The Drawing of the Three
West Virginia University Provost Gerald Lang has announced the three educators who will investigate the “dispute” over a master’s degree that was retroactively awarded to Heather Bresch. And they are:
Roy Nutter
Professor, computer science and engineering
Michael Lastinger
Associate Professor of French; former Faculty Senate Chair and BOG member
Bruce Flack
Director of Academic Affairs and Vice Chancellor for State Colleges, West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission.
I for one, am glad Alex Macia’s name is not on the list.
Be that as it may — start digging. Give us everything you know about our independent panel of investigators. A couple immediate observations:
Although Lastinger was the lone BOG member to vote against Garrison, that really means nothing. As Faculty Representative, he was pretty much bound to vote that way. For all we know, he and Mike get blasted on scotch and Krispy Kremes every second Thursday of the month.
Roy Nutter spoke to the Daily Mail last week about the controversy. While his comments were interesting, they definitely indicated, to me anyway, that he is predisposed to think that Bresch’s records really were lost, and that she earned the degree. Am I the only person who thinks someone has the burden of proof absolutely backwards?
I know next to nothing about Bruce Flack, but his name did pop up in the comments of this thread as a possible investigator. Which makes me feel kind of queezy.
And one last thing. If I were a reporter, there are 2 things I’d want to know right now:
1, what will the burden of proof for this investigation be? Surely the investigators are not operating under the assumption, 9 years after the fact, that Bresch earned the degree, when there hasn’t been a shred of evidence to support that conclusion. Surely you wouldn’t just assume that, right?
And 2, SHOW ME THE TRANSCRIPT. Really, people. This entire episode could be put down overnight if Ms. Bresch would simply produce a transcript. Privacy my ass. That’s bullshit. Children of the privileged think nothing of submitting multiple transcripts for unpaid summer internships. But when Heather Bresch’s personal and professional reputations are on the line, she says it’s private? I say it’s bullshit. SHOW ME THE TRANSCRIPT.
Anyone who doesn’t wish to leave a comment can email me directly: hk.5thc AT gmail.com.
Oh, and happy new year.
Tags: Heathergate
January 2, 2008 at 2:06 pm
“Scotch and Krispy Kremes”? Best laugh I’ve had in a loooong time!
January 2, 2008 at 2:07 pm
If what WVU says happened really did happen (and we all know it didn’t), then Heather Bresch’s transcript would be fucked up too. It would show the same thing that the registrar initially said its records showed. That’s why she won’t produce it. Because then she would have to explain why she never bothered to call up the registrar to find out why half her courses were missing and there was no graduation date indicated. We need a mole at Mylan to go check for a diploma on the wall of her office. I said it in a previous comment, but I’ll say it again — if I were Heather Bresch, I’d be looking through my shit to find any evidence I could that I took those courses and earned that degree — syllabi, exams, papers, whatever. If I were telling the truth, that is.
January 2, 2008 at 2:13 pm
I do agree that there should not even have to be an “investigation” in to this whole thing. Show the transcript! Hell, if I had an MBA I would shout it from the rooftops, not worry about privacy.
January 2, 2008 at 2:14 pm
I know Bruce Flack; he is a good man. However, six-figure salaries in W.Va are rare - very rare. With a governor as popular as MoJo and his absolute control over higher education (he is working on K-12 but he can’t get it, yet), Bruce will tow the party line. Bruce will go in there and do whatever needs to be done for Joe, Kay and Chancellor Noland.
Ladies and gentlemen, if you want me to write the results of the investigation for you right now, I can. That said, you all know you can do it yourselves as well. This fraud has been endorsed from the top - it’s a done deal as far as W.Va is concerned.
However, outside of the state, the game is still going.
We obviously cannot save ourselves.
January 2, 2008 at 2:14 pm
If Garrison had been a professor (or otherwise qualified), Lastinger might have run into him: he’s involved in lots of University committees. He wasn’t, of course. I’m pretty sure his vote also reflected his personal views and that he won’t be cutting much slack.
Nutter’s a good guy generally, but I don’t know his political sympathies.
January 2, 2008 at 2:16 pm
She won’t though. It seems apparent that she has confidence that this will be swept under the rug in due time. That’s what pisses me off. This situation really would right itself one way or another if she would disclose her transcript. College’s fuck up all the time, but they wouldn’t give her a degree without doing the work unless someone higher up was watching her back. College courses = money owed to the college, and if there is one thing colleges don’t fuck up, it’s billing students for classes. Follow the money.
