Scandal Prompts WVU President to Resign

West Virginia University President Michael Garrison announced his resignation yesterday, seeking to end a scandal stemming from the university's awarding of an unearned degree to the governor's daughter.

Garrison said he hoped his resignation, effective in September, would end the turmoil at the university, where in recent months faculty members have passed a resolution of no confidence in him, alumni have withdrawn millions of dollars in gifts, and students have expressed fear that their degrees have been devalued.

"I frankly just came to the conclusion that we were well beyond time for this discussion to end, and there was not much else that could cause it to end," Garrison said in a telephone interview after he informed the Board of Governors of his decision.

Stephen Goodwin, the chairman of the Board of Governors, said he understood why Garrison resigned. "It was just that there never seemed to be an end to it," he said in an interview. "The volume kept being turned up and turned up, and when he looked at the whole picture, he thought that the best thing for West Virginia University was for him to step aside."

The scandal racked the school of 27,000 students, a dominating institution in a small state where people are proud to "bleed blue and gold."

On Thursday, 11 professors in the law school -- which graduated Garrison -- wrote him a letter urging his resignation.

In recent months, one donor revoked an offer of gifts worth $2 million, and 124 others contacted the WVU Foundation, an independent fundraising organization, and said they opposed Garrison, said foundation president R. Wayne King.

Also, the provost of the university and the dean of the business school resigned their administrative posts.

In April, a panel of independent investigators released a report saying that university officials showed "seriously flawed judgment" in retroactively granting an unearned executive master's of business administration degree to Heather Bresch, the daughter of Gov. Joe Manchin III (D).

Garrison is Bresch's former classmate. He once worked as a lobbyist for Mylan Inc., where she is an executive and whose chairman is one of WVU's biggest donors.

But Garrison's critics say the problem goes beyond Bresch. It extends to the appointment system for the university president, said Michael Perone, chairman of the psychology department and a leader of the ad hoc group Mountaineers for Integrity and Responsibility.

Nine of the current 18 members of the Board of Governors, which appoints the president, -- were themselves appointed by Manchin, Bresch's father. Three more were appointed by Manchin's predecessor, for whom Garrison had worked as chief of staff.