries to keep up
Student participation in the computer science department at UNC has skyrocketed over the last decade, but issues have emerged from the department's inability to accommodate its newfound demand. While the number of declared or intended computer science majors has increased by more than tenfold since fall 2009, the department's faculty total has risen only 8.2 percent over the same time period. While the University recently extended a hint of incoming relief, the expectation remains that class cuts, reduced enrollment availability and other restrictive measures will make life increasingly difficult for computer science majors.
![Alexandra Smith, a senior media and journalism and Hispanic linguistics double major is photographed in her apartment on Saturday, Nov. 9, 2019. “I just wish people at UNC realized [mental health is] something that shouldn’t be stigmatized,” Smith said. “It’s something that should be normal and prioritized just as much as your physical health is.”](https://snworksceo.imgix.net/dth/ea968028-9315-489b-bf0d-54d0fdbeeb89.sized-1000x1000.JPG?w=350)
Students work to improve their mental health as UNC works to improve its resources
Several UNC students are speaking out about their mental health, and how they feel UNC should better accommodate students with mental illnesses. In April 2019, the Mental Health Task Force at UNC released a report showing that counseling services on campus are being used at an increasing rate. This trend also exists at colleges and universities nationwide. UNC is making a variety of changes, such as introducing a 24/7 CAPS hotline, to improve mental health care at UNC. Still, some students think the University should be doing more to provide this type of care.
How UNC got the tech to track men's basketball, football players' class attendance
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.
UNC tracking student-athlete class attendance through third-party beacon tech
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.
In less than a month, the Board of Governors will present a plan for Silent Sam
The Board of Governors extended their deadline on deciding the fate of Silent Sam until May. Here's what the Board of Governors has said about the plan of action for the confederate monument.
Media
Morehead Planetarium
Morehead Planetarium and Science Center, one of the oldest planetariums in the United States, is located on the campus of UNC-Chapel Hill.
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UNC-system President Margaret Spellings met with reporters on Wednesday to discuss her early resignation, Silent Sam and her relocation to North Carolina.
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The Board of Governors' Nov. 9, 2018 meeting included remarks from Margaret Spellings on her announcement to resign as UNC-system president, a public comment session on Silent Sam and a grant supporting adult students.
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Morehead Planetarium- Scare-olina skies
Joseph Caddell
Joseph Caddell, a visiting lecturer in the History department, sits in his office — which is brimming with books and posters.