January 2, 2008 at 2:20 pm
According to the 12/21/07 PG article, “Ms. Bresch’s name does not appear on the class rosters for five of the six classes that were added to her records, according to sources who viewed the documents. There is no class list for the sixth class because it was an independent study course”.
In 27 years of teaching, I only had to contact academic records once for a student whose name did not appear on my roster. Of course, the reason for the phone call was that I had a grade for the student that I needed to submit.
BTW, I keep my grade books. For ever and a day!
The fact that Lang appointed the panel members constitutes serious bias from the get go.
January 2, 2008 at 2:31 pm
I agree.
A potential subject of an investigation shouldn’t be allowed to appoint his own investigators. Not if you plan on using the word “independent.”
January 2, 2008 at 2:41 pm
This might be revolutionary, but can’t someone do their own independent investigation? Surely there are WVU grads and lawyers that read this site, why don’t you band together and create an accountability group; a watchdog group.
Sorry for collectively calling you all “Shirley.”
January 2, 2008 at 2:46 pm
Sure, all of the involved parties will gladly accept inquisitive phone calls from Mr. Hippie Killer. Access would be a bit of a problem — to people and records.
January 2, 2008 at 2:56 pm
That would be difficult for a lot of lawyers here in West Virginia because so many of us get a lot, and I mean a LOT, of work from the state, particularly those of us who do bond work, regulatory work, or who litigate.
January 2, 2008 at 3:16 pm
What is the role of the University Board of Trustees and of the Board of Governors, if not to step in and handle such matters when necessary?
Why do we have a Secretary of Education if she cannot manage said issues when they appear?
What is the role of Kay Goodwin then? Randall Reid-Smith does what he wants to - she can’t stop him. Public Broadcasting does what it wants - she has no power. She has no power of K-12 education. She, seemingly, has little power over higher education when the petal is put to the metal.
What is her role? Why do we have this office?
January 2, 2008 at 3:26 pm
It’s not so much about people not performing in their assigned roles. I mean it is, but it isn’t.
The real problem here is everyone is so incestuously interconnected, and everyone owes everyone else multiple favors — that’s how these people arrived at their stations in life.
If one person actually called another one out — I mean really did it — the whole fucking house of cards would fall.
January 2, 2008 at 4:07 pm
Now that would be something to see. All of them turning on each other - my, my, my, what a great way to start the year off….
January 2, 2008 at 4:45 pm
Roy & Mike will do an honest job, but they have to watch for conflicts of interest. So no free trip to the Bowl Game.
I don’t know Bruce personally. I’m surprised Macia’s not on the list, but perhaps it’s the HIPPIE KILLER EFFECT.
The Three Musketeers should have full access to all emails, records, people, WITHOUT LIMITATION. They should see the emails and phone logs from Lang, Garrison, Sears and anyone else. Their report must be public — all of it. Heather should waive her ‘privacy’ rights in advance.
I’d start with interviewing all 7 of the professors for the disputed classes. Somebody has kept their personal grade records.
I fully agree with HK’s point on presumption - they should not go in there assuming that the degree was correctly granted.
January 2, 2008 at 4:48 pm
To appreciate how simple it would be to investigate to determine whether Heather Bresch met the requirements for the MBA degree that she was awarded in October one need only carefully review the December 21, 2007 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article. One should focus on the following statements in the article:
“. . . six classes were added to her record and grades were awarded for two other classes for which she had received ‘incompletes,’ according to sources inside the university.”
“. . . In addition, Ms. Bresch’s name does not appear on the class rosters for five of the six classes that were added to her records, according to sources who viewed the documents.”
“. . .Two classes that had been marked incomplete were changed to show letter grades.”
“. . . Professors listed as the instructors for five of the six classes added to Ms. Bresch’s record said they were not consulted on the changes . . . One of those instructors was Paul Speaker, a finance professor who headed the Executive MBA program through the end of 1998. Mr. Speaker said he was not consulted about Ms. Bresch’s records mix-up . . .”
“Mr. Speaker said that any time grade records are changed, the admissions and records office requires that the professors involved sign a grade modification form, which must also be signed by the head of the department and a representative of the dean’s office.”
Thus, it appears that WVU “investigated” after the Post-Gazette’s original inquiry and awarded grades to Bresch. Having awarded grades that signify completion of each of six courses there was a basis for awarding her an MBA degree in October, 2007. The problem with this scenario is that none of the Professor who taught the six courses were consulted about either her enrollment in each course OR the grades assigned to her.
The first and obvious inquiries must be: who assigned letter grades for Ms. Bresch’s work after the Post-Gazette initial call to the registrar? How could anyone but the Professor who taught the course assign a grade? Of course, the questions answer themselves — only the Professor who taught a class may assign grades for her/his course.
