People never cease to amaze me. West Virginia University has been experiencing a scandal in the Executive MBA Degree program. You can catch up on the details here. I’m not going to spend time rehashing most of it.
So, University President Mike Garrison [who I don't know and have never met] has completed a review of the program and found that 10% of the degrees issues in the intial years of the program WERE NOT EARNED!
Ok, did you get that?
Jonathan Cumming, assistant vice president for graduate education, told the Board of Governors on Friday that discrepancies have been found on about 70 degrees - or 10 percent of the students who have gone through the executive masters of business administration program.
That was BEFORE GARRISON!!! But English professor Mark Brazaitisa insists that the whole thing is Garrison’s fault and he sould resign or be removed by the Board of Governors.
Right.
“Provost Gerald Lang and business school Dean Stephen Sears, resigned after the panel’s report gave them most of the blame for giving the degree to Bresch, a Mylan Inc. executive and Manchin’s daughter.” Lang and Sears have been part of the program from the beginning, I do believe.
Many of us have been out here in the wilderness screaming that this problem was much deeper than Bresch and went back much further than Garrison’s term as president. Yet, the faculty at this “honorable” school have been screaming that the only fix is the removal of Garrison. Seems to me that the fix is to remove the very faculty members responsible for this mess! Just another example of why it should be easier to remove ‘tenured’ educators.
Trace them all down and discharge them, dishonorably!
Hang in there Garrison. Sounds to me you are the leader that stink hole needs! It take a STRONG leader to pull the emergency brake and turn the train around, onto the right course!
Now — it probably isn’t legal to do — NAME THEM! Name all those who did not complete the degree program. Let’s see how many degrees were bought by politicians or high dollar contributors to the school. I bet some of them have ‘resigned’ their position on boards under ‘protest’ of Garrison.
Hey JDB — if those who got the fraudulent degrees received federal monies, is it a violation of the privacy act to devuldge their names?
5 Comments
May 31, 2008 at 10:46 pm
I’m not sure what the privacy issues are with college transcripts. I wouldn’t think it would be much of an issue, but I do know we’ve had some job applicants whose schools wouldn’t release transcripts directly to us, so there must be something there.
Whether any of those kinds of restrictions would apply to private actors, I dunno.
Is there any indication that the rot extends beyond the College of B&E?
June 1, 2008 at 10:36 am
Thanks JDB.
I suspect there is plenty of “rot” under the skin. Why would the faculty raise so much hell about getting a president they didn’t like? Being p*ssed off is one thing, but they have been livid.
The entire thing was too strange from the beginning. And all those professors jumping ship because of Garrisons ‘behavior’ are publicity hounds if you ask me.
Will the 2/3 of faculty who didn’t ‘vote’ against Garrison now stand up and demand a broader investigation?
June 4, 2008 at 2:56 pm
FERPA laws pr0hibit the disclosure of these names. As a matter of fact, some information that would have been permissible under FOIA is not permissible under FERPA. That’s one of the frustrating things for colleges and universities. You have to make sure that students’ privacy is protected (you’re obligated by law) and it can often look like obfuscation.
FERPA would trump FOIA at least from what I”ve seen. It should anyway. It’s nobody’s business.
This is just Mike’s way of making himself look good by bringing down the ship. It’s not just that they don’t like Mike…many do like him on a personal level. He’s completely unqualified for the job. That’s certainly obvious in this mess. And a mess like this is exactly what faculty feared.
June 4, 2008 at 5:52 pm
BUT! It won’t make him look good to bring down the ship. That’s one of the things that isn’t making sense here. He destroys his credibility by stalling. OR is there something else working here that prevents him from announcing what he wants to do? We all know that personnel issues can’t be discussed. But when they aren’t many people cry foul.
Mt. Laures –> Why doesn’t the faculty discipline it’s own? Integrity should have stopped them from forging those documents to begin with.
June 4, 2008 at 7:14 pm
I’m appalled that the faculty did this. I’m simply amazed. I can’t think of any reason for them to have done this except fear for their position.
The provost and the b. school dean have been punished. They’ve been stripped of their position. If they’re not performing their duties, they can return to teaching. That’s a standard part of their contract for most administrators. Garrison being hired as a president WITHOUT tenure is a big anomaly and an attempt by the faculty to make sure that someone unqualified doesn’t end up on their faculty without qualifications.
Agree or not, you’ve got to honor the contracts that people signed.
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