MORGANTOWN - West Virginia University administrators' decision to retroactively award Gov. Joe Manchin's daughter a master's degree last year was "seriously flawed and reflected poor judgment," according to a panel that investigated the dispute.
Read the panal's full report (PDF)
Related: Timeline of WVU degree investigation
MORGANTOWN - West Virginia University administrators' decision to retroactively award Gov. Joe Manchin's daughter a master's degree last year was "seriously flawed and reflected poor judgment," according to a panel that investigated the dispute.
But the panel concluded in its report, released Wednesday, that administrators' decision to grant Heather Bresch the executive master's in business administration degree does not reflect widespread problems with the university's record keeping or the granting of academic credits in the College of Economics.
"The failures involved in this matter were instead mostly failures of process and failures of leadership and ... they were unique to this particular, high-profile case," the report states.
The five-member panel, appointed by WVU Provost Gerald Lang and the university's Faculty Senate, were charged in January to investigate whether Bresch completed the required credit hours in 1998 to get the eMBA degree, and if WVU administrators responded appropriately in their decision to retroactively grant her the degree last fall.
The report placed much of the blame on Lang and business school dean Steve Sears, whom the panel said had no reliable academic reason to give Bresch the degree.
WVU's Board of Governors reviewed and unanimously upheld the 95-page report Wednesday before releasing it to the public.
After reviewing the report in executive session, the board told WVU President Michael Garrison to accept responsibility for errors in judgment and procedure made by members of his administration.
The board also told Garrison to develop a plan by its June meeting to address any shortcomings brought up in the report.
Bresch's academic record will reflect she did not receive the eMBA from WVU. She has a right to contest the panel's decision, said Alex Macia, the school's vice president of legal affairs.
"A student has the right to contest any changes that are made to their transcripts," Macia said. "But it's up to her to take the next step."
In a statement released Wednesday by her employer, pharmaceuticals giant Mylan Inc., Bresch said that she respected the panel's work, but "I continue to believe that I did what I needed to do to earn my degree. The administration allowed me to take an unconventional approach as part of what was then a program in its infancy."
She said she would not challenge the decision that she did not earn the degree, and noted that her position as chief operating officer at Mylan does not require her to have the degree.
Manchin also released a statement Wednesday afternoon, calling his daughter "one of the brightest, most compassionate and honorable people that I know.
"All I can hope for as a parent is that 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," the governor said.
After the Board of Governors meeting, Garrison said he accepts all responsibly and will uphold the recommendations of the panel.
"There is no substitute in any administration for personal responsibility," he said.
Read the panal's full report (PDF)
Related: Timeline of WVU degree investigation
MORGANTOWN - West Virginia University administrators' decision to retroactively award Gov. Joe Manchin's daughter a master's degree last year was "seriously flawed and reflected poor judgment," according to a panel that investigated the dispute.
But the panel concluded in its report, released Wednesday, that administrators' decision to grant Heather Bresch the executive master's in business administration degree does not reflect widespread problems with the university's record keeping or the granting of academic credits in the College of Economics.
"The failures involved in this matter were instead mostly failures of process and failures of leadership and ... they were unique to this particular, high-profile case," the report states.
The five-member panel, appointed by WVU Provost Gerald Lang and the university's Faculty Senate, were charged in January to investigate whether Bresch completed the required credit hours in 1998 to get the eMBA degree, and if WVU administrators responded appropriately in their decision to retroactively grant her the degree last fall.
The report placed much of the blame on Lang and business school dean Steve Sears, whom the panel said had no reliable academic reason to give Bresch the degree.
WVU's Board of Governors reviewed and unanimously upheld the 95-page report Wednesday before releasing it to the public.
After reviewing the report in executive session, the board told WVU President Michael Garrison to accept responsibility for errors in judgment and procedure made by members of his administration.
The board also told Garrison to develop a plan by its June meeting to address any shortcomings brought up in the report.
Bresch's academic record will reflect she did not receive the eMBA from WVU. She has a right to contest the panel's decision, said Alex Macia, the school's vice president of legal affairs.
"A student has the right to contest any changes that are made to their transcripts," Macia said. "But it's up to her to take the next step."
In a statement released Wednesday by her employer, pharmaceuticals giant Mylan Inc., Bresch said that she respected the panel's work, but "I continue to believe that I did what I needed to do to earn my degree. The administration allowed me to take an unconventional approach as part of what was then a program in its infancy."
She said she would not challenge the decision that she did not earn the degree, and noted that her position as chief operating officer at Mylan does not require her to have the degree.
Manchin also released a statement Wednesday afternoon, calling his daughter "one of the brightest, most compassionate and honorable people that I know.
"All I can hope for as a parent is that 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," the governor said.
After the Board of Governors meeting, Garrison said he accepts all responsibly and will uphold the recommendations of the panel.
"There is no substitute in any administration for personal responsibility," he said.
Lang said he and Sears made the best decision possible with the records they had available.
"We erred on the side of the student," Lang said. "We could have taken a hard line [based] on data from 10 years ago that was incomplete."
But the panel said that administrators were "driven primarily and inappropriately by concerns about public relations and by Ms. Bresch's high profile. She was, in fact, treated in an unusual and unique manner."
"Mistake was compounded by mistake. An unnecessary rush to judgment, spurred in some measure by an understandable desire to protect a valued alumna and to respond to media pressure, produced a flawed and erroneous result. It didn't have to happen this way," the panel concluded.
WVU "should have done just what they said they were doing: They should have treated Ms. Bresch like they would or should have treated any other student who was raising such a complaint about the accuracy of his or her attendance and/or graduation records."
The report did not specifically find fault with Garrison, who is a family friend and former business associate of Bresch.
Bresch's employer, Mylan Inc., is based in Canonsburg, Pa., and has a lab in Morgantown. The company's chairman, Milan Puskar, is a benefactor of Bresch's father and donated $20 million to WVU in 2003 for its athletic department and scholarships. The school's football stadium is named after him.
Questions about her degree first arose after Bresch was promoted to chief operating officer at Mylan in October. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette called WVU to confirm that Bresch had a master's degree, and was told that she did not.
Bresch has insisted she earned her degree fairly, by substituting work experience for her final 10 credit hours with the approval of the program's director, Paul Speaker. The panel found that hard to believe.
"No student should have a reasonable basis to conclude that he or she could or would be excused from so many outstanding credit and course obligations simply upon the basis of a single meeting without any follow-up," the report states.
Garrison and Lang maintain that no pressure came from either of their offices to grant Bresch the degree. Still, Garrison said WVU would put in place new procedures to prevent similar situations and protect administrators from such pressure.
Sears said the business school has already implemented a number of corrective measures to address the situation.
The college will hire a records assistant for graduate student academic files and it will require the signature of the instructor, student and the dean's office to change incomplete grades to final grades, he said.
Some WVU students were just ready Wednesday to see the issue buried.
"She's getting the degree taken away - there isn't much more in terms of punishment the university can do," said Matt Ameri, a sports management graduate student at WVU. "The only thing they can do now is to correct any missteps and make sure it doesn't happen again."
To contact staff writer Veronica Nett, use e-mail or call 348-5113.
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