WVU revokes degree after scathing report on M.B.A. awarded to Governor's daughter

[StitchInTime]

<p>Great reporting from the [Pittsburgh</a> Post-Gazette](<a href=“http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08115/876164-298.stm]Pittsburgh”>http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08115/876164-298.stm), the paper that originally broke this story:</p>

<p>

WVU made ‘flawed’ decision
University revokes degree after scathing report on M.B.A. awarded to Bresch
Thursday, April 24, 2008
By Len Boselovic and Patricia Sabatini, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette</p>

<p>MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia University administrators made a “seriously flawed” decision fraught with favoritism in awarding Mylan Inc. executive Heather Bresch a graduate degree she didn’t earn, investigators said in a scathing report released yesterday.</p>

<p>Provost Gerald Lang said he would follow the recommendation of the investigative panel and the university’s Board of Governors and rescind the degree.</p>

<p>The report by the five-member panel concluded administrators acted hastily, using ambiguous and incomplete information to award an M.B.A. degree retroactively in October to Ms. Bresch, the daughter of West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin.</p>

<p>The decision was made following a telephone conversation between the governor’s daughter and WVU President Michael Garrison, a family friend and former business associate of Ms. Bresch, the report said.</p>

<p>**The report concluded administrators falsified Ms. Bresch’s transcript by adding courses to her record that she did not take and by entering grades “simply pulled from thin air.” The actions reflected “failures of process and failures of leadership” at the state’s flagship university, it said.</p>

<p>Top administrators “should have been more deliberate, more discerning and more detached in assessing the evidence that they had in hand,” investigators said. “They should have hesitated to rely so heavily on fragments of self-serving, hearsay conversations that they could not and did not even try to confirm or verify.”**…

</p>

[cartera45]

<p>Wow, lots of people should be fired.</p>

[collegemom16]

<p>I agree it seems as though more than one person abused positions of power to create this situation. Was Governor Bresch involved?</p>

[chocoholic]

<p>Unbelievable. I wonder what this will do for her professionally?</p>

<p>Heather Bresch </p>

<p>COO/Executive VP at
Mylan, Incorporated
Canonsburg, Pennsylvania
HEALTHCARE / DRUGS - GENERIC
Officer since February 2004 </p>

<p>38 years old </p>

<p>Ms. Bresch has served as Mylan’s Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer since October 2007, before which she was Head of North American Operations since January 2007. She previously served as Senior Vice President, Strategic Corporate Development, beginning in February 2006. Ms. Bresch joined Mylan in 1992, and has held a number of management positions, including Vice President, Strategic Corporate Development from May 2005 to February 2006, Vice President of Public and Government Relations from February 2004 to April 2005, Director of Government Relations from March 2002 to February 2004, and Director of Business Development from January 2001 to March 2002. </p>

<p>Cash Compensation (FY March 2007)
Salary $300,000 </p>

<p>Latest FY other long-term comp. $1,372,300 </p>

<p>Total $1,672,300</p>

[chocoholic]

<p>Bresch maintains she was given the OK to have work experience count for credit. The Post-Gazette reported she was 22 credit hours short of obtaining her degree.</p>

<p>Mylan Inc. is a major contributor to the WVU school of business.</p>

<p>Bresch is also a friend of WVU President Mike Garrison. The report says there was pressure from Lang and the president’s office to help Bresch.</p>

<p>The criticism stems from an Oct. 15 meeting where WVU officials decided to grant Bresch the degree retroactively. Also attending were Sears, WVU chief of staff Craig Walker, general counsel Alex Macia, communications director Bill Case and three others from business school.</p>

<p>“The panel believes the prevailing sentiment at the meeting, evinced by the actions and comments of the provost and the representatives of the president’s office, was that a way should be found to justify the granting of the degree, if at all possible,” the report says.</p>

[originaloog]

<p>Lets see. A public university that gets funding from elected politicians. Daughter of govenor. Govenor friends of univ prexy. Employee a financial supporter of B School.</p>

<p>Oh yeah, heads are going to roll.</p>

[coronax2]

<p>

While not commenting on the panel’s finding that his daughter did not earn the degree, Mr. Manchin, who is seeking re-election, said he hoped “WVU’s leaders will correct whatever problems that led to this situation so that no other student will have to go through this kind of ordeal in the future.”

