A Disgraced Cheater and Corporate "Leader" Joins the Board of The Pittsburgh Promise

It is often said that truth is stranger than fiction.  Perhaps that is the context in which the naming of disgraced Mylan Inc. Chief Executive Officer Heather Bresch to the Board of the Pittsburgh Promise should be pondered.

The Pittsburgh Promise provides college scholarships to eligible students that reside in the city of Pittsburgh. CEO Bresch’s most well-documented association with an institution of higher education was to have acccpted an EMBA degree from the West Virginia University that did not earn.

To follow is the sordid recounting of the Bresch scandal from Wikipedia.

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On October 2, 2007 Heather Bresch, the daughter of then-governor (and subsequently United States Senator) Joe Manchin of West Virginia, was promoted to chief operating officer at Mylan, a Cecil Township, Pennsylvania-based generic drug maker.[1]

On October 11, 2007 the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette contacted West Virginia University to confirm academic credentials claimed by Bresch, including an EMBA degree.[1] Research done by the Post Gazette indicated that Bresch's course work ceased with 22 out of the 48-credit-hour program remaining to be completed.[1] The WVU Registrar told the newspaper that Bresch had earned an undergraduate degree, but did not finish her graduate degree. However, On October 15, 2007, a university spokeswoman announced that WVU officials had verified that Ms. Bresch had "completed all the requirements for an executive masters of business administration degree," but did not receive her diploma because she failed to pay a $50 graduation fee.[1] She attributed the misunderstanding to the business school's failure to transfer records from nearly half of her course work.[1]

On October 22, 2007, R. Stephen Sears, the Milan Puskar Dean of WVU's business school, sent a letter to WVU's admissions and records office retroactively granting Bresch an EMBA. Six classes were added to her record with letter grades, and two classes with "Incomplete" grades were given letter grades.[1]

On April 24, 2008, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette revealed that the university had granted an EMBA degree to Heather Bresch, the daughter of the state's governor Joe Manchin and an employee of Mylan, Inc., the university's largest donor. Bresch was awarded a degree by having six grades changed from incomplete to "A"; until that change, she had completed only 26 of the required 48 credits. Following release of a report commissioned by the university (and written by a panel of faculty members from WVU and other universities), the university announced in April 2008 that it would rescind Bresch's degree.[2] WVU Vice-President and Provost Dr. Gerald Lang announced his resignation[3] and shortly thereafter College of Business & Economics Dean Dr. Stephen Sears announced his resignation as well.[4]

The report's panel found that high-ranking university administrators "cherry-picked" information and that grades were "simply pulled from thin air" to grant Bresch the degree nearly 10 years after she was supposed to graduate. The panel concluded administrators lacked documentation to prove Bresch's claims, relied too heavily on verbal assertions and caved to political pressure. The report did not find that the university president directly interfered, but it concluded the presence of his chief of staff in the decision-making meeting created "palpable" pressure.

On May 1, 2008, the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, which first reported on the controversy, published an editorial calling for the President Michael Garrison's resignation.[5] On the same day, WVU's student newspaper, The Daily Athenaeum held a student forum where some students called for President Michael Garrison's resignation. President Garrison did not attend, and was represented by a member of the executive communications staff.[6]

Chairman of the West Virginia University's Health Sciences Center neurosurgery department organized a faculty letter in support.[7] Some faculty members felt pressured to sign the letter, which had 23 signatures.[7]

On May 5, 2008, WVU's faculty senate passed a non-binding resolution 77-19 that stated: "The Faculty Senate of West Virginia University votes no confidence in President Garrison. For the good of the institution and for the benefit of our students, he must resign or the Board of Governors must require his resignation."[8] One emeritus member of the faculty called the grade alterations by the WVU administration a "serious academic crime" by subverting the faculty's traditional authority.[8]

Many WVU alumni expressed concern and anger regarding the controversy and fear damage to the university's reputation.[9] Prominent Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania attorney and WVU alum Peter J. Kalis [10] called for removal of Steven Goodwin, chairman of WVU's board of directors, as well as Garrison.[11] Garrison subsequently resigned and was replaced by interim President C. Peter Magrath. Magrath served for a year before James P. Clements was named to be the next president.

In addition, the university's general counsel stepped down as general counsel but remained vice president of legal affairs, while the president's communications officer was reassigned to another job in the university.[12]

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I react with incredulity to the tenet of “integrity”, which is found at the Mylan website and purportedly practiced.  It states,

“Doing what's right is sacred to us. We behave responsibly, even when nobody's looking. We set high standards from which we never back down. This uncompromising ethical stance helps to keep our products pure, our workers safe and the environment clean.”  Obviously integrity is not expected of those in the corporate boardroom.