The next level of inquiry would then, of necessity, be: Who in the administration undertook to award grades for the six courses in lieu of contacting the Professors who taught the courses?
It is clear that there is written documentation relating to Ms. Bresch’s enrollment in the WVU MBA program and the Post-Gazette has had access to it. Most damning is the fact that Ms. Bresch was awarded grades for six courses that were taught, according to the Post-Gazette, over “multiple semesters.” The written records of students enrolled in five of those six courses exists and the Post-Gazette had access to it. Those five course student enrollment lists do not show Bresch to have been in any of the five classes. The fact that Ms. Bresch’s “paper-based student file” may have been shredded recently is not an impediment in getting to the bottom of this matter. Only the Professor who taught each course could award grades to Bresch. If the Post-Gazette reporting is to be believed, none of these Professors were contacted — grades were awarded by an unnamed person who had no independent evidence concerning Bresch’s enrollment in each course or her performance if she actually attended class and completed all of the requirements.
The investigation of this should take no more than a couple of days.
January 2, 2008 at 9:24 pm
Mike’s a pretty serious guy. He most assuredly does not get blasted on KK’s and scotch every second Thursday of the month. His wife’s French, though. Definitely suspicious.
January 2, 2008 at 10:06 pm
He’s seriously FAT and he didn’t get that way because his wife is French.
January 3, 2008 at 12:17 am
I know several people who write for the PG. They took two months to talk to all of the students and faculty involved and ran this story through extensive legal vetting. Bresch didn’t attend the classes in question. No grades were awarded. No tuition was paid for the classes. No degree was ever awarded.
All of the evidence supports those facts.
They didn’t find this out on a routine background check. They don’t do those. They were given this story and it checked out.
If the University tries sweep a granting of a bogus degree to the Governor’s daughter under the rug, I suspect they’ll be fielding calls from Washington Post and New York Times investigative reporters who would love to expose a story this juicy.
January 3, 2008 at 2:19 am
One can only hope Jim. Maybe the Garrison/Goodwin/Manchin era will end.
January 3, 2008 at 7:17 am
Stewart To Be New Head Coach
Hoppy Kercheval
WVU will name Bill Stewart the new Mountaineer football coach, sources confirmed for Metronews early Thursday morning.
The announcement is expected to come later this morning in Scottsdale, AZ.
The development comes just hours after WVU’s stunning 48-28 victory over Oklahoma in the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl
Clearly, Stewart has the support of the team.
“He needs that job, “ said quarterback Pat White shortly after the game. “He deserves it, the head coaching job.”
Defensive lineman John Dingle chimed in at the post game press conference saying Stewart, who served as interim head coach for the bowl, should be the next head coach.
And Stewart, 55, wants the job.
“I will cherish the opportunity to be the head coach at the state flagship university,” Stewart said. But he’s willing to let the situation play out.
“Our committee (the search committee) is in good hands,” Stewart said. “They’ve got a tough call because it’s a great job with some great players and a great future and we need to get the best candidate possible, Okay?”
But Stewart’s name had not been prominently mentioned for the job until this week, and more specifically not until after the game. One university source said WVU wanted to see how the bowl turned out.
“If it’s a national search, so it bit, “ Stewart added. “We will get the best man for the job.”
“I have not been interviewed for the job,” Stewart said after the game. “Whatever decision those gentlemen and the committee decide, I’m with them.”
“I will not politic for the job,” Stewart said.
Well, when you beat the 4th ranked team in the country by 20 points that might be the best form of campaign one could hope for.
As of early Thursday morning WVU officials were still huddled at the Scottsdale Plaza, the team hotel, planning the announcement.
January 3, 2008 at 8:59 am
let’s get back on track…,
Phone records? Screw that, start the investigation by strapping these guys up to a polygraph. If they have nothing to hide, and really want to get to the bottom of it, they’ll agree to it. It would be a good start and very interesting results to be sure.
January 3, 2008 at 10:27 am
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08003/846353-298.stm
PG story from this morning questions why an independent outside group is not looking into this issue.
Lang and Nutter’s bias are questioned.
from the story:
“It has to be outside people investigating this,” said one faculty senate member.
A department chairman said an outside panel would give the investigation more credibility.
“If it’s not an external review, no matter what the results are, they won’t be credible,” he said. “It’s inappropriate to appoint an inside panel to judge your own culpability.”
