Dr. Donald Beggs, who served as Chancellor at Southern Illinois and President at Wichita State, enters the Missouri Valley Conference Hall of Fame as the 2017 Paul Morrison Award recipient. Part of the MVC Hall of Fame, the Morrison Award is presented to honor those individuals who have made significant contributions to their respective league-member institutions, The Valley or collegiate athletics, in general. Beggs served the two league schools for a combined 45 years.
Beggs served as Wichita State’s President from 1999-2012 and has been credited with increasing the national profile of the University, while his legacy includes the renovation of Koch Arena and numerous other capital improvements on the campus. He became WSU’s 12th president in 1999 after serving two years as Chancellor at SIU Carbondale. He has served as Chair of the MVC President’s Council, and also represented the MVC on the prestigious NCAA Board of Directors. Beggs is the only person in the league in at least 30 years to have served as CEO at two different MVC schools.
He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education from Southern Illinois and his doctorate in educational measurement and statistics in 1966 from the University of Iowa. From 1966-1998, Beggs served in a number of capacities at SIU, beginning as assistant professor of educational measurement and statistics. He was named associate dean of the Graduate School in 1970, professor of educational measurement and statistics in 1972 and assistant dean of the College of Education in 1973.
Beggs became the acting dean for University Programs and acting assistant vice president for Academic Affairs and Research in 1975, and he was also named associate dean for the College of Education in 1975. In 1981, he was appointed Dean of the College of Education. He was named Chancellor at SIU in 1996.
During his tenure on the MVC Presidents Council, Beggs was a strong advocate for the Conference’s student-athletes and showed a commitment to supporting competitive athletics, both at the Conference level and at SIU and WSU.