Mylan Inc. executive Heather Bresch has told West Virginia University she will not allow full disclosure of an upcoming report by an investigative panel reviewing the award of her M.B.A. degree in October, sources close to the situation said.

Ms. Bresch, daughter of West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin, said officials do not have her permission to release to the public any information that is protected by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, these sources said.

"She wants to use FERPA to the fullest extent," said one.

Mylan did not return a phone call or e-mail Friday seeking comment from Ms. Bresch.

The five-member panel, convened by Provost Gerald Lang in January, is expected to report its findings within days on whether Ms. Bresch legitimately earned the degree. The report is to go first to Mr. Lang, who has said he will then share it with the university's faculty senate and board of governors. How much of that report will be made public is unknown.

The panel of two WVU professors and three educators from outside the state was formed in the wake of a Dec. 21 Post-Gazette story that raised questions about how top university officials, including Mr. Lang, went about awarding the degree to Ms. Bresch retroactively, nearly 10 years after she left the program.

The university took the action after first telling the Post-Gazette that Ms. Bresch, a long-time friend and former business associate of WVU President Michael Garrison, did not finish her degree. Days later, they reversed themselves, blaming a record-keeping error.

Some faculty say they are concerned that top administrators may try to hide the panel's findings under the guise of privacy rules.

"If [the report] is going through Lang, [WVU chief counsel Alex] Macia and the board of governors before the faculty senate, we have no guarantee we will have the heart of the panel's report, so we will not necessarily know what we're getting," said Sherm Riemenschneider, mathematics professor and faculty senate member.

"If they say they can't release the full report because of privacy laws, then the burden is on Ms. Bresch," said physiology professor Paul Brown. "She has to waive it to let people look at the full report."

FERPA generally acts to block outsiders from access to student records unless released by the family or the student. But an expert on student privacy rules said the regulations should not prevent the panel's entire report from being shared with the full faculty senate.

"The main issue here is for the faculty to be satisfied that nothing inappropriate occurred," said Barmak Nassirian, associate executive director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers in Washington, D.C.

People with legitimate educational interests do not need consent to access student records, he said. "It seems to me that every faculty member at this institution has a legitimate educational interest in the records of this individual," said Mr. Nassirian, who has been following the controversy surrounding Ms. Bresch.

"It may be entirely inappropriate for information from student records to be sent to the press or posted on the Web site, but it would be in complete compliance with FERPA, given the issue has implications of academic integrity, for the entire report to be made available at least to the faculty senate," he said.

"They certainly have a direct educational interest and every right to review the case without consent."

In the case of Ms. Bresch's records, Mr. Nassirian said he would encourage full public disclosure.

"I can't blame people for exercising their right [to privacy], but obviously, conclusions are drawn by people on that decision," he said.

Earlier this month, Ms. Bresch, chief operating officer at the Cecil-based generic drug maker, broke months of public silence, claiming she earned a master's of business administration degree in 1998 by arranging to use work experience to satisfy 10 credits worth of course work. The head of the M.B.A. program at the time, finance professor Paul Speaker, has declined to talk specifically about Ms Bresch, but has said that work-related credits were not a part of the curriculum.

Ms. Bresch, whose boss, Mylan Chairman Milan Puskar is WVU's biggest benefactor, has declined to provide a transcript or other documentation that she finished the degree.

Mr. Nassirian said federal privacy rules do not apply to so-called "sole possession records," which would include notes in files or private arrangements shared only between a professor and a student.

In that case, public disclosure is the professor's call, he said.

Students cannot sue for damages if privacy rules are violated. But the U.S. Department of Education has the authority to cut off an institution's federal funding.

"That is such a draconian measure that no institution in the history of the law's existence has been punished by a cutoff of funds," Mr. Nassirian said.