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You are here: Home / Open Threads / A Home Grown Scandal

A Home Grown Scandal

by John Cole|  January 22, 200810:53 am| 20 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

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Governor Manchin and WVU find themselves embroiled in a scandal:

It started with a phone call from a newspaper reporter in October seeking to verify the academic credentials of Gov. Joe Manchin III’s daughter Heather Bresch. But in less than three months, the inquiry has mushroomed into a controversy that risks casting a shadow of cronyism over this state’s flagship university.

Officials at the college, West Virginia University, have been accused of rewriting records last fall to document that Ms. Bresch had earned an executive master of business administration degree in 1998. An investigation by The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette concluded that she had completed only 22 of the required 48 credit hours.

Read the whole thing- nothing to indicate Manchin himself was involved in this, and I don’t know any of the people involved in this so I can’t attest to their integrity, but the whole thing does put a dark cloud over West Virginia and WVU. I can’t imagine someone in a position of authority just making the classes up out of air, as it is so inappropriate, but then again I never expected someone to lie a nation into war. Regardless, I hope it is resolved, and resolved quickly. The students deserve that this be taken care of in the most orderly and expedient manner possible.

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20Comments

  1. 1.

    RSA

    January 22, 2008 at 10:57 am

    Gov. Joe Manchin III’s daughter Heather Bresch

    He’s not related to Kim John Ill, is he?

  2. 2.

    RSA

    January 22, 2008 at 10:58 am

    Trust me to screw up even a bad joke. Jong.

  3. 3.

    The Other Steve

    January 22, 2008 at 11:03 am

    If someone asked me to provide proof that I attended college and the University had lost all my records, I’m not sure if I could. I tossed out all my old grade slips and receipts a few years ago.

    Granted, I guess i still have my diploma. Does that prove anything? Or could that have been forged?

  4. 4.

    cmoreNC

    January 22, 2008 at 11:05 am

    I can remember a documentary done back in the mid-80s about North Carolina State University’s men’s basketball program, then still in the fading afterglow only two or three seasons after their fabled national championship run back in 83. It showed three of the starting varsity players sitting together in a classroom – the subject? “Sociology of Sports”. And what other classes were these three players enrolled in? I can’t all the others specifically, except one of the players was in “philosophy of recreation” and the rest were equally vapid classes that obviously each required no more than a half-dozen hours of rather nonvigorous academic “work” to get through each semester – no doubt mostly with a tutor feeding them the likely exam questions and answer hints beforehand.

    Not all college academic scams involve phantom transcripts – far more involve transcripts that are nominally completely legitimate, but filled with extremely low-density, low-effort academic credits.

  5. 5.

    John Cole

    January 22, 2008 at 11:09 am

    If someone asked me to provide proof that I attended college and the University had lost all my records, I’m not sure if I could. I tossed out all my old grade slips and receipts a few years ago.

    Granted, I guess i still have my diploma. Does that prove anything? Or could that have been forged?

    That was the main reason I defended George Bush back during the national Guard flare-up. I know for a fact that someone could take my national Guard record and make me look like a deserter. There were two instances where I did not attend drill for three months (conflicting obligations), and then made them all up at once. That, and the record keeping in the 90’s was still not completely accurate.

  6. 6.

    Zifnab

    January 22, 2008 at 11:26 am

    That was the main reason I defended George Bush back during the national Guard flare-up.

    Which is understandable. Its the purple-heart band-aids thrown at John Kerry, combined with the McFlightsuit Photography (and subsequent painting of GW as some sort of Ace Pilot Hero) that made us gag. To be fair, John, I don’t think there’s ever been a point where I could call you partisan first and military later. While ever other Malkin on the block was calling for Kerry to be lynched for his war record, this blog was probably the sanest of the lot.

    That said, everyone knows universities are part of a grand liberal conspiracy to turn us all communist anyway. You’d think Heather not actually having a master’s degree would score points in her favor.

  7. 7.

