Garrison: I Need To Stay at WVU

Will propose 7.3-percent raise for faculty and staff

By JOSELYN KING
MORGANTOWN — As West Virginia University graduates walk the aisle today and Sunday to receive their diplomas, WVU President Mike Garrison believes it’s in the best interest of the university’s faculty — those who most want him gone from his job — that he remain at his post.

In an interview this week with The Intelligencer, Garrison said he will in June propose a 7.3-percent pay increase for faculty and staff, as well as work to make good on promises of a day care center and wellness initiatives for university employees in the coming months.

Garrison made his remarks prior to a meeting open to all 1,816 members of the University Assembly on Wednesday, during which time members voted 565-39 to call for Garrison’s resignation following the Heather Bresch degree scandal. The vote has no binding effect.

It followed a May 5 no-confidence vote of Garrison from the WVU Faculty Senate. That vote was 77-19.

Many faculty members initially were opposed to Garrison’s appointment as WVU president last year, calling him a “political appointment,” and their most recent objections relate to his handling of how Heather Bresch — chief operating officer of Mylan Inc. — received a master’s degree in 1998 without completing degree requirements.

An examination of the relationships between those involved paints an interesting picture.

? Bresch is the daughter of West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin, though in 1998 Manchin held no elected office in the state. Accusations that she failed to earn a master’s degree in business administration surfaced last fall.

? Mylan Inc., a manufacturer of generic drug products, is a major contributor to WVU, and the football stadium at WVU bears the name of Mylan Inc. founder, Milan Puskar.

? Prior to taking over as WVU president last fall, Garrison worked as a lobbyist for Mylan Inc. He was former Gov. Bob Wise’s chief of staff, and led Gov. Manchin’s transition team in 2004. Garrison, a Marion County native, also is a long-time friend of the Manchin family who attended Fairmont Senior High School in Fairmont, W.Va., with Bresch.

Former WVU provost Gerald Lang and former business school Dean R. Stephen Sears resigned late last month after an investigation revealed they retroactively had altered Bresch’s transcripts last fall to show she had earned her degree.

Garrison was faced with the Bresch situation almost immediately after assuming the presidency, and faculty have criticized his actions and those of two of his key associates — Craig Walker and Alex Macia — during the investigation.

It is believed that some faculty and students will protest during this weekend’s graduation, and Garrison hopes that won’t be the case.

“I think particularly with graduation, we have to all remind ourselves graduation is a time to celebrate students’ successes,” Garrison said. “I would hope that folks would remind themselves that graduation is about the students, and that they can certainly disagree with me or the actions that have occurred. I disagree with the actions that have occurred on this degree situation.

“I think it’s important that the president recognize the sentiment of faculty, which is the same sentiment that I share. It is one of anger and disappointment over the decision that was made.”

Garrison added he was not “contemplating any set of circumstances” that would make him want to resign, noting that it is easy for a leader “to lead during easy times — less so during challenging ones.”

“My reason for being interested in this job is the same reason I’m interested in continuing it today,” Garrison said. “That is, I took on a very solemn responsibility to move this university forward, and this responsibility was for moving it forward during good times — like winning the Fiesta Bowl — and challenging times, like we’re in right now. The job of the president is to lead us through these situations.”

Relationship with

the faculty, staff

and students

It was in April 2007 — before Garrison even was named WVU president — that the university’s faculty senate posted its first “no confidence” vote against him, citing his political ties and lack of background in academia.

“I think some — it’s not fair to say all of the faculty (members) were opposed —would have preferred another candidate,” Garrison said. “I think some do see this as an opportunity to go back and have another candidate. That’s certainly their prerogative, but it’s not very productive.”

Garrison noted he and the faculty all have “shared work to do,” and that he needs the support of the faculty to move forward with initiatives that benefit them.

“Salary increases are one,” he said. “I was fortunate enough to work with our board of governors back in September to pass the largest salary increase ever for faculty and staff since 1993. That was a 5 percent raise.”

Garrison said he plans to propose next month a second raise for faculty that will be roughly 7.3 percent.

“That’s very significant,” he said. “That’s very aggressive. It’s something we can do only because we’ve had other indicators at work — increased funding from the state.

“I know the state Legislature has been supportive of the university. Particularly the Northern Panhandle delegation has always been one for WVU.”

Garrison said there are other initiatives important to him “because they have been brought to me by faculty.” These include the construction of a day care center on campus, with a groundbreaking set for the summer.

He also wants to implement a program that would help faculty spouses who relocate to Morgantown to find jobs, as well as establish wellness initiatives “that haven’t been in place for faculty.”

“We’re also working with academic affairs and talking with them about things like pausing the tenure clock for childbirth and things of that nature,” Garrison said. “We want to become a more family friendly university and create a better workplace.

“Even if (the faculty) are not supportive of me as president, I hope they will continue to be as supportive of this university as I am.”

He added that while “the more verbalized opinions are those that are negative,” he has received supportive e-mails from many faculty at the university, as well as from both classified and non-classified staff.

He noted he has a great relationship with the student body leadership.

