West Virginia University's image has been battered by a master's degree that its administration awarded to Gov. Joe Manchin's daughter despite the fact there was no documentation to support her contention that she earned it.
The question WVU faces now is where it goes from here. It is clear that what has been done so far has not quelled widespread discontent with WVU President Mike Garrison and his administration.
The report of the independent investigating panel issued nearly two weeks ago does not name Garrison as a person involved with the awarding of the false degree, but as the university president, it's his job to restore WVU's reputation. It will be a very difficult job.
So far, very little has been done since the release of the investigative report. Two of the administrators who approved Heather Bresch's degree have been demoted to faculty positions, but they still draw six-figure salaries. Many people do not consider that adequate, and it's hard to argue with them.
Donors, faculty, students and alumni all are upset at what they see as the state's largest university being used to give a degree to a person based solely on her political connections.
Some are speaking with their money. President and CEO John McGee of the McGee Foundation notified WVU officials last week that it was revoking an offer to donate $1 million and an additional $1 million in art to the university's Creative Arts Center. McGee told The Daily Mail of Charleston that his foundation's board made the decision because Garrison has refused to resign.
Members of the WVU Faculty Senate are planning a no-confidence vote on Garrison this week. According to The Associated Press, a number of critics inside and outside the university are demanding Garrison's resignation.
"If you have smart officials, they know this would be one of the quickest ways to ruin the reputation of the university," Thomas Morawetz, a professor and authority on ethics at the University of Connecticut law school, told the AP about the Bresch degree. "It is a serious violation of norms."
Peter Kalis, a lawyer and 1972 WVU graduate, told the AP that Garrison and the chairman of the Board of Governors must go if the university is to "reclaim its independence and integrity."
"It's nice that the dean and provost were offered up as sacrificial lambs, but the cancer is still there," Kalis said.
If Garrison is to survive, he needs to explain what his role in the Bresch degree was and provide a greater acknowledgment of what this incident has done to WVU's reputation. It must be done soon. The longer this drags out, the worse it gets.
This episode is far worse than the outcry over former football coach Rich Rodriguez's departure. This problem addresses the value of a WVU degree and the integrity of the institution.
Garrison told the AP last week that he wishes he'd handled things differently when all this started. After handling questions about record discrepancies off to Chief of Staff Craig Walker last fall, Garrison told the AP, he should have ordered Walker and other members of his inner circle to steer clear of the matter.
Regrets are not enough. Garrison has much, much more to do if he expects to salvage his job and the reputation of the university he loves and that he now leads.
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