A&T Athletic Culture is Changing

[Aggie One]

Death at N.C. A&T shifts culture
Friday, August 19, 2011
(Updated 3:00 am)

By Gerald Witt
Staff Writer

Courtesy of N.C. A&T

GREENSBORO — A year removed from a student death on its track, N.C. A&T is updating its athletics policies and boosting its oversight of coaches and efforts to keep athletes safe, even as it prepares for possible litigation after the death of Jospin “Andre” Milandu.

If a lawsuit against the school or its former employees is filed, it could cost the state up to $10 million — just one potential cost of Milandu’s death on Aug. 19, 2010.

“Well-meaning, good-intentioned people in the past have made decisions based on other things than health and safety of the athletes,” said Earl Hilton, athletics director at A&T. “That’s not a shift in perspective that I think is helpful.”

For the rest of the story:
www.news-record.com/content/2011/08/18/article/death_at_nc_at_shifts_culture

[Bornthrilla]

If you had just pumped all that extra money into Space's program from the beginning we could have avoided all these problems.

Glad to see Hilton and Martin are trying to correct things, but from this point on I hope we start to be more proactive and not just reactive.

[oleschoolaggie]

Hilton said the department has undergone a cultural shift since Milandu’s death.

“The key difference is that we made it clear that money’s not an issue,” Hilton said.

“If we end up spending more money, we will. That’s the primary cultural shift.

“The primary consideration is health and safety,” Hilton said.

“Let me worry about how to pay for it.”



trying to run an athletic department "on the cheap" is what got us into this mess in the first place and has rendered us one of the worst (if not the worst) run athletic departments in the meac.

indeed, it takes a "cultural shift" to fix our athletic department and i'm glad we're finally seeing the light...

[aggie1]

After kicking Coach Thompson to the curb for doing an outstanding job with little or no money - all of a sudden you come up with money for the track program. Our athletic department in the past sucked big time. We were wannabes who did not want to spend money on any sports programs
to be really successful.

Maybe Mr. Hilton will clean this mess up and get us back on top again.

[saabman]

What is done is done. The untimely lose of Mr. Milandu has hurt us all but it has also opened up a door . A door that will make A & T a better more accountable institution so in a lose you can have Gain.
Also A & T should put in place some type of Community Health Symposium to Educate not only the student body but the over all Community about the dangers of SICKLE CELL and in so Name it in honor of Mr Milandu.
To me that would be the right thing to do!!

[aggie2ru]

saabman........I'm with you on your suggestion. It will educate the kids and the community and bring awareness to the disease of sickle cell. We are the ones who are at risk and what a great way to honor Mr. Milandu. EXCELLENT IDEA!!!!

[aggiebred09]

Im glad this article made it to print. This is good light on a dark corner something we rarely see happening at A&T or from the N&R

[aggierattler]

The comments after the artcle by an attorney that questions the News-Record's "due diligence" to their (Gerald Witt's) journalistic investigation was right on-point!