West Virginia University President Mike Garrison, who has repeatedly said he washed his hands of Mylan Inc. executive Heather Bresch's disputed M.B.A. degree after her initial call, discussed the matter in a briefing with his chief of staff and other top aides late the following day, according to an interview conducted by an investigative panel.

Mr. Garrison has insisted that beyond taking a call from Ms. Bresch -- his friend, former business associate and daughter of West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin -- he had no involvement in the matter.

"I removed myself from the process immediately," Mr. Garrison said after the panel found last month that administrators granted Ms. Bresch a degree she did not earn. "I don't know why the decision was made or how it was made."

Mr. Garrison's communications chief, Bill Case, emphasized the same point earlier this week. "Because Mike personally knew this person, he withdrew himself from any contact or knowledge about the case," Mr. Case told the Washington Post.

But according to notes of interviews conducted by the panel, Mr. Garrison attended a briefing on the situation with top aides late in the day Oct. 12, the day after he was contacted by Ms. Bresch.

"The president [Mr. Garrison] came in and [chief of staff] Craig Walker was catching him up" on the M.B.A. matter, Mr. Garrison's assistant, Jennifer Fisher, told investigators in March.

At one point, Ms. Fisher said, Mr. Garrison stated "Either she has it or she doesn't. That's the answer we call and give."

The discussion occurred Oct. 12, a day after the university told the Post-Gazette Ms. Bresch had not earned a master's of business administration degree in December 1998 as she had claimed. The university's statement to the Post-Gazette prompted Ms. Bresch to call Mr. Garrison and Mr. Walker the same day.

Records of Mr. Walker's phone calls show Mr. Garrison's chief of staff and Ms. Bresch exchanged three calls Oct. 11 and three more calls late the following afternoon, about the same time Mr. Garrison was getting an update from Mr. Walker.

WVU spokeswoman Amy Neil said yesterday Mr. Garrison told the panel that he was given periodic updates on the matter, a contention confirmed in panel notes on his interview.

Several of Mr. Garrison's top aides, including Mr. Walker, Mr. Case and general counsel Alex Macia, attended pivotal meetings with Provost Gerald Lang and business college administrators during which the decision was made to grant the degree retroactively despite official records showing Ms. Bresch only completed 26 of 48 required credits.

Although the panel has put Mr. Garrison's office at the center of the decision, finding "palpable pressure" from his representatives and Provost Lang to approve the degree, Mr. Garrison has denied any direct involvement and has dismissed calls from faculty, students and alumni that he step down.

WVU awarded the degree to Ms. Bresch Oct. 15. It was rescinded last month after the five-member investigative panel found administrators falsified her records to make it appear she finished the degree, adding courses she did not take or pay for and awarding her grades "simply pulled from thin air."

Days after the findings were released, Mr. Lang and business school dean R. Stephen Sears resigned from their posts. They remain on the faculty.

On Monday, WVU's faculty senate voted 77-19 to ask the Board of Governors to fire Mr. Garrison if he doesn't resign. After the vote, Mr. Garrison reiterated that he will not step down, a stance that is at odds with other statements the embattled president has made, said Michael Perone, chairman of WVU's psychology department.

"Mr. Garrison maintains he's interested in working with faculty and is a proponent of shared governance. Yet he doesn't seem to respect the opinion of the faculty," said Mr. Perone, vice chairman of a grass-roots group of faculty, students and others formed Wednesday to push for Mr. Garrison's ouster.

"What people are feeling now is that there has been a politicization of the president's office and the university in general and faculty aren't comfortable with this," said Mr. Perone, whose group calls itself Mountaineers for Integrity and Responsibility.

While some faculty want Mr. Garrison removed for sullying the school's academic reputation, the president is getting support from WVU head football coach Bill Stewart, who called his boss "a fine gentleman."

"President Garrison is a man's man and believes in accountability," Mr. Stewart said in a statement issued this week.

Mr. Stewart took over for Rich Rodriguez, whose sudden resignation in December put Mr. Garrison in hot water with some alumni and donors.

Some faculty, alumni and donors also are calling for the resignation of Steve Goodwin, the politically connected Morgantown attorney who chairs WVU's board of governors and has issued several statements on behalf of the board in support of Mr. Garrison.

Some faculty said they were incensed by Mr. Goodwin's comments to the student newspaper last week in which he said faculty members do not appoint him or run the university and "if they don't like that, the only way to change that is to change the law."

An amendment to state law signed by Mr. Manchin last summer makes Mr. Goodwin eligible to serve as chairman of WVU's board of governors for two more years. The change, passed last summer during a special session of the legislature, allows the chairman to serve for four consecutive years, up from two.

Mr. Goodwin, who led the search committee that resulted in Mr. Garrison's selection as president last year, was elected chairman in June 2006. Before the law change, Mr. Goodwin would have been ineligible to serve as chairman after his current term ends.

His son, Carte Goodwin, is Mr. Manchin's general counsel. His sister-in-law, Kay Goodwin, is Mr. Manchin's secretary of education and serves on the Higher Education Policy Commission, which last year approved Mr. Garrison's appointment to the $255,000-a-year president's job. Mr. Garrison was a commission member before resigning when he was under consideration for the WVU presidential post.

Separately, two alumni who have each funded $25,000 scholarships called for the resignations of Mr. Garrison and Mr. Goodwin.

"It is appalling and heartbreaking to see what is happening to [WVU's] credibility as a result of this fiasco," Richard and Sara Childs of Forest Hill, Md., wrote in an e-mail to Mr. Garrison on Monday.

"We would like to see the board of governors membership be more diverse and more representative of the 'working class' of WVU graduates rather than a 'good ol' boys' club. Both Mike Garrison and Steve Goodwin should go!"

Mr. Garrison's critics are concerned that he will be able to weather the storm, which is expected to subside after next week, when a rare forum of all faculty members will be held on the Bresch scandal and when commencement services are held. Students are discussing ways to protest against Mr. Garrison during graduation events, Mr. Perone said.

Once students and faculty leave campus for the summer, the only other forum for pressing for a leadership change will occur June 6, when WVU's board meets in Charleston.

Mr. Perone said the grass-roots group wants to "make sure our voice is heard at that meeting."

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly described the relationship between WVU Board of Governors Chairman Steve Goodwin and West Virginia Secretary of Education Kay Goodwin. Mr. Goodwin is Ms. Goodwin's brother-in-law.