A majority of the tenured faculty of West Virginia University's law school has called for the resignation of WVU President Mike Garrison, saying he has "lost the battle of public opinion."

The faculty members made the statement in letters sent to Mr. Garrison and the university's board of governors after Mr. Garrison canceled a meeting with the faculty scheduled for yesterday. The letters were signed by 11 of the 15 tenured professors at the law school, of which Mr. Garrison is a graduate.

One of the 11 professors, Charles R. DiSalvo, said Mr. Garrison's administrative assistant told him that something had come up to cause Mr. Garrison to cancel the meeting. Mr. DiSalvo said nine of the 11 professors were instructors at the law school when Mr. Garrison was a student.

"We all truly believe that it is in the best interests of the law school, the university and the state that Garrison resign," said Valorie K. Vojdik, another of the professors.

Other signers include Robert M. Bastress, who failed in his bid to win a seat on the state Supreme Court in last month's primary election, and Gerald G. Ashdown, the husband of Monongalia County prosecutor Marcia Ashdown.

The law school faculty members said Mr. Garrison should resign because of the involvement of his top aides in a decision to award an M.B.A. degree to Mylan Inc.'s Heather Bresch that she did not earn. Ms. Bresch is the daughter of West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin, and a longtime friend and former business associate of Mr. Garrison.

An investigative panel was appointed in January after the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that Ms. Bresch was awarded the degree retroactively in October even though university records showed she was 22 credits shy of completing the 48-credit program when she left it in 1998.

The investigative panel concluded that WVU administrators falsified Ms. Bresch's transcript. Mr. Garrison has denied a direct hand in granting the degree.

Ms. Bresch's transcript had 22 credit hours added to it, reflecting courses she did not register for, pay for or complete. Mr. Garrison has referred the revisions in Ms. Bresch's transcript to WVU's Office of Academic Integrity.

WVU faculty members, who twice have voted to demand Mr. Garrison's resignation, hold him responsible. They point out that the investigative panel concluded Mr. Garrison's top aides were key figures in an Oct. 15 meeting where the decision was made.

According to associate business school dean Cyril Logar's account of that meeting, described in the panel's report, the decision was made after General Counsel Alex Macia said: "It appears that she has finished the degree."

Last Friday, Mr. Garrison announced that Mr. Macia has relinquished his role as general counsel but will remain vice president of legal affairs.

"Whether or not you were directly or indirectly complicit in the fabrication of the degree and the accompanying grades, the presence of your top people in the decision-making process is causing the public and media to ask questions that simply will not go away,'' the law school faculty letter states.

If Mr. Garrison stays, the letter adds, the furor caused by the scandal will continue, "a furor that is disabling to the functioning of your administration and the university.''

The alternative, according to the letter, is Mr. Garrison's stepping aside "for an interim president who will be able to say to the world that a new day has dawned at WVU.''

The law school faculty letter comes a day before WVU's board of governors meets in Charleston. The board issued a statement in support of Mr. Garrison at a meeting last Friday.