    Punchy

    January 22, 2008 at 11:26 am

    I’m guessing they’ll blame this diploma-rewrite scandal on Rich Roddy.

  8. 8.

    Jen

    January 22, 2008 at 11:31 am

    Went to WV this weekend. The slogan on the Welcome to WV sign is “Open for Business”. Or, as my husband said, “Cletus needs a job.” A less-than-inspiring motto, I thought. What happened to Wild and Wonderful?

  9. 9.

    Jay

    January 22, 2008 at 11:33 am

    Soooo…It takes the NYT to get you interested in this story?

  10. 10.

    TheFountainHead

    January 22, 2008 at 11:53 am

    but the whole thing does put a dark cloud over West Virginia and WVU

    That isn’t always there?

  11. 11.

    RSA

    January 22, 2008 at 11:56 am

    Or could that have been forged?

    Sounds like a worthwhile diploma replacement service, in principle, but. . .

    Former teacher collages [sic], technical trade schools, and more! Schools were [sic] the teachers are no longer around, the principal retired years ago from [sic], and where student records are lost somewhere.

    I’d check pretty carefully for typos on my “new” diploma.

  12. 12.

    John Cole

    January 22, 2008 at 12:24 pm

    Soooo…It takes the NYT to get you interested in this story?

    I must confess to being not all that interested in the story right now. The whole thing is just depressing and embarrassing, and there is NOTHING I can do about it, unlike politics, where I can do a small bit hereand there.

  13. 13.

    Face

    January 22, 2008 at 1:00 pm

    and there is NOTHING I can do about it, unlike politics, where I can do a small bit hereand there

    And Hillary thanks you for it.

  14. 14.

    Dug Jay

    January 22, 2008 at 1:08 pm

    Both Obama and Hillary have been quoted as saying that “This is so typical of those morons that live in West Virginia.”

  15. 15.

    Mark L

    January 22, 2008 at 1:10 pm

    John Cole wrote….
    …..but then again I never expected someone to lie a nation into war.

    The Gulf of Tonkin incident????
    The Mexican-American War?????

  16. 16.

    Tim C

    January 22, 2008 at 2:23 pm

    Went to WV this weekend. The slogan on the Welcome to WV sign is “Open for Business”. Or, as my husband said, “Cletus needs a job.” A less-than-inspiring motto, I thought. What happened to Wild and Wonderful?

    As of the first of the year, Wild and Wonderful is back as the state motto of West Virginia, at least unofficially. It won a poll taken by the governor’s office in October and the governor will ask the Legislature to make it official this session.

  17. 17.

    Darkness

    January 22, 2008 at 3:21 pm

    This part of leadership is probably the toughest: controlling the vast minions, most of whom are not direct reports, but can equally eff up, thinking they’re doing what’s best for someone without them actually being asked, but still ending up responsible. University Athletic Directors have this problem worst of all because the NCAA can hammer them for something a far-flung alum did. The only leadership solution that seems to work is for the leader in question to go ballistic: make themselves freely available to the press, be straightforward about what they know about what happened and publicly shame anyone who even might have been involved. Make a big enough stink so the next loser will fear the retribution and stay in line. Most of the public will give forgive you losing control of a minion if you make it really clear you disapprove. But the public shaming is critical to avoiding the next round.

  18. 18.

    grumpy realist

    January 22, 2008 at 5:48 pm

    Speaking of the “diploma replacement service”, my suspicious mind says: trolling for info for later identity fraud.

    (Have to say I had one football player in one of my classes (physics). Great kid–the only “out of the ordinary” request I ever had from him was to reschedule a quiz for him because he was going to be playing a game elsewhere one week. )

  19. 19.

    Dylan

    January 22, 2008 at 11:16 pm

    Not war. Occupation.

  20. 20.

    bud

    January 23, 2008 at 3:25 pm

    Someone else said it, but I’ll second it:

    Evn though this sounds like Affimative Action for the Politically Connected, the real academic scandal in the US is the semi-education (or less) afforded those playing in major intercollegiate sports.

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