MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- West Virginia University's Board of Governors yesterday said it believes President Mike Garrison did nothing to influence the awarding of an unearned executive M.B.A. degree to Mylan Inc. executive Heather Bresch.

The board's statement came after Mr. Garrison and an administrator told board members that an ongoing audit of the university's executive M.B.A. program has uncovered about 70 more students who were awarded degrees despite not having completed the required course work.

The Bresch controversy has thrown the WVU campus and the school's far-flung alumni into upheaval and prompted calls for Mr. Garrison's resignation.

Faculty members who want the president removed said the new allegations of poor record-keeping fly in the face of an April 23 report that criticized the decision to award Ms. Bresch the degree retroactively in October, nine years she left the program. The report said the school's records were accurate and showed Ms. Bresch did not earn the master's of business administration degree in December 1998 as she had claimed.

Ms. Bresch is the daughter of West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin and a longtime friend of Mr. Garrison, who, as a one-time lobbyist for Mylan, reported to her. Milan Puskar, chairman of the Cecil generic drug maker, is WVU's biggest benefactor. His contributions include endowing the deanship of WVU's business school, which administers the M.B.A. program.

"The board believes there is no evidence whatsoever that President Garrison took any action to improperly influence the grant of an E-M.B.A. degree to Ms. Heather Bresch," Chairman Steve Goodwin said after he and other board members emerged from a three-hour private meeting.

He said the board would have no other comment pending its continuing review of the matter and would comment at its next regularly scheduled meeting Friday in Charleston.

Faculty, alumni and others seeking Mr. Garrison's resignation said they were depressed by the board's statement.

"How could they say that in such categorical terms?" asked math professor Sherman Riemenschneider, who co-authored two motions calling for a vote of no-confidence in Mr. Garrison that won overwhelming faculty approval.

Based on his reading of the panel's report, Dr. Riemenschneider said Chief of Staff Craig Walker and others in Mr. Garrison's office "set the atmosphere to award the degree whether earned or not."

"It was because of the president's men," he said.

WVU alumnus and Rhodes scholar Peter J. Kalis criticized board members for continuing to foster an atmosphere of "political manipulation" at the university.

"It is now abundantly clear that Mr. Garrison and the Board of Governors are both complicit in creating a tone of political manipulation at the university," said Mr. Kalis, chairman of K&L Gates, a Pittsburgh law firm.

While faculty members leave the university and loyal alumni cancel or defer contributions, "the board insists upon standing behind a president whose leadership has led the university into turmoil and universal ridicule."

Alumnus Ken Kendrick, part owner of the Arizona Diamondbacks and a contributor to WVU's business school, said he was "extremely disappointed" but not surprised by yesterday's developments.

"The Board of Governors [members] clearly aren't willing to look at the impact that his presidency has had on the integrity of our institution," Mr. Kendrick said. "I cannot see how, with the strong vote of the faculty and outpouring of concern from faculty and students that the board ... can continue to let political views drive their judgment about what's in the best interest of the university."

Mr. Garrison, 39, has denied a direct hand in granting Ms. Bresch the degree. The panel's report put Mr. Garrison's top aides, including Mr. Walker and General Counsel Alex Macia, at the center of the decision.

Mr. Garrison has said he will not resign. Yesterday, he said he looks forward to working with the board and the WVU community to move the university forward.

Mr. Garrison requested yesterday's meeting to present his response to the board's orders to follow up on the panel report. The panel was appointed in January after the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that Ms. Bresch was awarded the degree even though official university records showed she was 22 credits shy of completing the 48-credit hour program.

The panel concluded those records were accurate. Mr. Garrison and Jonathan Cumming, assistant vice president for graduate education, told board members otherwise yesterday.

Mr. Cumming said the ongoing audit of the executive M.B.A. program revealed that about 10 percent of the 700 graduates examined had "deficiencies" indicating they did not earn their degrees.

The panel's April 23 report said there "is no reason to question the legitimacy or value of any other M.B.A. degree that has been awarded" by WVU's business school "based on the circumstances of this unusual case" involving Ms. Bresch.

When told of Mr. Cumming's statements yesterday, panel member Arthur Centonze, an economics professor at Pace University, said, "I'm going to stand with what we said in the report."

Mr. Garrison's critics accused him of trying to blame the decision to award Ms. Bresch the degree by exaggerating record-keeping problems the panel said were minor and far less significant than those involving Ms. Bresch.

"Attempts are being made to drag WVU farther through the mud ... by saying there's a problem when there isn't," said physics professor Boyd Edwards, chairman of a grass-roots campus movement seeking Mr. Garrison's resignation.

He described yesterday's revelations as "a desperate attempt to salvage Mr. Garrison's own skin" and said that the president's opponents "will not rest until he is driven from office."

"In vindicating Garrison from wrongdoing, the Board of Governors has broken faith with the WVU community," Dr. Edwards said. "The board of governors has a solemn obligation to do what is best for WVU but is conflicted by many personal ties to Mr. Garrison."