“I would invite you to talk to the student body president and the folks who have worked with me in the student body,” Garrison said. “They will tell you that I was student body president here, and I know how important it was to get support from the administration. Neil Bucklew was the president when I was here. I think we’ve been extraordinarily supportive of student issues, and we will continue to be. The reason we’re all really here is for the students.”

Changing

In-House Policies

About Degree

Investigations

Garrison was asked how many other universities have had to address the issue of awarding a degree to someone who hadn’t earned it by completing required course work.

“There have been many brought to my attention since this time,” Garrison said. “But that doesn’t minimize this issue at all.

“Someone just sent me an article about a situation at Yale University where this occurred. There have been plenty of others. Really, that is why the panel’s recommendations are so important to us.”

The other institutions had different ways of addressing the situation, Garrison noted.

“Some handled it better than others,” he said. “All of those who had an embarrassing situation after the fact — one where the decision should have been made differently — bore down on the issue and improved what was happening so it didn’t happen again. They moved forward.”

And WVU has to move beyond the current scandal, Garrison pointed out.

“We’ve got a panel’s report with a series of recommendations,” he said. “I have a direct charge from the Board of Governor’s to implement the report. I have been working very hard on that with folks from academic affairs — not the president’s side of the equation, but from the academic side of the equation.

“We’ve made a lot of good progress. As president, I will have some additional decisions to make and some structural thoughts on how we’re structured in the office and how we operate.”

Garrison noted “the most important thing we can do is rally behind all the great things that are happening at this university.”

“We should not minimize this issue because this is a very important and serious issue, but rally behind what we know is the goodness of this university and the value of a degree from this university,” he said.

How a similar situation will be handled at the university in the future will depend upon whose office first receives the report of an academic inquiry, Garrison said.

“Number two of the panel’s recommendations calls for the president’s office to establish a protocol for purely academic inquiries,” he said. “As in this instance, when a call comes in from a current or former student about an academic issue — as it did here — there needs to be a very direct and streamlined protocol.

“Ultimately, this issue got over to the academic side, and those decision makers are the ones who made this decision. However, what we will do in the future is the minute it comes in the door, we will document in writing what we know, and we will forward it to the particular individual in academic affairs (who deals) directly with the academic unit or college. We want no further involvement in the matter from the president’s office.”

During the present situation involving Bresch, three of Garrison’s representatives — Macia, Walker and university spokesman Bill Case — sat in on meetings to determine what should be done.

“I have no way of knowing whether this person from 1998 has a degree,” Garrison said of Bresch. “There is no way I could possibly know. She believes adamantly that she does, and there are those who say this is all we know about it. Someone needs to make that determination, and it’s not the president’s office or anybody on the president’s staff.”

The decision as to whether a degree was improperly conferred should be made by leaders of the school from where the degree came, Garrison said. In this instance, it was the WVU College of Business and Economics.

Garrison said the decision to change Bresch’s transcripts last fall came from officials at the College of Business and Economics. Garrison was then asked if there could be any safeguards implemented to keep similar situations from happening.

“Absolutely,” he said. “The panel report recommends a number of things that should be done, and we’re making really good progress. I will report to my board on June 6 about all the progress we’ve made.”

Among the issues raised by the report to be addressed is an absence of record keeping at WVU.

“We need to maintain files for every applicant — clean files that are clear and up to date, as well as a physical copy of the courses the student is taking,” Garrison said. “A policy for offering incompletes, degree audits, cross checks ... there’s a whole long laundry list of things that could be done better and will be done better as the panel recommends.

“We’re going to bring in a third-party consultant, as well. Someone who is an expert in academic record-keeping.”

“Bucks for Brains” and the Need to Maintain Research Funding

Garrison said despite the Bresch degree controversy, research contributions to the school are on the rise. That’s good news for WVU, as it can’t cash in on the $35 million in state-supplied “Bucks for Brains” matching dollars without it.

“We have a multi-faceted vision that relies upon building our research excellence,” Garrison said. “Our funded research is up this year over last year by 10 percent. This is a very positive trend, and we need to continue this push because we had such success with ‘Bucks for Brains’ this year at the Legislature.”

“Bucks for Brains” is an allotment by the state of $50 million for research funding, according to Garrison, and WVU is eligible for 70 percent — or $35 million.

“This money is to be put in a trust fund that will be matched by private investment,” he said. “The only way that we can touch that money and unlock this $35 million is to raise $35 million in private money from donors under the nomenclature of various doctrines or disciplines — one is energy, one is health sciences research and cancer related research, and one is biometrics and forensics.

“We will seek out private donors in those areas to basically double their investment.”

Garrison noted private donations haven’t suffered as a result of the degree scandal.

“Our private gift attainment for the January to April quarter of this year versus this time last year — not counting incoming gifts — is roughly $1 million ahead of where it was last year, and we continue to work on that,” he said. “It’s always a work in progress.”

Garrison said he is still having a great time as president.

“I love this job, and I love this university,” he said. “It changed my life in every way. I love what I do at this job. I’m lucky to have it. I know that you don’t have it forever, so I’m trying to make my best contribution.”