May 4, 2008
 
EDITORIAL: Reign of Error or Reign of Terror?
 
Here's a poignant little snapshot of what it's like to be on staff at WVU these days, amid the fallout of the Heather Manchin Bresch MBA debacle. We now turn to the intrepid editor of the Daily Athenaeum, Ry Rivard, who posted this little nugget in a recent writing in the student-run newspaper about WVU Board of Governor's Chair, Steve Goodwin:
 
"Goodwin also said it was unfortunate that the head of the WVU Foundation commented on some donors who said they will withhold donations from the University because of the Bresch matter. The foundation head, President R. Wayne King, said he had to because one donor, John McGee, told the Charleston Daily Mail that an organization he co-chaired would revoke an offer to donate $1 million worth of art and another $1 million contribution to the University's Creative Arts Center."
 
Question for Mr. Goodwin: Doesn't the university community, as well as state taxpayers, deserve to know when their university's leadership has cost the school two million dollars?
 
One can almost here the reprisal coming from Herr Goodwin as he calls the common-sense action by WVU Foundation King...."unfortunate." Will King be the next to have his head severed by Goodwin and Garrison? Hey, somebody's got to be the weekly sacrificial lamb, right?
 
Wrong. The university community--and the state--are beyond weary at this kind of thuggery at an institution of higher learning. Goodwin can take his backwater Jackson County politics and crawl back under his rock. The very best thing that the entire university community can do now--students, faculty, alumni, supporters, and friends--is to stand as one, support men like WVU Foundation President King, and demand transparency and accountability from their university's leadership.
 
That means Garrison and Goodwin must go, along with Garrison's staff involved in the Bresch affair. That means Governor Manchin must discontinue his granny lectures to us while his own family is up to their necks in controversy on this. That means vocal public support all next week in defense of the staff and faculty of WVU, who now live in an environment not unlike East Berlin.
 
When a public university's faculty, and staff have to constantly watch what they do or say, lest they find themselves tattled upon to the President or Chairman, what does that say about the state of affairs in Morgantown right now?
 

Every conscientious student, alumnus, donor, and friend of the university should take the position of longtime WVU donor and friend John McGee and tell Goodwin and Garrison that it is they who need to go, not them. WVU is a rich, diverse community, all proud to be Mountaineers. The very spirit of being a Mountaineer has to do with rugged independence of thought and deed.
 
When all true Mountaineers rally to the cause of the integrity of their diplomas, the soundness of their academic standards, and the civility of their leadership towards the rest of the campus, then the bronze statue in front of the Mountainlair will no longer be alone in his vigilance as he overlooks the downtown WVU campus.
 
As the WVU fight song so wonderfully says:
 
"Now is the time boys, to make a big noise, no matter what the people say. So there is naught to fear, the gang's all here, so Hail to West Virginia, Hail!"
 
Take back your university. Support the Faculty Senate this Tuesday in their deliberations of a "no confidence vote" for Mr. Garrison. Send a signal to people like Board Chair Steve Goodwin that they work for you, not the other way around. You and your parents have worked too hard to get you here.
 
Don't let the likes of Garrison and Goodwin deprive you of a quality degree and a fine collegiate experience. Organize, mobilize, fight back!