Mission Creep -- Does the UNC System Need to Own Hospitals?

In today’s Pope Center Clarion Call, Duke Cheston writes about a controversy in North Carolina — should the UNC system keep expanding into the field of health care? It has become common for higher ed leaders here (and elsewhere) to proclaim that it’s part of the university’s mission to do all kinds of things besides education, such as helping the economy grow, helping protect the environment, helping to improve the health of the people, helping to foster multicultural understanding, and so on. Perhaps it would be better if UNC stuck to its educational knitting.