You call this an investigation?

West Virginia University, which promised to get to the bottom of a mystery surrounding the MBA of an executive at Mylan Inc., has named a three-member panel that will not put the questions to rest.

The case involves the master's in business administration degree of chief operating officer Heather Bresch, which was granted in October, almost a decade after she left the program. The Post-Gazette reported that records showed she had completed only about half of the necessary credits. At first WVU said she did not have an MBA, then reversed itself days later. Provost Gerald Lang blamed the discrepancy on a failed records transfer, but documents and interviews call that explanation into question.

With WVU's integrity on the line and the value of all of its degrees in the balance, here is the panel that Mr. Lang appointed Wednesday to investigate how he and other administrators determined Ms. Bresch had completed the requirements for an MBA in December 1998: Dr. Bruce Flack, an executive of the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission, which is controlled by Ms. Bresch's father, West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin; computer science professor Roy Nutter, who is on the record as saying he didn't expect a review to turn up any sign of wrongdoing; and associate professor of foreign languages Michael Lastinger, who, like Mr. Nutter, works for Provost Lang.

Maybe these appointments look good on paper, but, given these ties, the public will inevitably question the independence and objectivity of the panel and its report. To get to the facts and to do so credibly, WVU, a public institution that serves 28,000 students, should have named a blue-ribbon team of investigators from outside the university and outside the state.

To underscore the need for independent judgment, it's worth noting that a Wheeling, W.Va., newspaper prejudged the matter in an editorial before any inquiry could be held, saying the MBA story is a disservice to that state's governor and his daughter. The newspaper said all this without disclosing that a member of its publishing family sits on WVU's board of governors.

By failing to go outside and instead putting the inquiry in the hands of insiders, the university missed its chance to clear the air. The Lang committee will ask questions, collect answers and issue a report. But, given the members' personal connections or already stated views, is anyone going to believe them?