It comes from growing up in WVU, I think, and being defensive about everything to do with the state.

But our rural health program is pretty awesome.

And as many believe that should be the focus of WV’s flagship school anyway, I’m good with that. (It does two things–it gets students out into the community to provide health care to rural communities, and it exposes them to rural life, and the needs of these communities, which has increased the number of students willing to practice in rural areas. Pretty awesome actually.)

You guys have a long way to go before you develop a Chemistry Dept. even close to Pitt’s, or a center of medical excellence even close to Starzl’s transplant clinic.

But you do beat the pants off of us in USDA support. GO WVU!!!

There was no evidence that she had completed her degree requirements, except hearsay. Three of his top advisers attended the meeting where she was given her degree. There are reports that there was pressure exerted at the meeting to give her a degree. Members of the committee who were to make the decision were given a single weekend to find evidence related to the case. Heather Bresch’s first call was to Garrison, personally. Not only is Heather Bresh the daughter of the governor, she is also COO to a company that is one of the largest contributors to WVU (the football stadium is named after the head and founder of the company).

Do we have a tape of Garrison telling people to give her the degree? No. Do we have anyone willing to say they were directly told to give her a degree, regardless of the evidence? No.

But what we do have is a president with direct connections to the governor–connections that were a concern to the WVU community during the interview process, and led the faculty senate to consider a vote of no confidence a week after he was selected. We have a president who’s focus has been upon fund-raising. We have a student who was given a degree despite all evidence to the contrary that she did the work to complete her degree requirements. We have a situation where a decision was made within a few days of her phone call to the university president.

We have had multiple resignations in response to the scandal already, yet Garrison’s response has been primarily to say that it wasn’t his fault, and when the student newspaper sponsored a forum where students could speak out about the scandal, Garrison was “unable to attend.”

WVU has been struggling for years to change it’s image from a top party school to an institution with top-notch research and education. Garrison’s actions have done nothing to help the image of the university, and a great deal to harm it.