Former Dean Mark Wessel will remain at Carnegie Mellon University on the faculty of the Heinz School of Management and Public Policy, though he will not be teaching classes there this fall.

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He will hold the title of lecturer, said university spokesman Ken Walters, and is not tenured.

"I don't know what the future is going to hold," said Mr. Walters. "We're still in the review process."

Mr. Wessel resigned abruptly last week as dean of the Heinz School after it came to light that he had made "an error in judgment" by improperly granting a master's degree to a student in 2004.

That student, said Mr. Walters, was a mid-career professional "whose business commitments and travel obligations necessitated an independent study that was in excess of allowable independent study credits." The student was also allowed excessive transfer credits, he said.

Mr. Wessel offered his resignation on Thursday -- only one day after a faculty member brought the information about the degree to the attention of Carnegie Mellon President Jared Cohon.

The swift resignation derailed Mr. Wessel's steady rise through various positions at the Heinz School. He joined the school in 1993 and was named interim dean in 2003 and permanent dean in April of 2004.

His first five-year term as dean was to expire in 2009, said Mr. Walters, and it was expected that he would be re-appointed.

Faculty and alumni said that Mr. Wessel was known for his creativity, vision and easygoing manner, and faculty showered him with a standing ovation after his resignation was announced at a Friday meeting.

"He's been terrific," said Alfred Blumstein, a professor of urban systems and operations research and himself a former dean. "He's done admirably and did an impressive job."

A biography on the school's Web site noted Mr. Wessel's passion for golf, sailing in the Caribbean, playing the classical guitar and "big, ugly cars." During Carnegie Mellon's graduation ceremony last year, he mimicked speaker Bill Cosby in announcing "HEY, HEY, HEY, Mr. President!" in Fat Albert style.

He graduated from Georgetown University in 1979 with a bachelor of science degree from the School of Foreign Service and received a master's degree in economics in 1986 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Prior to joining the Heinz School, he worked as a financial analyst for the U.S. Department of Energy and as a development specialist for the Mon Valley Initiative.

During his time as dean of the Heinz School, the school embarked on new ventures, including a branch campus in Australia. Mr. Wessel testified before Congress about a year ago about the value of investing in overseas ventures.

He also made remarkable strides in recruiting minority students and reaching out to communities outside CMU, said Marco Delgado, a 1990 graduate of the Heinz School and member of the Carnegie Mellon board of trustees.

"You could take his word to the bank," said Mr. Delgado, an international energy lawyer in El Paso, Texas. "When I think of Mark ... the first word that comes to mind is decency."

Carnegie Mellon believes that the irregularities surrounding the 2004 degree constitute an isolated incident but is currently reviewing all other degrees awarded by the Heinz School over the last five years. The Heinz School is also reviewing the status of the degree in question.

The university declined to discuss the circumstances under which Mr. Wessel awarded the degree in 2004.

"We are not going to discuss the process in-depth," said Mr. Walters. "It didn't work as it should have in this case, and we're looking at it."

The university's speedy reaction to the improperly awarded degree seems to have impressed observers who have tracked recent degree scandals at West Virginia University and Virginia Commonwealth University.

"This looks from the outside like a pretty decisive action," said Barmak Nassirian, associate executive director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers.

"Unlike a couple of other instances of these issues popping up where institutions dragged their heels and meandered as they dealt with the crisis, it seemed like the institution did act swiftly."

But groups of alumni, who have been furiously exchanging e-mails since they heard of Mr. Wessel's resignation on Friday, continue to question whether the university treated Mr. Wessel fairly.

When Akoss Schuppius, a 1997 Heinz graduate, learned of Mr. Wessel's sudden resignation, "I felt like somebody punched me in my gut," she said. "Even if there's an error in judgment, why does it warrant such harsh treatment?"

Hughlin Boyd, who received a master's degree from Heinz in 1997, said that the image that the e-mail presented of Mr. Wessel as someone who would award a degree without proper academic rigor was completely at odds with the man he knew as a tough grader and motivator.

"He was a person who challenged you to do the best and take the most difficult courses," he said. "I was in the master's program and took Ph.D. classes because Mark wanted me to do my best."

Mr. Wessel helped Ms. Schuppius get an internship while she was at the Heinz School, she said, and was a tireless sounding board for her both while she was in school and after graduation. "He's touched so many lives," she said. "I thought he would have a flourishing career at CMU. He really cared about that place, and cared about his students."