January 3, 2008 at 11:12 am
Show me the transcript? Dear Hippie Killer, here’s the thing that several people, including yourself, seem to miss about the transcript issue. Even if the transcript is released, the issue is far from over. WVU has already admitted that they have modified her transcript. It will most certainly now show that she has earned her degree. Releasing it changes nothing. So, the question is: Why doesn’t she just release it and show that she’s cooperating with the investigation and has nothing to hide? I can think of a couple reasons. It will expose the falsified records to public scrutiny, so she probably agreed not to release it when she made her deal with the devils, Garrison/Lang/Sears/Speaker? She’s a poor student and doesn’t want her grades published worldwide? Whatever the reason, don’t expect the transcript to resolve the scandal
January 3, 2008 at 11:16 am
This is the lead in todays Chronicle of Higher Ed:
“Michael S. Garrison was controversial at West Virginia University even before his arrival in September as president. Now he is linked to a developing scandal that raises questions about the ties between the university and the state’s power brokers in politics and business.”
January 3, 2008 at 11:19 am
if anyone out there has a picture of Garrison and Heather, from a wedding, ballgame, etc. to disprove the “I’ve kept track of her career” lie, it needs to get out there.
and if there are faculty members reading this FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, speak up.
January 3, 2008 at 11:47 am
The short version is that grades can be changed without faculty approval. We *are* dealing with special circumstances here, right?
From the Faculty Handbook, online at
http://www.wvu.edu/~acadaff/fac/Handbook/ :
4.2.5.7 Changing Grades
A faculty member designs syllabi, teaches courses, and assigns grades, for which he or she must have a rationale. Under normal circumstances, the assigned grade is the final grade a student receives.
Administrative actions can, however, affect a grade. For example, under special circumstances, the appropriate administrator may approve a retroactive withdrawal from a course. Moreover, in the case of a grade appeal, the administrator may adjudicate a case and change a student’s grade. In the case of a faculty member who has left the institution, the administrator may give or change a grade.
Academic dishonesty charges have their own procedure, however, which is outlined in the catalog and faculty handbook. The faculty member has every right to collect evidence, charge a student with academic dishonesty, and award an “F” (including an unforgivable “F”), if that is the consequence he or she has chosen. If the student wants to appeal, he or she has every right to appeal the grade to the Committee on Student Rights and Responsibilities, and the faculty member has the opportunity to respond. If the Committee finds in favor of the student, then the grade is changed by the appropriate administrator. Therefore, in cases of academic dishonesty, the process to handle that infraction must be followed, and neither the faculty member nor an administrator may impede the process.
Finally, if a situation arises in which a grade is challenged through the legal system, it is possible that an administrator may be directed to change a grade either as part of a verdict or as part of a legal settlement.
Thus, in the great majority of circumstances, faculty assign the grades that appear on student transcripts. There are, however, circumstances when the assigned grades may be altered, as indicated by the above examples. (Office of the Provost, January 2005)
January 3, 2008 at 12:21 pm
If the “special circumstances” are that she didn’t take the courses, then no, rumpus, the administration giving her grades is not justified. If she had incompletes in two classes and they gave her grades, that’s not justified either. Here’s a question I’d like the administration to answer: How did you determine what grades to give her? (I know the answer is “we pulled them out of our collective ass,” but I’d like to see what their response would be.)
January 3, 2008 at 12:22 pm
Changing one grade in one course is one matter.
Awarding a student an unearned degree by awarding grades in several courses over several semesters (in courses for which the student was not enrolled)
on pg ? in the Faculty Handbook?
fine print? anywhere?
January 3, 2008 at 1:39 pm
As I stated in an earlier post, today’s Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article confirms that the newspaper actually has documentary evidence that provide irrefutable evidence that Ms. Bresch did not complete the required course work for an MBA degree:
“The Post-Gazette found that officials retroactively added six classes, including grades, to Ms. Bresch’s record. In addition, two classes that had been marked “incomplete” were changed to show letter grades.”
“However, Ms. Bresch’s name does not appear on the class rosters for the classes added to her records, indicating she did not register for any of those courses, according to documents obtained by the newspaper.”
As Karen suggested in her post this morning, there is no basis for awarding letter grades in 8 courses without consultation with the Professors who taught the courses. One does not have to review the faculty handbook to determine whether this is legitimate. It clearly is not.
Today’s Post-Gazette article quotes Mr. Garrison:
When asked whether WVU had any documentation to prove that Ms. Bresch earned the MBA, Mr. Garrison replied, “I don’t know.”
“I haven’t looked at any documentation,” he said. “The academic unit is the point on this issue.”
***
“I hope we have the information available,” he added. “I don’t know that we do or not.”
