West Virginia University President Mike Garrison's chief of staff directed the university's initial investigation into whether West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin's daughter earned an M.B.A degree at the university, according to e-mails obtained by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

E-mails requested under the Freedom of Information Act show that Craig Walker ordered an Oct. 15 meeting where top administrators discussed whether Heather Bresch earned the master's of business administration degree; was involved in revising her transcript; and directed that the university's statements on the matter be cleared by Ms. Bresch, whom he referred to in e-mails by her first name.

The meetings were called after Ms. Bresch disputed the university's initial statement that she did not earn the degree. Ms. Bresch, a longtime friend and former business associate of Mr. Garrison, insists she earned the degree in December 1998 but declined to release a copy of her transcript before it was revised. She is chief operating officer of Mylan Inc., whose chairman, Milan Puskar, is WVU's largest benefactor.

A Dec. 21 Post-Gazette story raised questions about how the university retroactively awarded the degree even though the university's official records showed she had completed only about half of the credits needed.

Mr. Garrison maintained that he had no involvement in researching the discrepancy or in the decision to grant the degree. The Oct. 15 meeting organized by Mr. Walker, his chief of staff, came four days after the university's initial statement to the Post-Gazette that Ms. Bresch did not earn the degree. Other e-mails obtained by the Post-Gazette indicate that:

• On Oct. 17, Mr. Walker directed the business school dean, R. Stephen Sears, to write a letter to WVU's Office of Admissions and Records, confirming that Ms. Bresch met the degree requirements.

"Once [the letter is] approved, we can provide a copy of that letter to the Pittsburgh [Post-]Gazette with Heather's permission," Mr. Walker wrote.

• On Oct. 19, Mr. Sears informed Mr. Walker that he and Provost Gerald Lang, WVU's top academic officer, agreed that the business school should revise Ms. Bresch's transcript, and send Mr. Sears' letter "along with the completed transcript and other supporting materials" to the admissions and records office, the university's official records keeper.

The revisions included retroactively adding six classes, including grades, to Ms. Bresch's records, the Post-Gazette found. In addition, two classes that had been marked "incomplete" were changed to show letter grades. Together, the revisions were worth 22 credits in the 48-credit-hour program. The newspaper's research determined that officials made the changes without evidence that Ms. Bresch registered or paid for the classes, and without consulting the professors who taught the classes.

The e-mails also show how the university's explanation of the discrepancy evolved. WVU officials initially told the Post-Gazette that Ms. Bresch earned the degree but it wasn't recorded with admissions and records because she had failed to pay a $50 graduation fee and did not receive a diploma. The school subsequently said there was no record of a degree because of the business school's failure to transfer her course work to the records office. It gave no explanation of why there had been no apparent problem with admissions and records receiving the first half of her course work.

Mr. Lang declined to be interviewed for the Dec. 21 story. Instead, he issued a brief statement saying the matter had been corrected after "the appropriate due diligence" by Mr. Sears.

"I see no reason to pursue this matter further," he said in the Dec. 14 statement.

This week, Mr. Lang said he did not know what, if any, records were used as the basis for retroactively awarding the degree. But it is clear from the e-mails obtained by the newspaper that he was involved in reviewing the matter.

A three-person panel appointed by Mr. Lang Jan. 2 will investigate the decision to award the degree. The panel's work will include how Mr. Lang and other school officials reconstructed Ms. Bresch's academic record given the lack of information available.