May 16, 2008

Embattled West Virginia U. President Says He Won't Speak at Commencement

West Virginia University’s president, Michael S. Garrison, said today that he would skip a planned address during this weekend’s commencement ceremonies so that he would not become a distraction to students and their guests, the Associated Press reported. He does plan to attend many of the graduation events, however.

Mr. Garrison has been beset by calls for his resignation in the wake of a scandal in which the governor’s daughter was awarded a degree she hadn’t earned. Mr. Garrison, with the backing of the Board of Governors, has insisted that he will not step down. But the university’s provost and the dean of its business school have resigned, and last week the board chairman said he would give up the top post but keep his seat on the board.

In a statement today, Mr. Garrison said, “I think it’s important for everybody to note, and particularly the president of the university, graduation is not about me.”

“Graduation is not about anybody except our students and their faculty who got them to where they are today, helped them get to where they are today. We want to focus on the students. I certainly don’t intend to be a distraction.” —Lawrence Biemiller

Comments

1. Although I do not support Mr. Garrison and want his removal as president, I do think he made the right decision to not speak at graduation. He has been on stage at some events. Why detract from the ceremonies for students and their families?

   — Concerned    May 17, 08:44 PM    #

2. Time to get into the wind dude

   — dan brown    May 18, 08:19 AM    #

3. It is important to note that the Provost and Dean resigned their administrative posts, but will return to teaching with handsome salaries. Mr. Garrison has repeatedly stated in interviews that they have tenure and contracts, and thus his hands were tied in terms of disciplining them. Either he is lying or incredibly ill-informed for a University President. WVU Higher Education Policy Commission law allows for dismissal of tenured faculty for a number of things they are guilty of. (Read section 12 of Policy 2 at http://bog.wvu.edu/policies) WVU tenured faculty would be very lucky if tenure prevented them from being fired, as several faculty are already claiming that retribution has been taken against them for speaking out against Mr. Garrison.

   — disgusted    May 18, 11:32 AM    #

4. At the Eberly College of Arts & Sciences Commencement, not only had Garrison cancelled his speaking commitment there, but the Board of Governors Representative Robert Wells was a no show today as was Alex Macia, the Vice President for Legal Affairs, two strong supporters of Mr. Garrison. According to the independent panel report, Mr. Macia was one of three top advisors of Mr. Garrison who were in the room during the decisional meeting advocating that a way should be found to award the MBA to Heather Manchin Bresch.

   — seriously    May 18, 08:52 PM    #

5. Every college, tax supported or private, depends upon the public trust. It takes many long years of hard work and honest, rigorous academic work to earn the public’s trust; it is a delicate and fragile thing, which can be quickly lost. This is what is at stake in West Virginia.

   — Carl    May 19, 08:32 AM    #

6. This story understates the scandal.

   The governor’s daughter was fraudulently awarded 22 credits, with grades (6 Bs and 2 As), out of the 48 required to graduate with an EMBA. The transcript was falsely changed by the Provost and Dean of the business school, under the close supervision of President Garrison’s closest advisors – his chief of staff and his general counsel. For the months following, before these facts were fully known, President Garrison lied many times to the media and the campus about the status of her degree – claiming that all that was lacking was the payment of a $50 graduation fee, or that the grade records had been “lost.”

   The faculty senate report makes it 100% clear that these grades were “pulled out of the air” – a finding that the President fully agreed with.

   As a former Mountaineer, this is shameful and Garrison must resign now. The Provost and Dean should lose tenure. If a student falsified a grade this brazenly, we’d expel them in a flash.

   — former WVU Prof    May 19, 08:43 AM    #

7. Since the provost, the chief academic officer of the university, pulled grades out of the air to give the governor’s daughter and Garrison’s high school sweetheart an unearned MBA the provost and dean should be fired! But they are not because they did not do it. They took the fall for Garrison and his incompetent staff who think that Joe Manchino is more important than the academic reputation of the university.

   — Frank Mitchell    May 19, 08:55 AM    #

8. Clearly it is time to “right the ship.”

   — Gerald W. Berkley-Coats    May 19, 09:01 AM    #

9. Garrision must resign. He knows that. Everyone knows that. The sooner he steps down, the sooner the recovery process will begin at WVU.