Thus, Mr. Garrison, the university’s President has not asked whether any documentation supports the awarding of grades and the grant of an MBA degree to Ms. Bresch in October of 2007. Mr. Garrison’s statement unfortunately, is simply not credible.
Prior to the publication of the first Post-Gazette article on December 21, 2007, ‘appropriately corrected’ and that there was ‘no reason to pursue this matter further.’ ” ‘This will be the last we have to say regarding this matter’ Ms. Neil said in a note attached to Mr. Lang’s statement.” Mr. Lang’s statement that Mr. Sears exercised due diligence in researching the discrepancy notwithstanding, sources inside the university stated the business school made its decision to award the governor’s daughter the degree without hard evidence that she had completed the required work.”
Before Mr. Garrison allows top WVU officials to continue down the cover-up road he should immediately issue a statement explaining that the growing scandal has caused him to personally inquire as to the documentation that supports the grades given to Ms. Bresch.
Moreover, President Garrison should release all documentary evidence supporting the retroactive award of the MBA degree to Ms. Bresch and identify the process and persons who assigned each grade if the Professor who taught the courses did not assign the grades.
Privacy concerns should not prevent the public release of the documentary evidence as the actual grades could and should be removed. There are no other plausible legal or policy arguments for failing to immediately disclose the documents.
During the infamous “Watergate” scandal that eventually led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon, the Nixon Administration attempted to maintain Nixon’s “deniability.” Maintaining “deniability” seems to be the tactic recommended to Mr. Garrison by his advisers. However, Garrison’s claim that he had no knowledge of whether documentation supported the award of grades and the degree to Bresch is absurd.
In the event that Mr. Garrison has really not inquired about the documentation he should immediately demand to see it. Leadership means leading. Hus continuing failure to take the lead in public disclosure of the underlying facts has resulted in the drip, drip, drip of information and the growing appearance of fraud and scandal — exactly what happened when President Nixon tried to maintain his deniability.
The time is fast approaching when Garrison will not be able to extricate himself from this growing scandal that is affecting WVU’s reputation nationwide. As a previous commenter suggested national media like the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times will soon begin investigating —giving the story even more “legs” and further undermining the reputation of the University.
The clock is ticking on Mr. Garrison career and reputation . . .
January 3, 2008 at 2:19 pm
Anyone care to post the new story from the Chronicle? I don’t have an account…
January 3, 2008 at 2:57 pm
Here is the Chronicle of Higher Education Article as edited to avoid copyright issues:
West Virginia U. Roiled Over Alleged Transcript Rewrite for Governor’s Daughter By PAUL FAIN
Mr. Fain writes:
Michael S. Garrison was controversial at West Virginia University even before his arrival in September as president. Now he is linked to a developing scandal that raises questions about the ties between the university and the state’s power brokers in politics and business.
Fain explains how the scandal started:
The uproar began on December 21 with an article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, which alleged that the university had rewritten the academic record of Heather M. Bresch, a top executive at a West Virginia pharmaceutical company and the daughter of the state’s governor, Joe Manchin III, a Democrat.
The article discusses the position taken by WVU and Bresch:
Both university officials and Ms. Bresch have a different view of the discrepancy, blaming a clerical error by the university for the appearance that Ms. Bresch was 22 credits short of her M.B.A. degree. But allegations that a political insider received favorable treatment have inflamed Mr. Garrison’s many critics among West Virginia faculty members, who were already fuming about his qualifications and his cozy ties to the state’s capital.
Garrisons background is analyzed:
Mr. Garrison, 38, is a lawyer who has held several political posts, most notably as chief of staff to a former governor and as chairman of the state’s Higher Education Policy Commission. Some faculty members asserted that the presidential search had been rigged in his favor (The Chronicle, April 6, 2007). He explains that . . . in a rare step, the Faculty Senate voted to oppose Mr. Garrison’s selection even before it was official.”
Ms. Bresch and Mr. Garrison ong-standing connections are mentioned:
They were classmates in high school and as undergraduates at West Virginia. The influence wielded by Ms. Bresch’s father, the governor, is rivaled by that of Milan (Mike) Puskar, chairman and co-founder of Mylan Laboratories Inc., a large West Virginia-based drug company where Ms. Bresch serves as chief operating officer. Mr. Puskar is one of the university’s most generous donors.
The article then explores the football coach controversy:
Another Ball in the Air
“Milan Puskar Stadium is home to West Virginia University’s football team. The strong team, which played on Wednesday in the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, is a source of pride for the university and the state. But even the usually happy topic of football has been a problem of late for Mr. Garrison.”
