Good News/Bad News

All of these stories have a little of both today.

First the good news is that Joe Alexander did not hire an agent, but the bad news is that he has declared himself eligible for the draft.

As of now, I cannot see myself leaving because it would be very tough for me to miss a year playing with my teammates,"

The good news is that under Huggins it is likely for the higher caliber player to be more common at WVU. The bad news is that those guys don't normally stick around for 4 or 5 years.

More good news is that Heathergate is finally appearing to wind down. The bad news is that no matter what common sense tells you she and everyone else is going to get away with it by playing the "work experience" card. Heather spoke for the first time this week attempting to clear the path for that argument after the lost records and failing to pay the graduation fee didn't fly.

She said she cleared the work-experience-for-credit arrangement with Paul Speaker, the former head of WVU's EMBA program.

Speaker did not exactly give her a ringing endorsement however.

However, he said he cannot recall any instance in the history of the EMBA program when work experience substituted for course work.

"If you look through the annals of anything at the university, you will not find a single course for which experience would replace the course,'' he said. "If you were a CPA, you had to take our accounting. If you were an attorney, you had to take our business law. And it was very strict.''

Students worked in teams, he said, "and we felt the obligation of the individual to the team and to the whole class was very important.''

When coupled with the discrepancy in records it would appear to be enough to show that Heather hasn't proved she earned her degree. First she needed 22, not 10, credits as she has claimed. Secondly there is this:.

Her statement was the first time the explanation of work-related credits has been offered by Ms. Bresch or WVU, and does not coincide with changes WVU made to her record in October.

The Post-Gazette's review of university records found that after deciding to award the degree, WVU officials added six classes, worth 16 credits, to her transcript. Only one of the courses, worth four credits, was an independent study class that conceivably could have reflected work-related hours. The four independent study credits were recorded as having been earned in the summer of 1998, before Ms. Bresch says she spoke with Mr. Speaker.

The changes to the transcript also included awarding letter grades for two classes, worth six credits, that previously were recorded as incomplete.

But when something like this happens you just bring in the big guns to change the playing field and in this case his name is Mylan Puskar.

"I find it disheartening that a woman of Heather's integrity, character and extraordinary intellect has been attacked as she has been over the past four months,'' Puskar said in a statement to The Associated Press late Wednesday.

"It's particularly troublesome because, if not for Heather, it's likely we would not have an Executive MBA program at WVU,'' said Puskar, who seldom issues personal statements. "... She certainly helped pioneer the program 12 years ago, and it has since benefited the university, virtually hundreds of students and many businesses.''

Meanwhile, WVU's chief academic officer said Wednesday that many departments allow students to use work experience to meet graduation credit requirements, either as electives or for the core curriculum.

So now an unnamed source is already on record saying that it is common for the credits to stand after Speaker has said it never happens and Puskar has stated she started the program by herself, built the Heath Sciences Center by hand, and saved 6 kittens from a house fire while teaching crippled children to read.

More bad news. John Prescott "resigned" this week as the Dean of the School of Medicine yet he is staying on staff. Why?

At the end of the day, this is just someone who has done some soul searching and made a personal decision about what he wants to do,” said Fred Butcher, the president of the Health Sciences Center.

Prescott would have given a statement, but dead men tell no tales. The over/under on his "new" position as a professor of emergency medicine is 3 months. And the new dean. Probably going to need West Virginia ties would be the guess here. No good news with this one.

Back to sports. Good news is that Huggins and Stewart both have West Virginia ties. The bad news is that neither has a contract.

"At some point we'll have a detailed contract completed," Pastilong said, adding that the term sheets are legal and binding. Term sheets are often used as templates for contracts.

Yes, they are used as templates, but not as the contracts themselves for years on end. Good lord.