In a scathing letter published today in UNC Chapel Hill's Daily Tar Heel student newspaper, an emeritus faculty member bludgeons the university for last week's football game, which necessitated an early end to the workday for thousands of employees.
Charles Murphy wrote that the move illustrates that the university is ruled not by academics but by athletics, and writes that the operating rooms at the hospitals were shut down to accommodate game traffic.
He wrote in part: "Even UNC Hospitals operating rooms closed at 3 p.m. last Thursday. God help those who have the audacity to become acutely ill or injured during the Sacred Hours."
Well, that's not precisely accurate.
This according to Karen McCall, a spokeswoman for UNC Health Care:
The hospitals and ambulatory care center have 35 operating rooms.
That's 31 at the main hospital and the women's and children's facilities, and four more at the ambulatory care center.
At the hospitals, two are always held open for emergencies.
Hospital officials did not shut the rest down at 3 p.m. last Thursday, the time at which university employees were ordered home to clear the way for football fans, McCall said.
Rather, the hospitals went to a reduced operating room schedule in much the same way it would on holidays or at other times when there are fewer scheduled surgeries.
Thus, there were 18 operating rooms in use at 3 p.m. that day, then scaled back to 9 at 7:30 p.m., McCall said. The operating rooms at the ambulatory care center were shut down at 3 p.m., as were the clinics there, she said.
The next morning, everything resumed at a normal schedule.
"We reduced the number of operating rooms running in response to the fact that people would have a hard time getting in and out," McCall said. "We never closed. The emergency room is always open."
Comments
Hyperbole vs Hyperbole ....
Wed, 10/28/2009 - 12:52 — AgentPierceThe "value" of a Thursday Night game to the future of a school's football success is GREATLY exaggerated ....... but nothing can compete with the hyperbolic extreme of a UNC nutjob emeritus when he goes into "I REALLY hate sports because ....." mega-rant. Mr Murphy has been sucking too much of his own gas.
Any future such scheduling should be rare and carefully scheduled around slack periods on campus. Any "on-campus" stadium faces such conflicts.
Co-Existing With Sports, Medicine, Academia and Soreheads
Tue, 10/27/2009 - 18:39 — bigsurmacReading all the comments, starting at the top with a retiree -- Emeritus --
Stating "Facts" which were disproved down the line, and then proceeding through the other comments -- several disparaging of others viewpoints -- what has happened to common sense and civility in this society?
Major universities and smaller universities, colleges, institutes, community colleges, high schools, intermediate school, youth athletic leagues and a number of Senior Centers engage in athletic competition.
It comes in all sizes, for all ages and skill levels.
Some lower echelon athletes expend as much effort and energy as the best professional athletes, but with most there is a prime ingredient -- simple enjoyment.
Every parent should at least sometimes schedule around an offspring's ball game, swimming or track meet, or tiddly winks match.
If a Division One university, a BCS school, is given the opportunity for a weeknight nationally televised game -- Any intelligent Athletic Director and University Administration will gleefully accept.
Being able to augment student and faculty recruiting budgets with a few million dollars value in national media exposure has benefits.
Obviously, some narrow, unaware attitudes need adjusting.
sports over academia
Mon, 10/26/2009 - 17:33 — Taxpayer2008Yes sports IS more important than academia. So? Get over it. The employees should've been given Administrative leave - not to be made up - in all fairness to them since they were forced to take time off.
Doesn't anybody get tired of
Mon, 10/26/2009 - 15:22 — Clooney1Doesn't anybody get tired of this whining?? It was UNC's first Thursday night game. Plus, it was on National TV. Maybe, just maybe, kids are watching and saying "what a cool looking place to be..this Chapel Hill" and maybe this kid might get interested into coming to the University for his or her education. So what if it's a Thursday night game. This doesn't happen often at all. One Thursday people. Quit whining, go home and enjoy getting off early for a change or you can sit in your car, get real mad at the traffic and wonder to yourself..."I think I should have gone home early".
No, Josh. Faculty and staff
Mon, 10/26/2009 - 14:51 — ThinkingNo, Josh. Faculty and staff don't get fall break off, only the students do. And the employees to have to make up the time or take leave.
But no, it really wasn't a big deal. Most of the objections, such as the first comment on this article, are simply hyperbole. The only people harmed seem to be fictitious.
get a life you whiners
Mon, 10/26/2009 - 13:14 — joshtarheelseriously...tons of schools have thursday night football games. make an exception every now and then. i'm sure all the school employees were furious they had to leave early instead of working a couple more hours...not to mention it was Fall break geniuses, so most employees were off all of Thursday and Friday.
Nohting changes
Mon, 10/26/2009 - 12:43 — Steve_CrispThis is nothing new. NCSU did similar back in 1996. Hurricane Fran had just passed through Raleigh in the morning hours of Friday and State opted to play their football game on Saturday. The fact that people were dead and injured, that there was widespread damage, and that the Gov had implored folks to remain in place because of the dangers meant nothing to them. All they cared about was the football revenue. And they made it worse by lamely claiming that the game was being played to boost morale in the community after the disaster. Nice touch, but no one had electricity to watch it.
Upon hearing that decision,NCSU was removed from the list of organizations I donated to and has never returned to it.
"Nothing Changes???"
Mon, 10/26/2009 - 16:11 — ennisslMr. Crisp, are you really berating NCSU for playing a football game? You state that there were "dead and injured and widespread damage" through Raleigh during the time. Ok, lets think, roughly say 200 players, coaches and officials had to take the field that day. No telling how many other ticket takers, etc it took to run the stadium take a guess and say 500 (probably 1/2 that many though. So there are only 700 people at the most at the stadium that had to be there. The rest of the 50,000 people sitting in the stands choose to be there themselves. If they didn't have any damage to their own property or even if they did it was there choice to be there. As for helping the injured, I'm sure many NCSU Alumni did there part in that from the engineers at Progress Energy figuring out how to get power back to the population to average Fan helping clean their own street.
You obivously have forgotten how life on campus is. They do not shut the school down for anything or at least they didn't while I was there. In my tenure as a student of the university they NEVER cancelled class. There were several severe ice storms and even one year that we had several inches of snow and I made my way to class or skipped class.
If you ever actually gave money to the University and you let the fact they played a football game on a Saturday after a storm come through affect your decision to give money, those of us who are regular contributors to the Alumni and Athletics programs would rather you keep your money, because you sound like you should have gone to UNC anyway!!!!!
his point was still made.
Mon, 10/26/2009 - 12:24 — ashley41683his point was still made. athletics took priority over medical services. how do you explain to people whos only day they can schedule a surgery is the day of that game for whatever reason and they get told no because of too few open rooms due to a football game? that really sounds good. what about the 10th person in a major car crash who has to wait for a room because there are only 9 open. sorry you die because of a football game. he was right. that looks bad.