“West Virginia’s head football coach, Rich Rodriguez, resigned in December to become the head coach at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. Then last week West Virginia sued Mr. Rodriguez for allegedly breaking his contract, and is attempting to collect a $4-million buyout the university claims he owes for leaving early.”
The Chronicle reports that “Mr. Garrison and other university officials were in Arizona for Wednesday’s bowl game. But the university has begun its investigation of the degree controversy with the announcement on Wednesday of what it describes as an independent audit.”
The article also mentions “Gerald E. Lang, the university’s provost, [who] cited public concern as the reason for the investigation, which will be undertaken by two university professors and an official with West Virginia’s Higher Education Policy Commission.” Lang is quoted as saying: “the university’s governing board would not participate in the investigation, but that the university would follow the audit panel’s recommendations.”
The article notes that “Mr. Garrison said he supports the audit.”
“We have to maintain the integrity of our academic process,” he said in a written statement. “It is what is most valuable to us as an institution.”
The article then examines whether a clerical mix-up or political favoritism lies at the root of the story:
”
The controversy grew out of an announcement, in October, that Ms. Bresch had been named chief operating officer of Mylan, the world’s third-largest maker of generic drugs. She holds an M.B.A. from West Virginia University, according to a news release about her appointment issued by the company. But when the Post-Gazette called to confirm her credentials, the university’s registrar said she had not completed the graduate degree.”
he Chronicle reports that:after the newspaper called the university again to say that Ms. Bresch disputed that finding.” The article says that “an official there said Mr. Garrison’s office was looking into the matter. ”
A few days later the Chronicle article relates that a WVU spokeswoman called the newspaper back saying that Bresch completed all he course work by 1998 but did not pay a $50 graduation fee and thus did not receive a diploma.
The Chronicle article emphasizes the Post-Gazette’s “long, carefully researched article detail[ing] many problems with that account of the discrepancy.” The Pittsburgh paper had reported that Bresch stopped taking classes with 22 credits remaining in the 48-credit program.
The Psot-Gazette also quoted several unnamed WVU sources and Bresch’s former classmates who stated she had fallen well short of completing the MBA program.
After the Post-Gazette article’s publication, the Chronicle quotes WVU officials saying Bresch’s class record “had been rewritten only after an internal investigation by the College of Business and Economics found that her file had not been recorded properly a decade ago.” WVU maintained that her “records were kept manually rather than electronically at that time.” A WVU statement said “the transcripts and data for a small number of students were not transferred from the business school to the admissions office.”
The Cof H Ed also mentioned an interview with the Post-Gazette in which Bresch “said she ‘had no clue’ that her file indicated that she failed to earn the M.B.A. She thanked the newspaper for finding the discrepancy, which she called an “administrative nightmare.”
The Chronicle article emphasized that Bresch “has yet to turn over her transcript, as some West Virginia bloggers and faculty members have noted.”
The Chronicle article then discussed Garrison’ “Connections” and quoting him as saying that “he will stay out of the investigation of the disputed degree.”
The Chronicle cited Garrison’s with the Daily Mail in which he said he had spoken once about the matter with Ms. Bresch, only in relation to news-media inquiries, and that “he had never been contacted by the governor or anyone else on her behalf.”
“I’ve just known Heather like a lot of people and have kept track of her career. That’s really that,” Mr. Garrison told the Daily Mail. newspaper. “The president does not confer degrees,” Garrison is quoted as telling the DM.
The Chronicle of Higher Education article observed that “Mr. Garrison’s critics are likely to be unmoved by his explanation, noting that “prior to his appointment, state lawmakers, a federal judge, reporters, and faculty members said the search for someone to fill the presidency was politically motivated. ” The Chronicle reported that “some said Mr. Garrison was a finalist because of political connections rather than experience.”
, calling it a “forthright, upright, open process.”
The Chronicle also quotes Stephen P. Goodwin as defending the search
The Chronicle article concludes by mentioning that WVU “hired a prominent search consultant, R. William Funk, to vet a large pool of applicants “and that “the finalists were described on the university’s Web site and also traveled to campus for open forums.”
In closing the article states:
“One of the most-commonly repeated complaints about Mr. Garrison has been his ties to Mr. Goodwin and other members of the university’s governing board. As the chief of staff of West Virginia’s former governor, Robert E. Wise Jr., a Democrat, Mr. Garrison was involved in the selection of five members of the board, including Mr. Goodwin.”
January 3, 2008 at 6:36 pm
Follow the money.
Look at her payment records, not the transcript.
