MORGANTOWN - For the second time in two weeks, a group of West Virginia University faculty voted overwhelming Wednesday for besieged WVU President Mike Garrison to resign over a degree scandal involving Gov. Joe Manchin's daughter.

Faculty members at the rare special meeting open to all faculty approved the nonbinding resolution 565-39, with 11 abstentions. That echoes a 77-19 vote taken by the school's Faculty Senate on May 5.

Neither vote holds any official weight. Garrison has refused to step down, and the WVU Board of Governors - the only group that can fire him - has backed his decision to remain in office

Wednesday's meeting was originally scheduled as an official University Assembly, the first since the Faculty Senate was created in 1977. However, not enough faculty showed up to officially call such an assembly to order. Organizers then declared the event an unofficial "mass meeting of faculty."

WVU has over 1,400 full-time faculty. To call an official University Assembly, at least 908 needed to show.

Still, Wednesday's larger no-confidence vote is a stronger voice that will be harder for the Board of Governors to ignore, said pharmacy professor Robert Griffith, a member of the Faculty Senate.

"WVU cannot recover from this crisis under the leadership that created it," said physics professor Boyd Edwards, who has helped to create an anti-Garrison group at WVU.

Edwards encouraged faculty to protest the current administration anyway they could by refusing pay raises and positions within the administration and by taking part in petitions and protests.

"We need not continue with President Garrison at the helm," he said. "We have as much power as we choose to have."

Faculty members also unanimously approved a resolution demanding a re-evaluation of the composition of the university's governing board, "with the aim of increasing its transparency, representativeness and accountability."

They considered eight motions, including one that called for changes to the way department heads are appointed, and one asking the Legislature to investigate the administration's role in the degree scandal involving Heather Bresch, the governor's daughter. Both of those were referred to the Faculty Senate for further consideration.

The issues discussed Wednesday go beyond the Bresch scandal and engulf the administrations tendency to treat the university as a political playground rather than an academic institution, said Adam Komisaruk, an associate English professor.

Some of those problems have been stewing for a long time, said Lisa Weihman, an English professor and senate member and English professor.

"[The degree scandal] was a foreseeable result of a much wider problem," she said.

MORGANTOWN - For the second time in two weeks, a group of West Virginia University faculty voted overwhelming Wednesday for besieged WVU President Mike Garrison to resign over a degree scandal involving Gov. Joe Manchin's daughter.

Faculty members at the rare special meeting open to all faculty approved the nonbinding resolution 565-39, with 11 abstentions. That echoes a 77-19 vote taken by the school's Faculty Senate on May 5.

Neither vote holds any official weight. Garrison has refused to step down, and the WVU Board of Governors - the only group that can fire him - has backed his decision to remain in office

Wednesday's meeting was originally scheduled as an official University Assembly, the first since the Faculty Senate was created in 1977. However, not enough faculty showed up to officially call such an assembly to order. Organizers then declared the event an unofficial "mass meeting of faculty."

WVU has over 1,400 full-time faculty. To call an official University Assembly, at least 908 needed to show.

Still, Wednesday's larger no-confidence vote is a stronger voice that will be harder for the Board of Governors to ignore, said pharmacy professor Robert Griffith, a member of the Faculty Senate.

"WVU cannot recover from this crisis under the leadership that created it," said physics professor Boyd Edwards, who has helped to create an anti-Garrison group at WVU.

Edwards encouraged faculty to protest the current administration anyway they could by refusing pay raises and positions within the administration and by taking part in petitions and protests.

"We need not continue with President Garrison at the helm," he said. "We have as much power as we choose to have."

Faculty members also unanimously approved a resolution demanding a re-evaluation of the composition of the university's governing board, "with the aim of increasing its transparency, representativeness and accountability."

They considered eight motions, including one that called for changes to the way department heads are appointed, and one asking the Legislature to investigate the administration's role in the degree scandal involving Heather Bresch, the governor's daughter. Both of those were referred to the Faculty Senate for further consideration.

The issues discussed Wednesday go beyond the Bresch scandal and engulf the administrations tendency to treat the university as a political playground rather than an academic institution, said Adam Komisaruk, an associate English professor.

Some of those problems have been stewing for a long time, said Lisa Weihman, an English professor and senate member and English professor.

"[The degree scandal] was a foreseeable result of a much wider problem," she said.

Many of the Manchin's administration's "political appointees" don't understand the damage the scandal has caused to WVU's academic reputation, Weihman said.

Fabricating grades for a student: "It doesn't get much worse than that," she said.

Last month, an independent panel concluded WVU administrators gave Bresch, a Mylan Inc. executive, an executive master's of business administration degree she didn't earn.

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 report did not find that Garrison directly interfered, but it concluded the presence of key staff in the decision-making meeting created "palpable" pressure.

After Wednesday's vote, Garrison released a statement that acknowledged the faculty's anger. "I am dismayed that it happened under my administration and I'm committed to making sure nothing of this sort happens here again,'' he said.

Garrison addressed the Faculty Senate on Monday in his first face-to-face meeting with the senate since it demanded his resignation. Senate members sat silent during his address and afterward, when Garrison invited questions.

"I'm glad everyone was civil," Faculty Senate Chairman Steve Kite said of Wednesday's meeting. Many faculty members hold very strong opinions on the subject and the meeting could have turned volatile, he said.

Kite, who has supported Garrison, said he would convey the faculty's motions to the Board of Governors at its next meeting June 6.

The two administrators who were found most at fault, Provost Gerald Lang and business school Dean Stephen Sears, have resigned from their administrative positions and have returned to teaching.

On Wednesday, Garrison tapped E. Jane Martin, former dean of WVU's nursing school, to replace Lang on an interim basis. Martin has most recently served as senior adviser to WVU's vice president for health sciences.

In an interview with Gazette editors last week, Garrison said he would conduct a national search for the next provost and would put together a search committee that includes faculty members.

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