MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Problems with record deficiencies, grading practices and inconsistent policies in West Virginia University’s master’s programs are not limited to the College of Business & Economics, said the man charged with strengthening those programs in the wake of a degree scandal involving Gov. Joe Manchin’s daughter.
The university must push for uniformity and give graduate programs the same priority as undergraduate programs if it wants to compete for the nation’s best students, said Dr. Jonathan Cumming, vice president for graduate education.
Cumming told The Associated Press he ordered a master’s degree rescinded several weeks ago after the College of Arts & Sciences discovered a student was improperly claiming it on his employer’s Web site.
While federal privacy laws prevent him from sharing details, Cumming said the student had never defended his thesis, resulting in a grade of “incomplete.” Though the student initially refused to return the diploma, his degree was ultimately rescinded.
“The point is, these things happen,” said Cumming, who’s chairing a task force on WVU’s record-keeping practices. “There are problems like this that we encounter frequently enough that we need a system of checks and balances.”
Two reviews are under way in the aftermath of the scandal involving Manchin’s daughter, Heather Bresch. Cumming’s team is focused on practices at the admissions and records level, while the business college has been conducting a separate internal audit.
It was the latter that determined 70 out of 700 executive master’s of business administration degrees have potential problems, a figure Cumming relayed to the Board of Governor’s last week.
