There’s a long series of would-be posts I’ve never gotten around to writing about what I think really happened at WVU.
A lot of people want to blame Lang. And I don’t doubt that he’s a total jackass. But I think that much of the actual wrong that transpired after the decision was made to award Heather Bresch a bogus degree goes back to then business school Dean Stephen Sears. He did not reach the decision on his own — not hardly. But Sears is THE person who most eagerly worked to make Heather Bresch’s transcript say whatever the hell it needed to say. He was the point man. The literal quote that is so often attributed to Sears is “Let’s get this girl graduated.”
Whatever it takes.
Remember the statement University spokeswoman Amy Neil made about how Bresch really did earn the degree, and that all the confusion could be blamed on an unpaid $50 graduation fee? Well, even though most of you missed it, West Virginia Public Radio reported long ago that it was none other than Stephen Sears who told Amy Neil to say that. Stephen Sears fed a bald faced lie to the press, period.
Chances are, if you’re reading this and you work at WVU, Stephen Sears is still making at least TWICE what you make.
“Let’s get this girl graduated.”
Would you have done that? And if you did, would you still expect to be one of the highest paid professors at WVU?
August 20, 2008 at 6:55 am
The reason is because was leaving for a trip to China with Joe Manchin the next week after the fateful meeting between Lang, Sears, et al. Since he was going to be travelling with the Gov, he wanted to be able to give Joe the thumbs-up.
Interesting that the Dean at Carnegie Mellon (see Post Gazette story on bogus degree) stepped down one day after the scandal broke. If only we could get rid of Lang but he won’t go.
August 20, 2008 at 7:26 am
HK, I think you raise a good question, yet again. This has puzzled me from the start. I don’t know any of the players; my interest in understanding this is to see how it might be prevented in the future.
Why did Sears do what he did?
Was he afraid not to? If so, what was he afraid of? Did he hope to gain for it, and if so, what?
If he understood that was he was doing was at a minimum not standard operating procedure, what made him believe no one would challenge him?
Or was this standard operating procedure when a short list of certain people were involved, and everyone in a circle of power knew it, leaving him feeling some strange sense of injustice for being made to pay a price, at least in terms of reputation, for what he did in this instance?
And, if Gary above is on target about the motivation to give the Governor the thumbs up on a China trip, I wonder Sears actually did that? I think the Governor was quoted as saying he was unaware of any of this until December? When was the China trip?
August 20, 2008 at 8:27 am
I’m sure it’s coincidence, but wasn’t Manchin on “a trip to China” when Randall Reid-Smith gave state archivist Fred Armstrong the ax? Maybe we should ask the Chinese government to deny him any more visas.
August 20, 2008 at 8:28 am
Oh, there are other reasons. The truth will come out this semester. Just a few properly placed FOIAs – and all of you will be extremely surprised!
It may surely bring down the monarchy.
P.S. Get all of the phone records – not from WVU to the Capitol…no…get the ones from WVU to the government office building downtown.
August 20, 2008 at 8:31 am
I hope so, HigherED. We can’t sit back and think all’s well in Morgantown just because Garrison “stepped down.”
August 20, 2008 at 8:50 am
HigherEDemployee,
Any phone records of interest will have already been “lost” in the same manner as Garrison’s land line records.
August 20, 2008 at 11:11 am
Sears was low man on the totem pole. I remember an email printed by the PPG early on. I didn’t keep it, but as I recall it was from Sears to Lang, sounding incredibly ingratiating, asking what information was needed. Everyone in that room knew what they were expected to do. What was Sears afraid of Anonymous? Losing his job. You don’t go against the powers-that-be at WVU and stay where you are. Lang has worked really long and hard as Provost to make sure that his network is available and ready to do what’s needed. He’s more than a jackass, Raging Red. He’s a vindictive despot. When Macia says, “sounds like she earned the degree, does anyone have a problem with that”, you know what you are being told. What made him believe no one would challenge him? Because they thought no one would be watching and that they could do whatever they wanted, as they had been doing. No one WOULD have caught them, were it not for the PPG and whoever it was who got them onto the story. Look how long they kept trying to ignore it. They thought they would get away with it until June when Garrison was finally told it wasn’t going to work. And personally, I think that only happened because of the donor money. That’s how arrogant they all are. Blaming it on Sears is like blaming it on the ones who “just follow the orders”. Yes, they can, and should say no, so they definitely should be held accountable. But the ones who give those orders are ultimately the ones most responsible. The higher up, the more power one has, the more need for them to have the utmost integrity and set the example. Unfortunately, it’s usually the one’s with more power and money that get away with things, while those under them pay the price.
