Bloodless Coup

Ooh, look at the comments on Garrison's official blog. (Hat tip to a regular reader via email).

I read the report last night; it's brutal. It is clear that Garrison (WVU's President) was involved: you don't send you chief of staff to a meeting that you aren't interested in. Moreover, the chief source of information at that meeting was the Chief of Staff (and his information later proved to be wrong; the Chief of Staff got all his information from the daughter).

What is more clear is that the academic officials (Provost, Dean of the Business School, former Dean of the MBA program, others) were clearly looking for ways to give away the degree. They ignored WVUs official records (which said that Bresch hadn't finished the degree) in favor of hearsay evidence that she had. They claimed, to themselves, that "ties go to the student" (meaning that if it was unclear, you had to award a degree), and implicitly said their hearsay evidence (reported, as noted above, by the University's President's Chief of Staff; no pressure there) had just as much weight as the official records.

You expect (but hope not to see) these sorts of things from political appointees, like Garrison. He crossed a line, and should go. I was more surprised to see career academics caving so easily. They should go, too.

Nobody looks good here. University looks worse.

I find it highly amusing that "ties go to the student" was used as the justification here. I think a better characterizations would be that teis and even narrow losses (for the administration) go to the administration.

Where this stands to really hurt us is in faculty recruitment. It's already hard to get people to come here for the salary (which the institution was on a big plan to fix w/r/t peer institutions a few years ago) but corruption and incompetence on this scale? Who would want that?

Whether Garrison should go and whether Garrison will go are of course quite different matters - and given that I can easily think of Garrison's excuses, and given that Garrison was just put in place (rather controversially) I have trouble seeing any effort to force him out succeeding.

Lang, however, I presume doesn't have the same level of protection from the powers that be, and neither do Craig Walker and the like. So ... any ideas on how this is going to play out? Or do you think WVU will stand by, do nothing, and let our reputation plummet further while protecting the good ole boys network?

Walker can get a job elsewhere in politics. He could go. Lang is - or should be - close to retirement. One can always hope.

I think their initial strategy is "hang out, deny everything, do nothing." This is consistent with their press conference. If the university community doesn't put up much of a fuss, then nobody gets fired.

It's a given that the Board of Governors won't do anything.

Well more than that I think they'd actively work to protect Garrison, behind the scenes. I don't know that the Board would act the same way for Lang of Garrison's top aides like Macia and Walker.

I suppose punitive action (should it happen) could be confined to the business school - but since stuff (some of the worst of it) clearly went on above them holding that set solely responsible doesn't make much sense. But then there's no reason to expect that the ultimate outcome of this need make much sense.

I think there is a bit of an issue with Lang and Sears in that they know exactly what went on so they have leverage over Garrison. Also, I think they thought after the report came out the issue would fall off, but the opposite has happened. The BoG will bow to pressure should there be enough as they are still under scrutiny around the state for hiring Garrison in the first place. Finally, Papa Jo Manchin must be protected at all costs. Garrison must do his part and this may mean resigning if the heat continues. It all comes down to the faculty and a vote of no confidence would most likely be the tipping point.

I think there is a bit of an issue with Lang and Sears in that they know exactly what went on so they have leverage over Garrison. Also, I think they thought after the report came out the issue would fall off, but the opposite has happened. The BoG will bow to pressure should there be enough as they are still under scrutiny around the state for hiring Garrison in the first place. Finally, Papa Jo Manchin must be protected at all costs. Garrison must do his part and this may mean resigning if the heat continues. It all comes down to the faculty and a vote of no confidence would most likely be the tipping point.

My guess is that there is still enough simmering loathing for Garrison leftover from the selection process that there are plenty of faculty that have been just waiting for the chance to catch him at something, and thus will leap on this with full energy.

So, jpoff, are you and someone related to you burning up the chronicle thread on this issue? Or is that someone masquerading as you. :)

Yeah, that is me. Have not been this fired up about an issue, ever!

Aaaaand in a surprise to no one, Mike's official blog has closed comments on that post.