Post by rainman on May 6, 2008 8:29:52 GMT -5
..or just plain ugly, What's your view??
WVU Faculty Senate calls for Garrison to quit
President has support of Manchin, Board of Governors
BY VICKI SMITH ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
MORGANTOWN — West Virginia University’s Faculty Senate demanded Monday that President Mike Garrison resign in the wake of a degree scandal involving the governor’s daughter, saying the school cannot heal and rebuild its reputation as long as he is in office.
A motion of no confidence passed 77-19, with one abstention. It demands that Garrison step down, or that the WVU Board of Governors require his resignation.
“We all want the healing to begin, but this will not be possible until after a thorough cleansing,” said math professor Sherman Riemenschneider, who sponsored the motion demanding the resignation. “Our wounds are too deep.”
But the senate’s motion is not binding on the administration, and Garrison has repeatedly said he won’t resign. He also has had outspoken support from the Board of Governors and Gov. Joe Manchin, who appointed the majority of the board.
Garrison said Monday evening that he still plans to implement recommendations made by an independent panel. The panel concluded April 23 that WVU administrators and educators gave Mylan Inc. executive Heather Bresch an executive master’s of business administration degree she didn’t earn.
“The essence of all the motions presented in the Senate today contains a clear message: we at WVU must work to create an environment that assures everyone that this will never happen again,” Garrison said in a statement.
He also pledged to continue to work closely with faculty, “particularly those who have already demonstrated a commitment and willingness to work with others across campuses, across disciplines, and across differences of opinion, on each of the challenges that face us.”
Larry Hornak, an engineering professor who voted for the resignation, said that while Garrison may have the best of intentions, he is a product of West Virginia politics. That background will taint whatever Garrison does, he said.
“Whether political or not,” Hornak said, “all actions of the current administration will now be viewed through the prism of political calculation.”
Garrison, who worked under former Democratic Gov. Bob Wise, was a 38-year-old lawyer with much stronger political credentials than academic ones when he was tapped for the presidency in 2007.
Boyd Edwards complained Garrison has enraged alumni and prompted donors to close their wallets. Students, he said, are even threatening to disrupt commencement. For Garrison to remain now would show “he cares more about himself than about WVU,” he said.
“We call upon Mike Garrison to do what these leaders have done, to do what any good leader would do, to do what is best for the institution rather than what is best for himself, to step up by stepping down,” Edwards said.
Faculty discontent and outrage has grown since an independent panel Provost Gerald Lang and business school Dean R. Stephen Sears have resigned their administrative posts to return to teaching. But several Garrison aides, including chief of staff Craig Walker, participated in the October meeting where Sears, Lang and others decided to add courses and grades to Bresch’s transcript, then retroactively award her a 1998 executive master’s of business administration degree that investigators said she did not earn.
Though the report did not cite evidence that Garrison directly interfered, it concluded the presence of key staff created “palpable” pressure to go along.
Garrison and Bresch are longtime friends, and Garrison once worked as a Mylan lobbyist.
And Mylan’s chairman, Milan “Mike” Puskar, has given tens of millions to the university, which named its football stadium for him.
The tenor of Monday’s debate was largely angry, with most of the two dozen faculty members who spoke agreeing that only Garrison’s departure will restore WVU’s academic integrity.
“I do not see this is a minor mistake. This is a gross error in academia,” said Sophie Blades, a representative for retired faculty. “In fact, I consider it an academic crime.”
Matt Vester polled 200 colleagues before the meeting and said the demand for resignation was “very close to unanimous.”
Among the president’s few defenders was senate Chairman Steve Kite, who handed off administration of the special meeting so he could comment. He urged the senate to respond only to the report, which did not find that Garrison participated in the decision to help Bresch.
WVU Faculty Senate calls for Garrison to quit
President has support of Manchin, Board of Governors
BY VICKI SMITH ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
MORGANTOWN — West Virginia University’s Faculty Senate demanded Monday that President Mike Garrison resign in the wake of a degree scandal involving the governor’s daughter, saying the school cannot heal and rebuild its reputation as long as he is in office.
A motion of no confidence passed 77-19, with one abstention. It demands that Garrison step down, or that the WVU Board of Governors require his resignation.
“We all want the healing to begin, but this will not be possible until after a thorough cleansing,” said math professor Sherman Riemenschneider, who sponsored the motion demanding the resignation. “Our wounds are too deep.”
But the senate’s motion is not binding on the administration, and Garrison has repeatedly said he won’t resign. He also has had outspoken support from the Board of Governors and Gov. Joe Manchin, who appointed the majority of the board.
Garrison said Monday evening that he still plans to implement recommendations made by an independent panel. The panel concluded April 23 that WVU administrators and educators gave Mylan Inc. executive Heather Bresch an executive master’s of business administration degree she didn’t earn.
“The essence of all the motions presented in the Senate today contains a clear message: we at WVU must work to create an environment that assures everyone that this will never happen again,” Garrison said in a statement.
He also pledged to continue to work closely with faculty, “particularly those who have already demonstrated a commitment and willingness to work with others across campuses, across disciplines, and across differences of opinion, on each of the challenges that face us.”
Larry Hornak, an engineering professor who voted for the resignation, said that while Garrison may have the best of intentions, he is a product of West Virginia politics. That background will taint whatever Garrison does, he said.
“Whether political or not,” Hornak said, “all actions of the current administration will now be viewed through the prism of political calculation.”
Garrison, who worked under former Democratic Gov. Bob Wise, was a 38-year-old lawyer with much stronger political credentials than academic ones when he was tapped for the presidency in 2007.
Boyd Edwards complained Garrison has enraged alumni and prompted donors to close their wallets. Students, he said, are even threatening to disrupt commencement. For Garrison to remain now would show “he cares more about himself than about WVU,” he said.
“We call upon Mike Garrison to do what these leaders have done, to do what any good leader would do, to do what is best for the institution rather than what is best for himself, to step up by stepping down,” Edwards said.
Faculty discontent and outrage has grown since an independent panel Provost Gerald Lang and business school Dean R. Stephen Sears have resigned their administrative posts to return to teaching. But several Garrison aides, including chief of staff Craig Walker, participated in the October meeting where Sears, Lang and others decided to add courses and grades to Bresch’s transcript, then retroactively award her a 1998 executive master’s of business administration degree that investigators said she did not earn.
Though the report did not cite evidence that Garrison directly interfered, it concluded the presence of key staff created “palpable” pressure to go along.
Garrison and Bresch are longtime friends, and Garrison once worked as a Mylan lobbyist.
And Mylan’s chairman, Milan “Mike” Puskar, has given tens of millions to the university, which named its football stadium for him.
The tenor of Monday’s debate was largely angry, with most of the two dozen faculty members who spoke agreeing that only Garrison’s departure will restore WVU’s academic integrity.
“I do not see this is a minor mistake. This is a gross error in academia,” said Sophie Blades, a representative for retired faculty. “In fact, I consider it an academic crime.”
Matt Vester polled 200 colleagues before the meeting and said the demand for resignation was “very close to unanimous.”
Among the president’s few defenders was senate Chairman Steve Kite, who handed off administration of the special meeting so he could comment. He urged the senate to respond only to the report, which did not find that Garrison participated in the decision to help Bresch.
