Missouri State faculty, programs receive awards

The university’s Office of Disability Services and its director, Katheryne Staeger-Wilson, received the Inclusive Business of the Year award from the Southwest Center for Independent Living during the center’s annual meeting Nov. 2.

SCIL recognized the department’s initiatives that involved on-campus and off-campus collaborations, including: a disability pride poster campaign; establishment of the Delta Alpha Pi Honor Society for students with disabilities; mentoring disabled youth; and Staeger-Wilson’s efforts to establish the university’s commitment to universal design within curricula, programs, services and architecture.

“Once we get people to change how they think about disability and universal design, only then will we have truly equal access for everyone,” Staeger-Wilson said in a news release. “We are in hopes that these endeavors will extend into the surrounding community.”

Two MSU finance and business professors, meanwhile, received the Excellence in Research Award from the Academy of Legal Studies in Business.

Carol J. Miller and Susan J. Crain received the award for the article “Law-Based Degree Programs in Business and Their Departments: What’s in a Name?” The article was published in the Journal of Legal Studies Education.

“Administrators and faculty alike can benefit from knowing how and why universities construct their programs in a particular way given limited resources and other constraints,” Crain said in a release,

Only one article is chosen annually to receive the academy’s award.