August 20, 2008 at 1:25 pm
Speaking of FOIAs, what is happening at HSC? It’s the same search committee for VP? Butcher and Bailes still jockeying for position to become VP?
Why does Tom Jones make so much money?
August 20, 2008 at 2:52 pm
I know as well as anyone that Sears was a low man on the totem pole. I’m hardly trying to blame it all on him. All I’m saying is that once he had his marching orders, he was all too happy — eager, even — to act as the hatchet man for Garrison and Macia.
Sears was all too happy to do the wet work. He gave the statement to Amy Neil, and he oversaw the actual alteration of Heather’s transcript.
But of course, ultimate responsibility falls on the men at the top — Garrison and Macia. But I think people have gone a little too easy on Sears, if you can believe that.
August 20, 2008 at 3:00 pm
HK, he was the Dean, and he hopefully knows right from wrong. I’m sorry that students have to see him continue in an important job.
August 20, 2008 at 3:05 pm
Interested Party,
That is where you are wrong. You are so wrong. You have no idea what has been “found.”
Make no assumptions.
August 20, 2008 at 3:22 pm
HigherEdEmployee, I’m praying that this state finally comes clean on something. I made fun of Allen Loughrey’s book, Don’t Buy Another Vote, when i first heard about it. The environment is uglier than I had imagined.
August 20, 2008 at 3:54 pm
http://postgazette.com/pg/08233/905518-85.stm
The CMU dean who was asked to resign is staying on faculty during the review.
August 20, 2008 at 5:48 pm
HigherEd:
Is there any connection to the flurry of FOIA’s a few of us heard about, about a week ago, originating with a well-placed and well-known to WVU attorney?
August 20, 2008 at 5:59 pm
Molly’s Mom: There is nothing going on with the search for the HSC VP. No job description has been given to Witt-Keiffer. The committee is doing nothing, (this comes from several members) The restructuring will have to take place first and how does that take place with an interim president?
Higher Ed: Stop being oblique and just tell us what was found, if you know.
August 20, 2008 at 6:21 pm
Way to go, Steph!
August 20, 2008 at 6:23 pm
Looselips, my thoughts re: HSC exactly. So we get fancy new buildings with little likelihood of attracting “real” scientists?
August 20, 2008 at 6:27 pm
Okay Steph, you tell me then
August 20, 2008 at 6:37 pm
Help those of us who are out of the loop. Who the heck is a well known to WVU attorney? Even a first initial will make us feel included.
August 20, 2008 at 6:41 pm
I can’t verify the rumors, but FOIA’s are exactly that. I think it was about the Dow situation, but one can only pry so much. An intial – A
August 20, 2008 at 6:45 pm
Thanks.
August 20, 2008 at 6:51 pm
I don’t know if it’s much help. We need a few more tidbits from highered, but sometimes it’s not safe to say more.
TT – are you Trillium Tootsie? Imaginative name.
August 20, 2008 at 6:53 pm
Yeppers. someone gave me a nickname. Ya gotta love this HK site. It was helpful.
August 20, 2008 at 6:58 pm
TT:
I’ll have to get more subtle about prying for information. I’ll put the crowbar away and put on the kid gloves.
August 20, 2008 at 7:18 pm
It is absolutely amazing what people will tell you if you do that. Good strategy.
August 20, 2008 at 7:28 pm
Any changes at the Research Corps? from the website, they show Bd of Directors:
Officers
Chair: Mike Garrison
Vice Chair: Gerald Lang
President/Executive Director: Curt Peterson
Secretary: Alan Martin
Treasurer: Dan Durbin
Members
Eugene Cilento
Cameron Hackney
Mary Ellen Mazey
John Prescott
Thomas Saba
Narvel Weese
Faculty Representatives
Patrick Callery (3 years)
Mridul Gautam (2 years—subject to approval)
Earl Scime (1 years
August 20, 2008 at 9:00 pm
Steph, does the second initial match one of HKs?
August 20, 2008 at 9:59 pm
yup
August 20, 2008 at 10:06 pm
horse, my guess is that the initial does match — there was an article in the paper (DP) a while back that he is representing the survivors of the employee who was asked to go on the roof of one of the athletic buildings (Puskar Center?) when it was raining because a vent was open and fell to his death because the idiot supervisor ordered him to go up without a safety harness or any safety equipment whatsoever (yet another illustration of the twisted values of the powers that be)
August 20, 2008 at 10:23 pm
You guys are driving me nuts. I’ve googled every article over Bruce Mathieson’s death and the lawsuit is mentioned but the attorney isn’t named.