</p>

<p>Hey…Joe (Manchin)…don’t make me laugh! You are joking, right? I’m pretty darn sure that nobody I know will run into “this kind of ordeal”. :rolleyes:</p>

[cartera45]

<p>The only way others are likely to go through that ordeal would be if he has other children.</p>

[mini]

<p>What an ordeal! What a horror! What pain and suffering! What agony!</p>

<p>You would think she was waterboarded. ;)</p>

[coronax2]

<p>

Lets see. A public university that gets funding from elected politicians. Daughter of govenor. Govenor friends of univ prexy. Employee a financial supporter of B School.</p>

<p>Oh yeah, heads are going to roll.

</p>

<p>This is a start…</p>

<p>

The provost of West Virginia University said Sunday he was resigning after being criticized for his handling of a master’s degree that was improperly awarded to the governor’s daughter.</p>

<p>In a memo sent Sunday to the deans who report to him, Provost Gerald Lang said an independent report on the controversy convinced him to step down after 32 years of involvement with the Morgantown university.</p>

<h2>“I am very sorry that my one action in ratifying a dean’s decision in a single situation has had a negative impact on the institution,” Lang wrote. “I love this place and would never intentionally take an action that would reflect negatively upon it.”</h2>

<p>In the days after the report’s release, calls on top officials to resign came from within the university and from around the state. The Charleston Gazette, the state’s largest newspaper, said resignations were necessary, and some members of the WVU faculty said Lang, Sears and WVU President Mike Garrison should resign.

</p>

<p>[TBO.com</a> - News From AP](<a href=“http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/G/GOVERNORS_DAUGHTER?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US]TBO.com”>http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/G/GOVERNORS_DAUGHTER?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US)</p>

[coronax2]

<p>and another…</p>

<p>

The dean of West Virginia University’s College of Business and Economics is resigning in the wake of the scandal over a master’s degree awarded to the governor’s daughter, the school announced Monday.</p>

<p>R. Stephen Sears is the second high-ranking academic officer to leave in the case, following Sunday’s announcement that Provost Gerald Lang is resigning.</p>

<p>An investigating panel concluded last week that the two men were among several administrators who acted inappropriately and applied “severely flawed” judgment in awarding Mylan Inc. executive Heather Bresch a degree the panel said she did not earn.</p>

<p>Bresch, daughter of Gov. Joe Manchin, works for one of the university’s key donors, Milan Puskar, and is a longtime friend of WVU President Mike Garrison.</p>

<p>The panel that studied her executive master’s of business administration degree, which was retroactively awarded last fall after records discrepancies were discovered, concluded the administration lacked an academic foundation for deciding she had earned the degree in 1998.</p>

<p>Those administrators relied too heavily on verbal assertions and caved in to political pressure, whether real or perceived, the panel said.

</p>

<p>[TBO.com</a> - News From AP](<a href=“http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/G/GOVERNORS_DAUGHTER?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US]TBO.com”>http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/G/GOVERNORS_DAUGHTER?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US)</p>

[momofnewP]

<p>Mylan Inc. IMHO would do well to terminate their relationship with Ms. Bresch. Who would want to be represented by someone who would accept a degree that she did not earn?</p>

[coronax2]

<p>

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) - West Virginia University President Mike Garrison said Friday he will resign in September to end the controversy surrounding the improper awarding of a master’s degree to the governor’s daughter.

</p>

<p>[WVU</a> President Mike Garrison will resign | Parkersburg News and Sentinel](<a href=“http://www.newsandsentinel.com/page/content.detail/id/506078.html?nav=5061]WVU”>http://www.newsandsentinel.com/page/content.detail/id/506078.html?nav=5061)</p>

<p>I’m quite surprised Garrison resigned so quickly.</p>

[cartera45]

<p>Once the donors start threatening to withhold money, the end is near. That was also the undoing of William and Mary’s president.</p>