A prominent alumnus yesterday reiterated his call for the resignations of West Virginia University President Michael Garrison and Board of Governors Chairman Steve Goodwin, saying "both have to go" after the university awarded a graduate degree to Mylan Inc. executive Heather Bresch that she did not earn.

Peter J. Kalis, a Rhodes scholar and chairman of the Pittsburgh law firm Kirkpatrick & Lockhart/Gates, said WVU's decision to grant a master's degree retroactively to Ms. Bresch, the daughter of West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin, was "rather predictable" given the political credentials that were cited as the reason for appointing Mr. Garrison president last year.

"The first time the chips are on the table, not only does West Virginia University act as a political institution instead of an academic institution, it acts as a dishonest institution," Mr. Kalis, a former editor of Yale University's Law Review, said in an interview.

Separately, the two high-ranking WVU administrators who have resigned in the wake of the M.B.A. scandal will continue teaching at the school in the fall.

Provost Gerald Lang and business school Dean R. Stephen Sears have the option, once their resignations take effect June 30, to return to the classroom, WVU spokeswoman Amy Neil said. Both have indicated that they will, she said.

Mr. Lang, provost since 1996, would receive 82 percent of his current salary, or roughly $200,000 as a professor, according to his current contract. Mr. Sears, who earns about $212,000, would drop back to $160,000. He has been dean since 2005.

Both men announced their resignations this week following a report by an investigative panel that concluded WVU officials granted the master's degree in October without any academic basis in a decision rife with favoritism.

The report, released a week ago, says administrators falsified Ms. Bresch's transcript to make it appear she finished her degree, adding courses that she did not take and awarding grades "simply pulled from thin air."

The panel of two WVU professors and three educators from outside the state was formed following a Dec. 21 story in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that raised questions about how officials went about granting the degree. Ms. Bresch has insisted she earned the M.B.A. in December 1998.

Mr. Garrison, a family friend and former business associate of Ms. Bresch, has said he played no role in the decision to grant the degree and has no plans to step down.

The decision was made after Ms. Bresch telephoned Mr. Garrison and had multiple conversations with his chief of staff, Craig Walker. Mr. Walker also attended pivotal meetings at which officials decided to award the degree "whether she had actually earned it or not," according to the panel report.

On Monday, the WVU faculty senate will meet in a special session to consider motions responding to the crisis at the state's flagship university, including a call for Mr. Garrison's resignation.

"The provost and the dean were offered up as sacrificial lambs," Mr. Kalis said yesterday. "The cancer is at the core and it has a name. In fact, it has two names. They are Garrison and Goodwin and both have to go."

Mr. Goodwin is the Morgantown attorney who led the search committee that selected Mr. Garrison as president. Mr. Garrison nominated Mr. Goodwin for the governor's Distinguished West Virginian award when Mr. Garrison served on the staff of former Gov. Bob Wise.

The board of governors issued a statement Monday saying it "is in full support of President Garrison."

Mr. Kalis said alumni, students and faculty have called and e-mailed their encouragement since he called for Mr. Garrison's and Mr. Goodwin's resignations in a letter over the weekend to Steve Douglas, head of WVU's alumni association. Faculty members told him they are concerned about possible retribution for speaking out against Mr. Garrison.

"That's a fine state of affairs for 21st-century America," Mr. Kalis said.

Mohamad Alkadry, an associate professor of public administration, said in an e-mail to colleagues yesterday that he is not accepting Mr. Garrison's statement that he was not involved. When Mr. Garrison got a phone call from Ms. Bresch about the matter, he should have referred it to the academic office, not to Craig Walker, his chief of staff.

"Any action taken by Walker is indeed action taken by Garrison," Mr. Alkadry wrote to faculty members who represent the College of Arts and Sciences in the faculty senate. "The president's continued denial that he had nothing to do with this is absurd at best."

Some faculty members have supported Mr. Garrison, accusing his critics of using the affair to try to oust a president they were opposed to from the start.

Parviz Famouri, a professor in the computer science and electrical engineering department, said he was disappointed that Mr. Lang resigned. The provost's approval of the decision to award Ms. Bresch the degree was "just one action which was just an error in judgment. ... It's just sad," Mr. Famouri told members of the faculty senate executive committee Monday.

Robert K. Griffith, associate professor of pharmaceutical science, said he has no problems with Mr. Lang or Mr. Sears teaching.

"I think they're both honorable men who succumbed to pressures," he said.