I think I’m going to FOIA the FOIAs. In fact, these posts are so cryptic I don’t know why this is important :-)
August 20, 2008 at 10:50 pm
So are there any rumblings going on behind the scenes in the BOG yet?
With these wonderful new appointments can we expect any disciplinary
action in the near (or not so near) future? Or are the new appointees
“expected” to keep their noses out of affairs that happened before
they were appointed. Basically, how long do we have to wait for the new
BOG to DO something before drawing the conclusion that nothing has
really changed?
It’s so very sad. This all really is old news by now, and even with
fresh blood on the BOG there is still not a peep out of any of them
hinting that they might wake up and discharge their disciplinary DUTY.
I sincerely hope that there are quiet stirrings afoot that haven’t
leaked yet, or else there is very little hope for WVU.
August 20, 2008 at 11:04 pm
I haven’t commented here in a while, but the Sears question has bugged me for a long time. Why DID he do it? He was (is) a tenured professor. He might have lost his position as Dean of B&E for defying the powers, but he would still have been a professor with a good paying job and kept his integrity. And why did Blakely go along, flipping mental coins to decide A or B for grades? Don’t any of these guys have any sense of right or wrong? A friend in B&E told me Sears was the best (worst?) example of the Peter Principle he’d ever seen. But still he could have said “I’m not going to do this”.
August 20, 2008 at 11:39 pm
Follow the $ trail…. Former BOG Chair Stephen Goodwin….. What current business dealings does his law firm have with HSC, WVU etc…… Is he accepting $ in sxchange for meetings with key WVU officials? if so, is that ethical? should he be investigated or a complaint be filed?
August 21, 2008 at 6:07 am
Downtown Observer:
May 23 D-P article names the lawyer. I know the family. I don’t think that is connected to the above discussions and other FOIA’s. Crytptic is usually not having all the facts yet. You may learn something in the FOIA’s. Same lawyer invovled in the Bucklew case, so you never know what the FOIA’s are for.
August 21, 2008 at 7:18 am
Dean Sears was one of the worst deans B&E ever had according to B&E faculty. He had 13-14 direct reports, created numerous silos, produced a 24 page strategic plan costing tens of millions$, and antagonized numerous potential funders. He talked at length and never learned to listen. He didn’t work with the senior leadership but instead preferred to ask secretaries about key information. During his term the college was isolated from the rest of the university. He held an annual B&E Christmas dinner at Lakeview with his wife where B&E faculty and staff attending were randomly selected to receive gifts of airline tickets, hotel packages, gift certificates, etc. He tried to buy loyalty through gifts, position upgrades but in the end had very little faculty support except from his toadies.
B&E should have known what they were getting when Sears visited campus for his interview. He spoke for over an hour with a power point presentation on his plans with little opportunties for questions. Members of the search committee were told by Jerry Lang that they couldn’t reopen the search. Since the first outstanding candidate didn’t accept the position and the third was totally unacceptable, Sears was selected by Lang. Once Sears was on board he moved to remake B&E into a clone of Texas Tech, the only institution of which he had any knowledge. He was mentored by Jerry Lang who has always viewed B&E as a cash cow for the rest of the institution.
Sears did not accompany the governor to China but went as part of the B&E China Center which facilitate meetings in Shanghai. You can check out the governor’s delegation and find that Sears was not on the trip.
Let’s not forget that Sears is the one who fabricated courses and grades. In addition, he fabricated the financial records to indicate Heather paid for the courses. Aren’t these criminal? Finally, someone should ask what he is doing on his professional development leave. Other faculty have to be at WVU for six years before they qualify; yet he gets a leave after three miserable years.
August 21, 2008 at 1:18 pm
EXACTLY. EXACTLY EXACTLY. The decision came from the top, but Sears was the one they sent to pull the trigger. And he was only too happy to comply.
August 25, 2008 at 3:10 pm
Anyone see the editorial in the Saturday PPG? The opinion was on the awarding of use of the Company aircraft as a retirement benefit to Mike Puskar in these days of corporate governance/ethics and the lackluster performance of Mylan. But it went further to address the lapse in ethics at Mylan and the deafening silence around the bogus Bresch eMBA. The Company has taken no action whatsoever to deal with the faslification of credentials, neither Puskar or Coury have made a meaningful statement about the situation other than they and the Company stand behind her and she remains in her highly compensated position without the credentials one would expect of a professional in her extremely key position as COO.
October 9, 2008 at 3:49 pm
[...] world, just the best.” It’s kind of like that. Especially the news division. There were significant details from the WVU degree scandal that would have never came to light if Emily Corio wasn’t there to do it. Period. And while I [...]