EDITORIAL: Garrison a Huge Load for WVU to Carry
While the world still waits for WVU President Mike Garrison to give up
his cell phone records as they relate to the Heather Manchin Bresch MBA
controversy, his institution is beginning to take some serious hits due to
his peculiar brand of "leadership."
Perhaps the most revealing clue of where things are heading for the Morgantown school is found in a story broken by the Charleston Daily Mail on Wednesday, April 30. The McGee Foundation, among other large donors, have been calling the WVU Foundation to inform them that they will not be contributing $2 million to the university as planned, based on Mr. Garrison's decision not to resign.
That's big money--from one of the university's most faithful contributors.
John McGee, Chairman of the McGee Foundation and a former publisher of the Charleston Daily Mail, has this to say about his board's decision:
"The situation of the university and the decision on the part of the president not to leave has so damaged the culture of the university that we feel the contribution is inappropriate until the matter is properly resolved. Mr. Garrison should be removed from office. I think he has immensely damaged the school."
Clearly, Garrison's protestations that he wasn't involved in the MBA scandal arre not convincing to men of stature like Mr. McGee. And common sense brings the rest of us to Mr. McGee's conclusion.
For starters, why didn't Garrison treat this like he would any other request from a former student and just let the Registrar's office handle it? Why the need to spend such time and extra effort on it by handing it over to his Chief of Staff? Didn't Craig Walker have more important things to do than to make sure Heather Manchin Bresch got herself a faux MBA?
And why in the world was Garrison's Communications Director, Bill Case, involved in the meeting to decide Bresch's credentials. Wasn't this meeting strictly an academic affair, or were the powers that be at WVU already planning to trumpet their next press release, announcing that Ms. Bresch was a scholar rare?
And finally, why didn't Garrison or his WVU legal counsel, Alex Macia, do something at the end of all this to prevent such a miscarriage of academic justice in awarding Bresch her phony degree? This doesn't speak very highly for the legal acumen of Mr. Macia, nor the judgment of Mr. Garrison--unless, of course, they got exactly what they all wanted out of this sordid business.
If you want a possible explanation for all this rubbish, perhaps it may be helpful to remember the last time Garrison, Case, and Macia were all last seen together before they all came to Morgantown: they were the young turks in the failed Wise Administration. Macia was Wise's legal counsel, Case was Wise's Communications Chief, and Garrison was Wise's Chief of Staff.
They didn't do a good job for the state then, and they sure aren't now. Craig Walker, Alex Macia, Bill Case all must go, too, since they were willing accomplices of their old pal, Garrison.
Every last bit of grime must be scrubbed clean from WVU's Stewart Hall before the university can look itself in the mirror again without sadness or reproach.
Garrison, Macia, Walker, and Case must be removed. It's the only way.