What Part of "Public" Does UofL Not Understand?

I've been following the hospital merger story from the outside, just like most of you, and I've got just one question:

What part of "public" does UofL not understand?

I mean, here is a teaching hospital owned and run by the University as part of its medical school. It receives public funding for indigent care. And now it wants to carry out a merger where medical decisions will be made by a church? By a non-doctor, no less?

Obviously, the driving force behind all of this is money. The hospital, apparently, is hurting financially, and the university doesn't want to pour money into it to make up the difference.

But that doesn't excuse allowing a public institution to be controlled by a church. What next -- Kentucky Baptists buy Manual High School and require everyone to be baptized?

UofL needs to unwind this ill-advised merger and look for another means to deal with its money problems.