MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- West Virginia University's faculty senate will choose from among eight outside experts Monday when it selects three independent members to be part of a five-person panel investigating whether Mylan Inc. executive Heather Bresch earned an M.B.A. degree from the school.

The candidates proposed yesterday by the senate's executive committee include seven nominees suggested by agencies that accredit the university or WVU's College of Business and Economics, which administers the master's in business administration program.

Four other candidates, including former West Virginia Supreme Court Justice Thomas McHugh, were rejected because they earned degrees from the university.

The candidates are: Doyle Williams, former dean of the University of Arkansas business school; Arthur Centonze, former dean of Pace University's business school; former Oklahoma State University president John Campbell; Lori Franz, former provost of the University of Missouri-Columbia; University of Cincinnati professor Ralph Katerberg; Jacalyn Askin, assistant dean at Arizona State University; Brenda Russell, executive associate vice chancellor at the University of Illinois-Chicago; and Texas A&M professor William Rundell.

Senate members will be able to nominate other candidates when the full senate meets Monday to select the final members of the panel. Faculty senate chair Steven Kite told executive committee members yesterday that it is important that the final members be selected Monday "if we want to continue to share governance."

"Our standing in the state and in the nation will not be enhanced if we fail to make a decision," he said.

The three candidates who receive the most votes will join two other members named by Provost Gerald Lang, who formed the panel Jan. 2. They are WVU professors Michael Lastinger and Roy Nutter.

Mr. Lang's third choice, West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission vice chancellor Bruce Flack, resigned this month after the faculty senate recommended that he be replaced by three people with no ties to the university or state government. The senate vote reflected concern that the panel's finding would not be credible unless a majority of its members were independent.

Those fears stemmed from the fact that Ms. Bresch, Mylan's chief operating officer, is the daughter of West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin and longtime friends and a former business associate of WVU President Mike Garrison. Her boss, Mylan chairman and co-founder Milan Puskar, is WVU's largest benefactor.

The panel was formed after a Dec. 21 story by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette raised questions about how the university went about retroactively granting the degree even though university records showed Ms. Bresch had completed only about half of the credits required.

Ms. Bresch insists she earned the degree in December 1998. She declined to provide a transcript or other documentation and has declined further comment.