Several students and faculty refused to shake hands with West Virginia University President Mike Garrison during commencement ceremonies this weekend as a silent protest over the Heather Bresch scandal.
Garrison is facing calls to resign from faculty members, students and some donors. He was scheduled to speak at commencement this weekend, but changed his mind because of the controversy.
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Lauren Dembeck, an honors student from Wallace, had the words "I earned this degree: Garrison must resign" on her mortarboard as she approached Garrison.
"I told him, 'I can't shake your hand,'" Dembeck said after the ceremony. "He congratulated me anyway."
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Faculty have assembled twice in the last two weeks to call for Garrison to resign over the scandal involving Bresch, who is an executive at Mylan Pharmaceuticals and the daughter of Gov. Joe Manchin.
Garrison has repeatedly stated that he plans to stay on the job.
Last month, an independent panel said Garrison's aides and business school leaders were wrong to award Bresch a master's degree in business retroactively that she did not earn.
The panel said she did not register or pay for some of her classes, and WVU officials added grades to her transcript that were "simply pulled from thin air."
