A prominent member of West Virginia University's Health Sciences Center and ally of WVU President Michael Garrison yesterday organized a faculty letter in support of the embattled executive, a letter some faculty members said they felt pressured to sign but did not.

The letter was circulated by neurosurgery department chairman Dr. Julian E. Bailes, who some Health Sciences faculty members believe will be promoted as part of a reorganization announced by Mr. Garrison in March.

Dr. Bailes was a member of the search committee that led to Mr. Garrison's appointment last year, a choice strongly opposed by university faculty. His letter, which expressed "unequivocal support for, and confidence in" Mr. Garrison, was signed by six other chairs of Health Sciences' 21 departments and 16 other faculty members.

A copy of Dr. Bailes' letter, including the names of the 23 faculty members who signed it, was posted on the Web site of West Virginia Metro News. The medical school has more than 600 faculty members.

A call to Dr. Bailes' home was not returned.

The signers included neurology department chairman Dr. John F. Brick, who along with Dr. Bailes was appointed by Mr. Garrison to a search committee looking for a new vice president to oversee WVU's reorganized health care organization, which includes four health sciences schools, the faculty medical practice and hospitals.

Faculty members who were asked to sign the letter said they were told that interim health sciences vice president Fred Butcher and interim medical school dean Dr. James E. Brick were supporting the letter. Some felt the names of the administrators, neither of whom signed the letter, were mentioned to pressure faculty members into signing.

"I felt a sense of coercion ... to do something I didn't want to do," said one faculty member who did not sign the letter and asked not to be identified.

Dr. James Brick, the brother of Dr. John Brick, also served last year on the Garrison search committee.

Anxiety over the reorganization of health sciences intensified last month following the sudden resignation of medical school dean Dr. John E. Prescott. The school had just received a top-10 rural health rating from U.S. News & World Report.

Faculty members who believed they had not received an adequate explanation for Dr. Prescott's departure became even more unsettled when a panel concluded last week that university officials used a "seriously flawed" process to award a master's of business administration degree to Mylan Inc. executive Heather Bresch, the daughter of West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin.

"There's a lot of paranoia and discomfort at the health sciences center over this whole thing," said one faculty member who asked not to be identified. "It's become unbelievably political."

Faculty, students and alumni are calling for Mr. Garrison's resignation after the investigative panel found there was no evidence Ms. Bresch, chief operating officer of the Cecil generic drug maker, earned the degree in December 1998 as she had claimed.

WVU officials awarded it retroactively in October, then falsified Mr. Bresch's transcript by adding courses she did not take or pay for, including grades "simply pulled from thin air," the panel's report stated.

Provost Gerald Lang and business school dean R. Stephen Sears announced their resignations this week.