MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- West Virginia University's Board of Governors and the school's faculty are headed for a showdown over the Heather Bresch M.B.A. controversy, with Chairman Steve Goodwin saying his board runs the university as the faculty senate considers asking the board to demand WVU President Michael Garrison's resignation.

Mr. Goodwin, who led the search that resulted in Mr. Garrison's controversial appointment last year, told WVU's student newspaper yesterday he will not resign and criticized the faculty for telling him how to do his job.

The chairman's comments and the faculty's position set up a classic confrontation between two important power centers at the university. The looming clash reflects how the Bresch controversy has spread beyond the debate over the way the M.B.A. degree was awarded to Ms. Bresch and reflects the growing tensions between faculty and the administration.

On Monday, the faculty senate will vote on three motions ranging from calling for the board of governors to require Mr. Garrison's resignation if he does not leave voluntarily to asking a senate committee to monitor how the university responds to the recommendations of a panel that concluded WVU awarded a master's of business administration to Ms. Bresch that she did not earn.

The senate's executive committee met yesterday to determine the rules for Monday's debate. Faculty Senate Chair Steve Kite, who usually presides over the meetings, has asked to be relieved of those duties so he can participate in the discussion.

The student paper quoted Mr. Goodwin -- a close ally of Ms. Bresch's father, West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin -- as saying the faculty "don't appoint me. They have nothing to do with my selection or with my term at the university."

State law puts the board, not the faculty senate, in charge of the university and "if they don't like that, the only way to change that is to change the law," Mr. Goodwin told paper.

Mr. Kite said he had not seen Mr. Goodwin's comments but said technically Mr. Goodwin is correct. But Mr. Goodwin's remarks were a lightning rod for those calling for the resignation of Mr. Garrison, a long-time friend of the Manchin family and former business associate of Ms. Bresch.

"Talking down to the faculty like that was pretty offensive and insulting. He [Mr. Goodwin] needs to apologize to the faculty as soon as [Mr. Goodwin] resigns," said Mohamad Alkadry, an associate professor of public administration. "He really needs a good education on university governance."

A major donor to WVU's business school also took offense yesterday to Mr. Goodwin's comments and called for Mr. Garrison's resignation.

"This is a representation of how politics are driving important decisions at the university rather than academic integrity," said Ken Kendrick, part-owner of the Arizona Diamondbacks and a director of the WVU Foundation, which administers donations to the university.

The decision to award an M.B.A. to Ms. Bresch that she did not earn "started with Mike [Garrison]," Mr. Kendrick said.

"He believed her. There was an effort undertaken to do what they needed to do to certify a degree," he said.

Ms. Bresch called Mr. Garrison and his chief of staff in October to dispute the university's statement that she did not earn the degree in December 1998 as she had claimed. Four days later, the school awarded it to her retroactively, a decision that was reversed April 23 after a blistering report by a panel that investigated the matter.

Panel members concluded that top WVU administrators falsified Ms. Bresch's transcript to make it appear she had graduated by adding courses she did not take or pay for and by entering grades "simply pulled from thin air."

Ms. Bresch is chief operating officer of Mylan Inc., a Cecil generic drug maker whose chairman, Milan Puskar, is WVU's biggest benefactor.

Following release of the report, Provost Gerald Lang and business school dean R. Stephen Sears resigned their administrative positions and said they intend to continue teaching at the school.

Following yesterday's 90-minute meeting, three senate executive committee members -- Parviz Famouri, Nigel Clark and Marjorie McDiarmid -- said they had not seen Mr. Goodwin's comments.

Mr. Famouri, who was among the minority of faculty members who supported Mr. Garrison's appointment last year, expressed his regret that Mr. Lang resigned over one error in judgment over a long career. "It's just sad," Mr. Famouri said.