WVU Reputation Tarnished Badly

By the News-Register
Officials at West Virginia University have fallen far short of what residents of our state had every right to expect from them. They have made a mockery of the concept of intellectual honesty.

Last fall, questions arose about a master’s degree that Heather Bresch, daughter of Gov. Joe Manchin, said she had obtained through a special WVU program in 1998. Bresch is chief operating officer of Mylan Inc., which has been a staunch supporter of the university.

As controversy brewed, Bresch said that she was able to obtain the degree by receiving some college credit for work and life experience. No records could be found to either substantiate or disprove her claim.

University officials, claiming to have looked into the issue, announced that Bresch had received the master’s degree.

A special panel was formed to investigate the matter. It included two WVU professors and three other people involved in higher education in other states. This week, the panel released its report.

It was a scathing indictment of what happened after the question of whether Bresch indeed did complete requirements for a degree was posed.

The report cited “an unnecessary rush to judgment” by WVU officials who apparently were eager to resolve the matter in Bresch’s favor. That process “resulted in a flawed and erroneous result,” the panel stated. Noting that there may have been a misunderstanding between Bresch and the WVU professor who headed the program in which she was involved in 1998, the panel added that there was no evidence that Bresch should have been granted a master’s degree.

What happened?

According to the panel’s report, a group of eight high-level WVU officials met in October to discuss the controversy. Though WVU President Michael Garrison was not at the meeting, his office was represented. Also involved was the professor Bresch said had authorized the work or life experience credits. He had disputed her recollection of the arrangement.

Yet, though the meeting was not intended to come to a conclusion on whether Bresch had earned the degree, it did so. Those in attendance — all eight of them, with no one raising any red flags or asking any detailed questions — agreed to award her the degree.

Institutions of higher learning are supposed to be bastions of intellectual honesty and courage. In this situation, no one seemed to even take that into consideration. Again: Not one of the eight WVU officials present at the meeting dissented from the suggestion that Bresch should be awarded a degree.

Our state’s flagship university is an institution many West Virginians — and many people elsewhere in the country — should be able to point to with unqualified pride. Now, its reputation has been tarnished severely.

Of course, Bresch’s degree will be revoked. But what then? How can WVU restore its reputation?

Members of the investigative panel recommended a variety of policy changes intended to ensure that matters such as that involving Bresch are handled properly in the future. They should be adopted.

But what of the people involved? What of the fact that all eight of those involved at the decisive meeting saw nothing wrong with what they did?

That is a much, much tougher question — but it is one that WVU must address decisively.