Panel finds daughter of West Virginia Governor did not earn an M.B.A.

Panel: Bresch didn't earn M.B.A. (HT: Inside Higher Ed)

A five-member panel has concluded unanimously that Mylan Inc. executive Heather Bresch, daughter of West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin, did not earn an M.B.A. degree from West Virginia University and that administrators acted improperly in granting her the degree retroactively in October, according to a person familiar with the report.

The panel's report, three months in the making, was delivered to WVU Provost Gerald Lang yesterday. It has not been released publicly...

...Ms. Bresch, a family friend and former business associate of WVU President Michael Garrison, has insisted she earned the graduate business degree in December 1998.

Calls to Mylan headquarters and Gov. Manchin's office were not returned.

The investigative panel, consisting of two WVU professors and three professors from outside the state, was formed in the wake of a Dec. 21 Post-Gazette story that raised questions about how university officials went about granting the degree in October, nearly 10 years after Ms. Bresch left the program, despite official records that showed she was 22 credits short.

The newspaper's review of university records found that after the decision was made, WVU officials added 22 credits to Ms. Bresch's transcript, nearly half of the 48 credits the degree required. The changes included adding six courses, with grades, that previously were not on her record and changing two course "incompletes" to letter grades. The newspaper found the changes were made without documents showing she had registered, paid or done the work for the classes.

Since the Dec. 21 story, WVU officials have offered various, often contradictory, explanations of how they made the decision -- including acknowledgments by Mr. Lang and business school Dean R. Stephen Sears that they lacked the records to show Ms. Bresch completed the degree...

Update: The Daily Athenaeum (WVU Student Paper): Bresch degree ‘seriously flawed’ and BOG orders Garrison to take responsibility for Bresch’s degree