Post by WVUMntneerJim on May 5, 2008 10:48:51 GMT -5
www.da.wvu.edu/show_article_printer_friendly.php?&story_id=34762
President Garrison should resign
Issue Date: Monday May 5, 2008
When the panel designed to investigate whether or not Gov. Joe Manchin’s daughter had earned her eMBA degree reported its findings, newspapers across the country immediately began demanding that University president Michael S. Garrison resign.
The Daily Athenaeum, in a calm and measured response, has not been so feverish to see blood and consequences from Mr. Garrison, nor of his immediate staffers.
Instead, we have held off in favor of learning more – learning everything and anything that can possibly be scrutinized, examined and analyzed.
We learned from the panel’s conclusion that “hurried decisions” and “flawed judgments” were the entire reason Heather Bresch was awarded a degree she hadn’t earned.
But in this, our last issue, we have decided to issue our response. Our staff editorials for the last two weeks have dealt with our displeasure with the persons involved with the decision to award Bresch her degree and how communicative they have been.
We have also been uspet with the blatant disrespect they have shown us with regard to the degrees we are all working hard to receive.
In the hurried decisions to award Bresch a degree based on her “high-profile name,” the University disregarded the very works of each and every graduate that has and will attend the University.
It is for this reason that we are calling for President Garrison to resign.
Though Garrison has publicly stated that he accepts responsibility for the situation, we cannot help but feel cheated from the honesty expected from the president of an educational body.
We have seen two figureheads of the controversy – former Provost Gerald Lang and former Business and Economics Dean R. Stephen Sears resign, owning up to their actions.
Though they have lost their higher positions, they will both continue teaching at the University – something which begs the question: How can dishonest actions be condoned with the practice of teaching, especially at institutions that drum academic honesty into the policies that each and every graduate must follow?
Garrison has stated that he had no involvement in Bresch’s award and no interaction with his members of his administration that did.
It may seem like an exonerating sentence but it also shows a disconnect between the president and his staffers. If they are awarding degrees to the employers of donors (Bresch is COO of Mylan Pharmaceuticals, a major WVU donor) and daughters of governors, then it is a cause for concern.
This entire situation has tired and exhausted a university that is constantly trying to improve its image.
We spend countless dollars and hours discouraging students from drinking to avoid party school rankings because the University believes they may underscore achievement and academia.
We at The Daily Athenaeum pose the question: Which hurts more – the appearance of students drinking, or university officials falling to coercion and hurrying decisions to award degrees to those who hadn’t earned them?
President Garrison should resign
Issue Date: Monday May 5, 2008
When the panel designed to investigate whether or not Gov. Joe Manchin’s daughter had earned her eMBA degree reported its findings, newspapers across the country immediately began demanding that University president Michael S. Garrison resign.
The Daily Athenaeum, in a calm and measured response, has not been so feverish to see blood and consequences from Mr. Garrison, nor of his immediate staffers.
Instead, we have held off in favor of learning more – learning everything and anything that can possibly be scrutinized, examined and analyzed.
We learned from the panel’s conclusion that “hurried decisions” and “flawed judgments” were the entire reason Heather Bresch was awarded a degree she hadn’t earned.
But in this, our last issue, we have decided to issue our response. Our staff editorials for the last two weeks have dealt with our displeasure with the persons involved with the decision to award Bresch her degree and how communicative they have been.
We have also been uspet with the blatant disrespect they have shown us with regard to the degrees we are all working hard to receive.
In the hurried decisions to award Bresch a degree based on her “high-profile name,” the University disregarded the very works of each and every graduate that has and will attend the University.
It is for this reason that we are calling for President Garrison to resign.
Though Garrison has publicly stated that he accepts responsibility for the situation, we cannot help but feel cheated from the honesty expected from the president of an educational body.
We have seen two figureheads of the controversy – former Provost Gerald Lang and former Business and Economics Dean R. Stephen Sears resign, owning up to their actions.
Though they have lost their higher positions, they will both continue teaching at the University – something which begs the question: How can dishonest actions be condoned with the practice of teaching, especially at institutions that drum academic honesty into the policies that each and every graduate must follow?
Garrison has stated that he had no involvement in Bresch’s award and no interaction with his members of his administration that did.
It may seem like an exonerating sentence but it also shows a disconnect between the president and his staffers. If they are awarding degrees to the employers of donors (Bresch is COO of Mylan Pharmaceuticals, a major WVU donor) and daughters of governors, then it is a cause for concern.
This entire situation has tired and exhausted a university that is constantly trying to improve its image.
We spend countless dollars and hours discouraging students from drinking to avoid party school rankings because the University believes they may underscore achievement and academia.
We at The Daily Athenaeum pose the question: Which hurts more – the appearance of students drinking, or university officials falling to coercion and hurrying decisions to award degrees to those who hadn’t earned them?
