May 5, 2008
 
EDITORIAL: A Battle for the Soul of WVU
 

In order to fully appreciate how West Virginia and WVU appear to the wider world these days in the wake of the MBA grade fix for Governor Manchin's daughter, it may help to de-personalize this and put it in another state.
 
So let's imagine a small, Midwestern state. This rural state has only a few private and public institutions of higher education. Word comes out of this state's leading public university that:
 
1. The Governor's daughter was given 23 hours of course credit just for being who she is in order to complete her MBA;
 
2. The President of the state university, a close friend of the Governor and his daughter, had no objections to this decision and, in fact, by all appearances endorsed it;
 
3. In fact, the President made this MBA business such a high priority that he assigned his two two aides to be neck-deep into it, helping to guide it along to the desired outcome;
 
4. Oh, and did we forget to mention? The President was a recent hire, with great input given by the Governor and hired by the Governor's hand-selected Board of Trustees at this public university. The young President had zero academic experience for the position.
 
Hmm....Is it any wonder that the folks reading about WVU's plight right now, whether in the New York Times, the Kansas City Star, or on any of the TV network news stations wonder about us a bit when they hear these facts roll out? Wouldn't we wonder if we heard the same story coming out of Iowa, Kansas, or Nebraska?
 
The WVU Faculty Senate meets on Monday, May 5 to decide whether to give President Mike Garrison a no confidence vote. They already gave him one such vote when he was a candidate for this high office last year.
 
Surely they can see now that they were prophets then and should represent themselves, but also the students, alumni, donors, and friends of WVU by giving Mr. Garrison a second no confidence vote in less than a year.
 
Because if Garrison is allowed to remain in his office at Stewart Hall, then everyone's reputation will be in tatters: not only his, but WVU as a whole. That includes those unfortunate students who will be graduating soon and entering the workforce with a WVU diploma in the midst of all this cheapening of their hard work.
 
If Garrison is still around come graduation, the entire Class of 2008, should stand up and turn their backs to him when he comes to the podium to address them. Signals must now be sent, by faculty members, students, alumni, and supporters of WVU.
 
The university is larger than one man. But still, one man, given enough time, can absolutely ruin the university.