MORGANTOWN - The Faculty Senate at West Virginia University said on Monday that WVU President Mike Garrison should resign, saying the "highly publicized award" of an unearned degree to Gov. Joe Manchin's daughter "has damaged his effectiveness and his credibility as President."

The senate passed a motion of no confidence on a 77-19 vote, with one abstention, on Monday. The motion reads in part, "For the good of the institution and for the benefit of our students, [Garrison] must resign or the Board of Governors must require his resignation."

"West Virginia University is experiencing a long nightmare," said math professor Sherman Riemenschneider, who sponsored the motion for Garrison's resignation. "We all want the healing to begin, but this will not be possible until after a thorough cleaning."

Several faculty members expressed discontent over the senate's lack of power within the administration. Their motion has no official weight and Garrison has said he will not resign.

Most of the members of WVU's Board of Governors, which can remove Garrison, have said they support him. Most of that board was appointed by Gov. Joe Manchin, whose daughter, Heather Bresch, and her degree are at the center of the scandal.

The Board of Governors has shown its allegiance to Manchin, engineering professor Larry Hornak said Monday. "Our allegiance and responsibility is to our students," he said.

"Whether political or not ... all actions of the current administration will now be viewed through the prism of political calculation," Hornak said.

Garrison was appointed as president in 2007 by the Board of Governors, against the recommendation of the Faculty Senate.

He has been criticized for his connections to past and present BOG members and to the presidential search committee that selected him as one of the top three candidates to replace outgoing president David Hardesty in the spring of 2007.

Garrison was chief of staff for former Gov. Bob Wise and was a lobbyist for Mylan Inc., the pharmaceuticals giant that employs Bresch. Mylan's founder, Milan Puskar, is a major WVU donor and a Manchin benefactor.

Faculty Senate Chairman Steve Kite, a BOG member, urged senators Monday not to vote based on hard feelings or resentment stemming from Garrison's appointment.

Kite maintained that Garrison can restore WVU's reputation and rebuild an effective working relationship with most faculty.

He reminded senators that an independent panel investigating Bresch's degree found no connection between Garrison and administrators' decision to grant her the degree. The two administrators who were found most at fault, Provost Gerald Lang and business school Dean Stephen Sears, have resigned their administrative positions and returned to teaching.

Senate members considered two other motions recommending less severe responses to the scandal.

MORGANTOWN - The Faculty Senate at West Virginia University said on Monday that WVU President Mike Garrison should resign, saying the "highly publicized award" of an unearned degree to Gov. Joe Manchin's daughter "has damaged his effectiveness and his credibility as President."

The senate passed a motion of no confidence on a 77-19 vote, with one abstention, on Monday. The motion reads in part, "For the good of the institution and for the benefit of our students, [Garrison] must resign or the Board of Governors must require his resignation."

"West Virginia University is experiencing a long nightmare," said math professor Sherman Riemenschneider, who sponsored the motion for Garrison's resignation. "We all want the healing to begin, but this will not be possible until after a thorough cleaning."

Several faculty members expressed discontent over the senate's lack of power within the administration. Their motion has no official weight and Garrison has said he will not resign.

Most of the members of WVU's Board of Governors, which can remove Garrison, have said they support him. Most of that board was appointed by Gov. Joe Manchin, whose daughter, Heather Bresch, and her degree are at the center of the scandal.

The Board of Governors has shown its allegiance to Manchin, engineering professor Larry Hornak said Monday. "Our allegiance and responsibility is to our students," he said.

"Whether political or not ... all actions of the current administration will now be viewed through the prism of political calculation," Hornak said.

Garrison was appointed as president in 2007 by the Board of Governors, against the recommendation of the Faculty Senate.

He has been criticized for his connections to past and present BOG members and to the presidential search committee that selected him as one of the top three candidates to replace outgoing president David Hardesty in the spring of 2007.

Garrison was chief of staff for former Gov. Bob Wise and was a lobbyist for Mylan Inc., the pharmaceuticals giant that employs Bresch. Mylan's founder, Milan Puskar, is a major WVU donor and a Manchin benefactor.

Faculty Senate Chairman Steve Kite, a BOG member, urged senators Monday not to vote based on hard feelings or resentment stemming from Garrison's appointment.

Kite maintained that Garrison can restore WVU's reputation and rebuild an effective working relationship with most faculty.

He reminded senators that an independent panel investigating Bresch's degree found no connection between Garrison and administrators' decision to grant her the degree. The two administrators who were found most at fault, Provost Gerald Lang and business school Dean Stephen Sears, have resigned their administrative positions and returned to teaching.

Senate members considered two other motions recommending less severe responses to the scandal.

In their report released last month, the five-member panel found that high ranking university administrators "cherry-picked" information and pulled credit "from thin air" to grant Bresch the degree nearly 10 years after she was to graduate.

The panel concluded administrators lacked documentation to prove Bresch's claims, relied too heavily on verbal assertions and caved to political pressure. The panel said administrators "should have treated Ms. Bresch like they would or should have treated any other student."

Physics professor Boyd Edwards commended Lang and Sears for accepting responsibility for their role in the dispute and for stepping down.

"We welcome them wholeheartedly into our faculty," he said.

Several Garrison aides, including chief of staff Craig Walker, took part in the meeting last fall where administrators decided to award Bresch the degree. Garrison has maintained that his office relied on Lang and Sears for the decision.

"President Mike Garrison assigned his senior advisors to participate in the deliberations that led to this award," the motion approved Monday states. "The extent of his subsequent personal involvement in or knowledge of this award is the subject of widespread speculation fueled by his perceived lack of candor and the unusual manner in which these deliberations were carried out."

"In my 22 years at West Virginia University I have never seen our confidence so deeply shaken," Edwards said.

He pointed to calls for Garrison's resignation from inside WVU and across the state. He said students are threatening to disrupt commencement ceremonies later this month and said donors are hesitant to contribute to the university.

Garrison should "do what is best for the university and what any good leaders would do," Edwards said: "step up by stepping down."

On Sunday, faculty and staff submitted a petition with 111 signatures calling for Garrison's resignation. Five people signed the petition in support of Garrison.

History professor Matthew Vester, who put the petition together, said he took an informal poll of 210 faculty and staff and found that about 95 percent think Garrison should resign.

He said many faculty who would not respond were afraid of professional retaliation, especially those in the Health Sciences Center. On Monday, faculty representatives from the medical school agreed with that.

Also Monday, head WVU football coach Bill Stewart released a letter supporting Garrison. "He cares about the state of West Virginia and his alma mater and fights every day to ensure that WVU is a first-class institution," said Stewart, who was hired by Garrison after the football team's win in the Fiesta Bowl last winter.

To contact staff writer Veronica Nett, use e-mail or call 348-5113.