Print edition: 
Don Beggs sees himself as the chief executive of a major corporation with a two-fold mission: Educate students in five professional specialties that include business, and produce that product under intense revenue pressures.
Today, it might be a little easier to teach sound business concepts than it is to successfully run a public university as a business.
"I think the issue for me is how to plan for the unpredictable," Beggs said. "I used to plan five to 10 years out. Right now, you can't do that and be realistic. Right now, my goal is to get through the end of the fiscal year."
Beggs, 68, became WSU's president in 1999 after retiring as chancellor of Southern Illinois University a year earlier.
He earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in education from SIU, and has a doctorate in educational measurement and statistics from the University of Iowa.
What are the issues before you as you run a university during these tight economic times?
"The economy is certainly one of those issues. Crisis management is yet another thing you plan for. You budget for quality programming, but you have to make a basic commitment: What you do deliver you do very well. It's an underlying commitment here, like a company.
"We provide learning opportunities here, and we see individuals learn, and that's work. We do it inside and outside the classroom, and we identify faculty who can meet the needs of our students.
"Our product is learning."
How important is business education to Wichita State's mission?
"It's one of five professional areas that we are using to reach out to south-central Kansas. A key part of the university's mission is educating in business, the health professions, education, engineering and fine arts.
"Those are community linchpins, our landmarks, and ours is to serve south-central Kansas in these five professional specialties, liberal arts and sciences."
Why the business focus?
"We specifically turn our attention to programs that are relevant to our area. The Barton School, in order to fulfill that mission, is our primary contact with business, unless it's an engineering business.
"We want to reach out and interact with the business community in the preparation of individuals, continuing education with individuals and state-of-the-art opportunities for companies that are here."
What's the goal of that outreach?
"As business needs and expectations change and the global perspective of companies changes, it's really critical for us to provide hands-on experiences to our students.
"That is a huge part of us — internships and practicum. We work very hard providing experiences in the classroom, and in a more real-world setting.
"What we want is our students interacting with successful people who can talk about the critical decision points in their process ... We can read about them and be told about them, but until you live through it you really don't know."
How does your center for entrepreneurship fit into that focus?
"Well before my time, we were one of the first universities to concentrate in entrepreneurship and have a center for entrepreneurship. The school of business includes one course in entrepreneurship into the undergraduate plan for all majors.
"It's verbalizing it and making it a part of the preparation for people completing degrees in disciplines that have a business emphasis."