   — Kenner    May 19, 09:28 AM    #

10. Kenner is absolutely right. Garrison must put the interests of WVU ahead of his own, though I would argue that resigning is in his own interests, too.

    — Amy    May 19, 10:28 AM    #

11. WV is plagued with political corruption, and WVU and Garrison are no different. Either Garrison is so powerful he can wave his nose at his faculty and funding supporters, or he is too stupid to recognize the damage he has done to the university and doesn’t care. The two administrators should be de-tenured and fired from WVU as well. When do we protect such people??

    — Michael    May 19, 11:04 AM    #

12. I’ve read this article, previous articles and the posts with interest. We’ve seen the fall-out for the university administrators, but I’m curious about Heather Bresch. Has she been fired for falsifying her academic history? Has she had any negative consequences, or did she escape scot-free?

    — Heidi    May 19, 11:58 AM    #

13. Tenure or not, the guilty persons can and must be brought up on dismissal charges per the faculty handbook — see my letter to Chair Goodwin on WVUMIR, click on Total Resposibility and scroll down. This is a MUST before any recovery is possible. Sam B. Nadler, Jr.

    — Sam Nadler    May 19, 12:38 PM    #

14. I will add to my previous comment: Tenure does not protect these people (see my letter on WVUMIR); it is such comments from President Garrison as in comment #4 that give tenure a bad name.
    Sam B. Nadler, Jr.

    — Sam Nadler    May 19, 12:46 PM    #

15. Yet another way in which this situation is unique. First, academic records altered to produce a phony degree. Two administrators who stepped down (to well-paid faculty positions) assert they would do the same thing again. Second, a president who is so weakened by his political gamesmanship that he cannot even attend graduation ceremonies at the university he is charged with LEADING. If I were an author, I would surely be writing the first draft of a book, documentary to follow.

    — WVUalum    May 19, 01:08 PM    #

16. Has the Governor forsaken his co-conspirator, Mr. Garrison? By now, Mr Garrison should have been offered a cushy, little to no responsibility, very high paying job in the Governor’s Cabinet. Then this sick mess could have been reframed as a well deserved promotion recognizing Mr. Garrison’s, hard work, his marvelous development of the institution and his impeccable and unimpeachable integrity.

    — Bill    May 19, 01:29 PM    #

17. For the sake of common decency and to be trusted, Mr Garrison should step down and others should be divested of their role as well. Students are penalized for gross dishonesty and the administration should be penalized also, and not by just a small rap on the back of the hand. West Virginia University is too involved in the state’s “good old boy” political system. from the Governor all the way down. How can we get a political house cleaning when the system is corrupt and there is no higher authority than the Governor? If the Governor had gumption he would do somnething effective about the mess we have.

    — H. W. Gould Prof. Emeritus,WVU    May 19, 01:37 PM    #

18. Other than being the “captain of the ship”, what specifically did Mr. Garrision do wrong that warrants his stepping down?

    — Armando    May 19, 04:11 PM    #

19. The Board of Governors is in emergency executive session presumably discussing the future of this president. The Governor has already given them permission (in a statement released earlier this afternoon) to do something “meaningful” to restore the reputation of the university.

    — john    May 19, 04:35 PM    #

20. Interesting…he says emphatically that he won’t step down but he’s too gutless to speak at the graduation? If this is not an admission of wrongdoing (albeit implicit) then what is???

    — H. Mickey Gill    May 19, 04:46 PM    #

21. Question: (This may have been answered, and I may just have overlooked it)—has the unearned MBA awarded to the governor’s daughter been revoked? If not, why not?

    — me    May 20, 09:39 AM    #

22. In answer to 25- yes it was revoked. But every single person responsible for giving it is still gainfully employed at WVU. And she is still gainfully employed as the COO of Mylan.

    — me too    May 20, 10:31 AM    #

23. The governor gave the Board of Governors “permission” to do whatever they thought was best for the University. Their inaction and failure to provide any leadership, in combination with Mr. Garrison’s failure as a leader are part of the continuing sad story of the situation that is ruining the academic integrity and reputation of WV’s flagship university. We are becoming the laughingstock of the nation and it will take years to re-build what is currently being destroyed.

    — ugh    May 28, 12:29 PM    #

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