If she was given credit for the classes, they’d appear on her transcript regardless.
I know Bruce Flack too. He’s a pretty stand up guy.
January 4, 2008 at 9:11 am
Ok…, so she paid and didn’t attend…, possible?
January 4, 2008 at 9:58 am
There are several posts here stating: FOLLOW THE MONEY.
My point was: Even if they could, so what? That does NOT mean she attended classes, completed coursework, PASSED the classes, etc. I don’t get what FOLLOWING THE MONEY will provide.
In addition, according to already published PG articles:
Officials also COULD FIND NO RECORD OF Ms. Bresch PAYING FOR THE CLASSES that were missing from her record, this source said. Tuition payments are maintained separately at the university level, at the office of student accounts.
And..,
Ms. Bresch’s paper-based student file within the business school was gone, according to a source close to the situation. The file, along with an undetermined number of other students’ files, was shredded recently when an old storage area was converted to an office.
January 4, 2008 at 10:01 am
EIGHT classes? Unlikely. Paid for a semester and dropped out? Possible but not likely. But even that’s only what, 4-5 classes? It’s grad school, was she going full time?
They gave her six unrecorded classes and “completed” two incompletes. I might buy the incompletes.
January 4, 2008 at 10:15 am
Payment vs. performance. One of the issues I faced as a business prof was a growing consumerist attitude among students. In an undergrad class, actually had a student come into my office after failing the first exam…very upset…she had “paid for these credits and she wanted them”. I replied that she had paid for a seat in the class and whether or not she got the credits would be determined by how well she performed. She totally did not get it. To her, the class was a marketplace good.
That’s not the case with Heather Bresch who is a sophisticated executive. But it does illustrate a pressure on professors to preserve the integrity of the process. If we don’t do it, the administration won’t. We need to hear from the professors in this case. The administration ran right over them.
January 4, 2008 at 10:19 am
I don’t buy the incompletes. How on earth did they determine what grades to give her for those incompletes when they didn’t even contact the professors?
January 4, 2008 at 10:43 am
I find the fellow student recollection aspect of this dispute very interesting. The fellow students are being told that they are liars and that Any Neil has the paperwork to show they are liars. I would be surprised that all of the fellow students would be aligned incorrectly. According to the PG, all of the fellow students share the same recollection that Bresch stopped attending classes.
I’d be quite angry at Amy Neil for questioning my credibility based on a piece of paper. WVU has shown that they can cook up any piece of paper necessary to fit the story. And to make any piece of inconvenient paper disappear.
From the Daily Mail on December 21:
——————
Amy Neil, WVU spokeswoman, said Bresch completed all the coursework necessary to graduate.
When asked about a couple of Bresch’s classmates disputing she’d been in the classes the university is accused of invalidly adding to her records, Neil said the comments were “incorrect.”
“We have the records,” she said in a telephone interview this morning with a Daily Mail reporter. “We have all the transcripts.”
————————
January 4, 2008 at 11:21 am
Jim makes a very good point. Graduate students form a cohort as they move thru their classes. They bond in a way that undergrads don’t since they all take the same courses together. Heather Bresch was very high profile, as one student noted. They KNOW.
January 4, 2008 at 11:35 am
She’s been claiming that she’s had the degree for 10 years. She got busy at Mylan. Mike himself saw that she couldn’t work and go to school so he made a call and they gave it to her (at one point she worked closely with him). I’m sure they all arrogantly assumed that her on-the-job training would far exceed what she would learn at lowly WVU. It’s all come to surface now. WVU didn’t plan it properly, and they can’t cover it up properly. Her degree is merely an honorary one.
January 5, 2008 at 11:01 am
Gazette editorial today points out that an internal investigation has no value. http://www.wvgazette.com/section/Opinion/Editorials/200801041
Keep on em.
January 5, 2008 at 12:25 pm
It takes a cohort to know a cohort…The one cohort I know who was in Bresch’s class says emphatically she was no cohort….
January 5, 2008 at 12:27 pm
Big Red, thanks for sharing that…good ed.
The call for impartial review is out there…who would have the authority and clout to get it done? Obviously a lot of stakeholders who have a self-interest who are not politically involved…any ideas?
January 6, 2008 at 2:07 am
suspected troll activity here -
1. Follow the money is a troll. For most Mylan EMBA students, the company pays. Plus, as Karen points out, what the $ buys is a seat in the class not a grade. We can assume the credits were paid for, and this guy works for Mylan.
