Accounting Professor Leaves School, Becomes Better Teacher

‘You're doing what next year?” That’s a question many friends and colleagues asked when I told them I was taking a sabbatical from Saint Mary’s College to spend the 2000/01 academic year working at a CPA firm. These reactions surprised me. Although it was not a typical sabbatical, it made perfect sense to me. The purpose of a sabbatical is to further your scholarly activity and, ultimately, enhance your classroom teaching by doing something that otherwise wouldn't be possible. Many professors spend sabbaticals researching or writing, but I thought getting back into the “real world” for a year would be most beneficial, both for my students and for me.

I had contemplated the idea for some time before actually pursuing it. I’d developed a fairly widespread reputation for my knowledge of technical accounting and auditing standards. I’d presented numerous seminars and workshops for practicing CPAs and accounting educators, and I was confident in my academic knowledge of these standards. But I thought I could significantly improve that knowledge by learning firsthand how technical standards are implemented and monitored in practice. And even though I had previous experience in public and private accounting, I knew that major changes had occurred in the past 17 years. I thought the best way to appreciate those changes was to experience them for myself.

Approaching Crowe Chizek with my proposal made perfect sense. Crowe Chizek is one of the top-10 public accounting and consulting firms in the country, and one of its largest offices is in South Bend, Ind., where I live. And members of the firm’s technical review staff (several of whom I had known for some time) are well-known experts in the field. Even though my request was a novel one, the firm agreed to my proposal, believing my association would be a win-win situation.

The experience was valuable for all. I spent nine months in the firm’s education and development and technical review departments working on such projects as curriculum redesign (converting to a competency-based curriculum), integrated audit training, internal file inspection, and independence testing.

I’ve gained a great deal from having access to the firm’s practice tools and technical resources. And the firm has gained from my involvement in technical review and in training and curriculum design. Linda Budny, senior manager in the firm’s education and development department, told me that she learned a lot from me and that I provided excellent insight into Crowe’s internal training programs. But most important, my students will benefit in the fall when I bring my experiences back into the classroom and give them updated insights into accounting careers.

“I think it’s great that you went back to public accounting for the year,” said Robyn Niemier, a graduating Saint Mary’s senior who will begin working at Crowe Chizek in the fall. “Even though CPAs are required to take CPE courses, I think it’s important to keep up to date on what is actually going on in accounting firms. I appreciate knowing ahead of time what to expect once I start working. I think you will definitely be able to benefit your students with what you have learned during your sabbatical.”

I’m very grateful that Crowe Chizek recognized the importance of providing this type of opportunity to a college professor. Recently someone asked whether I would recommend this experience to other professors. My answer: a resounding yes.

The accounting profession is struggling to attract students, and many are calling for changes in accounting curriculum.

A recent monograph, “Accounting Education: Charting the Course Through a Perilous Future”, urges educators to meet the challenges facing accounting education, which the report states is outdated and broken and must be significantly modified to meet the needs of today’s changing business environment. One of the report’s recommendations is that faculty must stay engaged with the changing world of business. What better way to stay engaged than to go back into the trenches and experience firsthand the work environment that our students will encounter?

The CPA Journal is broadly recognized as an outstanding, technical-refereed publication aimed at public practitioners, management, educators, and other accounting professionals. It is edited by CPAs for CPAs. Our goal is to provide CPAs and other accounting professionals with the information and news to enable them to be successful accountants, managers, and executives in today's practice environments.