The Accounting Times Spring '08

From the Chair,
Urton Anderson

Our corporate and private donors contribute so much more than just funds—as supporters of all we do, they are instrumental in creating the curriculum and providing key tools for research that keep us at the top of the charts.
 
Once again, we’re triple crown winners. For the fourteenth year in a row, Public Accounting Report’s 2007 survey of accounting professors across the nation has ranked our MPA program No. 1 in the country. We’re on a seven-year run of having the top-ranked undergraduate program; the doctoral program was also at the top of the rankings. In this issue of the Accounting Times, it is our pleasure to recognize the generosity of the Department’s many donors, without whom we could never achieve such prominence. Our corporate and private donors contribute much more than just funds—as supporters of all we do, they are instrumental in creating the curriculum and providing key tools for research that keep us at the top of the charts.
 
MPA students and Caterpillar scholarship recipients Amanda Huddleson and Sunhee Kim are prime examples of how donor funds help us recruit top-notch students. Amanda is completing both the financial reporting/assurance and taxation tracks, having received a BSBA in Accounting from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Sunhee is pursuing both the financial reporting/assurance and managerial tracks. She earned her BA in accounting at the University of Utah, and graduated Summa Cum Laude. These women exemplify the high-caliber students our program attracts, and they will graduate to become extraordinary emissaries of the MPA program.
 
Donations from our alumni and friends keep our professor’s research in the eye of the scholarly community, an important aspect of what makes us No. 1. For example, Professors Michael Williamson and Steve Kachelmeier, with Ph.D. student Bernhardt Reichert, conducted a study examining how worker productivity differs when compensation is based on quantity, creativity, or the product of both measures. The seventy-eight undergraduate business students who participated in the study were compensated with donor funds. The study will be published this year in the Journal of Accounting Research.
 
Zach Allely, an MPA student, provided research assistance to Professor Steve Limberg to conduct an extensive study regarding the environmental and social issues which are emerging as important aspects of corporate citizenship, sometimes referred to as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Related corporate actions and reporting are of major interest to corporate stakeholders, governments, and watch-dog groups. At the same time, there is no widely accepted CSR reporting framework as one finds in financial accounting and internal controls, yet the need exists. Zach undertook an in-depth study of CSR reporting which addressed three key issues:  identifying the factors that made existing financial and internal control frameworks successful; the current state of the CSR reporting movement among the largest 100 companies in the world; and identifying what the existing frameworks tell us about the potential future of CSR reports. Besides providing necessary assistance to Steve, Zach had the opportunity to see how what he learns in the classroom applies to the real world. His salary as a research assistant was funded by supporter donations.

Through the generosity of our donors, Professor Ross Jennings and Lisa Koonce attended a small, invitation-only conference where the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the International Accounting Standards Board presented their joint work on new accounting standards for revenue recognition. It was an opportunity for staff members of those two standard setting organizations to present the revenue recognition frameworks that the Boards are considering and solicit feedback from groups of academics, practitioners and standard setters. For Ross and Lisa, it was a great opportunity to see the standard setting process in action and to get an early insight regarding where standards are likely to be headed in the future. Examples from conferences like these can then be brought directly into the classroom years before they show up in textbooks, and the associated discussions often stimulate ideas for research projects.

Our donors also provide our professors with cutting-edge tools to conduct research. Professor Yong Yu now has access to an upgraded computer workstation and software that provides everything he needs for data analysis, data management, and graphics for one of his current research projects. The equipment will be instrumental as Yong uses a large proprietary dataset with detailed information on millions of trades by large money managers as he studies how institutional investors react to information disclosed in corporate events such as earnings announcements.
 
As you can see, donations from our alumni and friends play an intrinsic role in the success of our programs. I cite here just a few examples of the initiatives, not supported by State funds, which contribute to our continued success. We hope you are as proud of our program and the accomplishments of our students and professors as we are, because we couldn’t do it without you. Thanks to you, our alumni and friends, we’re still No. 1.