2. The rumpus post is clearly misleading, as raging red notes. As a faculty member I can say without a doubt that this is not the type of special circumstances described in the handbook. This was not a grade appeal, or a legal discrimination/sexual harassment claim, or a faculty member who was derelict and failed to record grades. THE FACULTY SENATE MUST SPEAK ON THE ISSUE OF CHANGING GRADES WITHOUT TALKING TO THE PROFESSORS. It should never happen even once.
3. Saying “Flack is a stand up guy” is sounding troll-like. I’ve seen it a couple of times over the past week. Flack works for heather’s dad. I don’t care if he’s Snow White.
Other points:
1. Most of these WVU EMBA cohorts are quite small - 20 - 40 students in Morgantown who see each other for 3 hours in the evening, two days a week, for 4 semesters. It’s not a secret if you stop going to class. Some EMBA cohort classes are videotaped for distance learning - who knows if any evidence remains?
2. Garrison is setting Lang up for the fall here. Notice how the Pres doesn’t award degrees? Perhaps Lang and Sears acted without explicit direction; if so, they are toast. no love lost between the 1st and 2nd floors in Stewart Hall, so hanging Lang out to dry would actually help Mike. Flack for Provost?
3. Garrison knows Heather very well. More than just keeping track of her career. That is a clearly misleading minimization of the truth. When Garrison was a lobbyist, one of his biggest clients was Mylan Labs, at the very moment when heather was the head Mylan gov relations person. In other words, Mike worked for Heather around 2003. Billing records abound. Does any mole at Spillman have the 2003 & 2004 yearend summaries showing what Garrison billed Mylan Labs?
4. Who directed EMBA at that time? Paul Speaker?
5. Did Lastinger, Nutter and Flack fly down to the game? Can someone confirm whether they went as guests of the University?
January 6, 2008 at 10:01 am
And the Pittsburgh P-G weighs in today:
Inside job: WVU needs to name an out-of-state panel
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08006/846843-35.stm
Do the good people of West Virginia deserve this?
January 6, 2008 at 10:59 am
I noticed that the following comments were posted today on the Chronicle of Higher Education News blog website:
An excellent editorial calling for an independent investigation of the “MBA Mystery” can be found at this link:
http://www.wvnstv.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=33136&catid=160&email=1
Today’s Morgantown Dominion Post and Charleson Gazette also call for such an investigation. All three editorials emphasize that the investigation commissioned by WVU President Garrison and University provost Lang is irrevocable tainted because the 3 appointed investigators have ties to the University.
The editorials also make a most important point: a truly independent investigation must be conducted by individuals with no ties to WVU or West Virginia governmental, corporate or political interests will be credible.
WVU president Garrison should immediately pull the plug on the internal investigation he announced a few days ago ask a credible higher education organization such as the AAUP (American Association of University Professors) to conduct the investigation.
Moreover, Garrison should immediately disclose to the public all relevant documents relating to the retroactive MBA recipient Heather Bresch’s participation in the MBA program (with grades redacted) as well as all records relating to the Post-Gazette’s October 2007 initial inquiry and all communications and records relating to WVU’s subsequent response and investigation of the matter.
The publically disclosed documents should include those that identify the individual or individuals who retroactively assigned letter grades to Ms. Bresch nine years after she was supposed to have attended graduation ceremonies for her MBA degree.
These documents should be posted on a new (specially created to deal with the matter) WVU website which should be updated with new information as it becomes available. Only by full public transparency will WVU recover from the growing scandal.
If the WVU President and the University administration have acted appropriately such a course of action will quickly restore confidence in the University and its leadership. Failing to do so will only cause public and media interest in the scandal to continue to grow.
These comments make sense.
January 6, 2008 at 12:24 pm
Yes, Mountaineer Fan, Paul Speaker did direct the EMBA at that time and he’s still very much involved in coordinating the grad programs. The PG article that started this whole thing reported that Heather Bresch phoned Speaker but he said their conversation was “private”.
January 6, 2008 at 3:30 pm
In the meantime, WVU’s accrediting agency has “washed its hands” of this affair. It’s not their problem. http://www.wvgazette.com/section/News/2008010538
“As long as there is no evidence that the university has a history of manufacturing degrees, the agency will not get involved, said Steven Crow, president of the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Accrediting Agency. Otherwise, it is the responsibility of WVU’s Board of Governors to handle the matter, he said.”
January 8, 2008 at 2:32 pm
The Pittsburgh PG will publish an article tomorrow, “Reconstruction of records at heart of WVU MBA probe”: WVU originally said its decision was based on “a previous failure to transfer records of nearly half her course work” is now saying there weren’t any records to transfer “because they didn’t exist or were lost”.