The University indicates a double standard in supporting Coach Butch Davis after harshly punishing a UNC researcher for neglect in her oversight duties.
If you are a football coach and you don’t notice infractions by your subordinates, bringing the University into disrepute, you get the support of the chancellor and athletic director.
But if you work a few hundred yards away in UNC Hospitals, the same rules don’t apply.
A computer security breach on the Carolina Mammography Register server in 2007 potentially disclosed a large number of patient records.
So the University decided to fire lead researcher Bonnie Yankaskas, affirming that (Chancellor Holden Thorp told the Chronicle for Higher Education) the principal investigator is responsible for data security.
The punishment seems harsh, since a researcher is often no data security expert.
But the rationale is clear: your project, your responsibility.
And ignorance is no excuse, especially when the lack of oversight harms the University.
But it doesn’t seem to apply to the football coach, from whom an apology is sufficient.