Defense contract expands MSU graduate program

A $2.5 million, five-year contract with the U.S. Department of Defense will enable Missouri State University’s College of Humanities and Public Affairs to work with National Defense University in Washington, D.C., to offer courses to mid-career students working with the DOD.

Through the contract, MSU's defense and strategic studies department, which is located in Fairfax, Va., will work with NDU to provide graduate-level courses for up to 48 DOD students to earn master’s degrees in countering weapons of mass destruction studies, according to an MSU news release.

According to Kenneth Payne, head of MSU’s defense and strategic studies department, several universities in the Washington, D.C., area were eligible to bid on the contract. He was in discussions with NDU for more than a year about the project and led the writing and completion of MSU’s proposal.

The contract will help fund at least two new courses, several additional adjunct faculty positions, and more sections of existing defense and strategic studies courses for the NDU students, according to the release.

“The program is scheduled to begin this fall semester. When fully implemented in the fall semester 2013, it will bring the number of DSS graduate students to approximately 125, making DSS one of the largest and most recognized programs of its kind in the country,” Payne said in the release.

MSU's defense and strategic studies department began in 1971.