Due to an editing error, an article in Thursday's newspaper on West Virginia University misidentified the faculty organization that had approved a resolution of no-confidence in WVU President Michael Garrison.It is the Faculty Senate, not the Faulty Senate.
| Page 2 of 2 < |
WVU President Clings to Job After Faculty Vote
TOOLBOX   Resize Text
 Save/Share +
COMMENT |
Discussion Policy
CLOSE
The scandal began last October, when Bresch contacted Garrison to complain that the university had no record of a 1998 degree she claimed she had earned.
"She explained to me that she didn't know what the issue was, she believed she had a degree, she didn't understand why the university couldn't verify," Garrison said in an interview aired recently on WBOY-TV in Clarksburg, W.Va. "She was angry. She was upset."
The governor, Garrison continued, "never asked me to do anything."
Garrison added that at the time, he told his chief of staff: "I have no way of knowing whether she has a degree or does not have a degree. Get people involved who can figure it out."
The report, released April 23, did not cite evidence that Garrison directly interfered with decision-making but said the presence of some of his top staff members at the meeting where administrators decided to issue the degree created "palpable" pressure.
It concluded that the business school gave Bresch credit for classes she didn't take and assigned grades "simply pulled from thin air." The degree, an executive master's of business administration, was rescinded.
Garrison accepted responsibility for the debacle in a statement, but added: "I did not ask any person, either directly or indirectly, to award any credit, grades, or degree in this case or any other case. I will never do so and would not accept interference from others in the evaluation of the students that I teach."
"It saddens me," said J. Thomas Jones, a member of the state's Higher Education Policy Commission. He said that under Garrison's leadership, faculty salaries have increased, a child-care center is being developed and problems at the health science center are being addressed. "Up to this point, he's been excellent."
"We think it would be irresponsible to make a leadership change based on speculation," said Stephen Goodwin, chairman of the Board of Governors, asserting that no facts have been presented that Garrison "did anything wrong."
But others said a resignation is necessary.
"Whether he was an accomplice or whether he was just a negligent administrator hasn't really been clarified," said L. Zane Shuck, a retired WVU mechanical engineering professor and onetime university administrator. "Alumni across the country want to have the house clean."
