Carnegie Mellon University said yesterday that it will not publicly reveal its decision on whether to rescind a 2004 master's degree awarded through "an error in judgment" by former Dean Mark Wessel.

Mr. Wessel resigned earlier this month as dean of the Heinz School of Public Policy and Management due to the approval of excessive transfer and independent study credits for the 2004 degree awarded to an unidentified student.

"We can't say one way or the other even though it's not a specific student," Carnegie Mellon spokesman Ken Walters said about the status of the degree, citing federal privacy laws. "It's an internal committee review. We're not going to be able to comment."

The school announced the review of the degree in an Aug. 15 e-mail notifying students and alumni of Mr. Wessel's resignation.

Last week, Mr. Walters said that one of Heinz School acting dean Ramayya Krishnan's first actions would be to assemble a committee to investigate the student's academic record and the granting of the degree.

Yesterday, Mr. Walters said he was unsure whether faculty would be notified of the committee's decision on the degree status. In addition the univeristy had not decided whether further public information would be released on the status of a master's degree.

One national observer commended Carnegie Mellon for acting decisively and appropriately in its initial handling of the degree, but cautioned that the university should continue to proceed with transparency.

"There's something very peculiar about conducting an inquiry with a secret outcome," said Barmak Nassirian, associate executive director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers. "For the process to be believable, it needs to be open and legitimate."

In two previous instances this year in which university administrators resigned following the irregularities in the awarding of degrees, the universities in question did publicly announce their decisions on the status of the degree.

West Virginia University rescinded a master's degree given to Heather Bresch, the well-connected daughter of the state's governor, while Virginia Commonwealth University allowed former Richmond police Chief Rodney Monroe to keep a bachelor's degree that he received after taking only two classes there.

Mr. Nassirian questioned whether federal privacy laws would apply in the case of the Carnegie Mellon degree. The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act generally does not apply when there is no name attached to the degree, he said, and does not protect "directory information" such as whether a student holds a degree -- though there are exceptions.

For example, he said, students have the right to request that universities do not release any information about them, but that request must be made prior to graduation.

Though no law mandates that a university must release any "discretionary information" on students, it is standard practice for universities to do so, he said, because of their roles as credentialing agencies.

At Carnegie Mellon yesterday, Mr. Walters insisted that any information on the status of the degree in question was ultimately intertwined with the student's identity.

"It's just a matter of the student's privacy and respecting their privacy," said Mr. Walters. "If I start telling you other things, it might give clues to who it is."