Accounting Summer 2019

Message from Wayne Thomas,
Interim Dean of the Michael F. Price College of Business

Welcome to the Summer 2019 John T. Steed School of Accounting E-Newsletter. We hope you’ll take a few minutes to celebrate some of the exciting news taking place in the Steed School. Just to highlight a few:

Online MAcc graduates first cohort
BBA/MAcc program continues its growth
McLaughlin Ethics Prize awarded
Several students receive national recognition
Faculty and doctoral alums receive national recognition
And much more, as you’ll read below.

It’s been another fantastic academic year at the Michael F. Price College of Business at the University of Oklahoma. I’m continually reminded of how dedicated our faculty are to the mission of the Steed School of Accounting. Several faculty members have received teaching awards and have been recognized for their scholarship. They care deeply about the success of their students and their pursuit of academic excellence. Because of this, it’s not surprising that enrollment in our undergraduate and graduate programs and the success of our students continues to climb.

I also want to update you on developments in the SOA leadership. I have stepped into the role of Interim Dean while a national search takes place for a new dean of the Price College of Business. In my place, I would like to welcome faculty member Karen Hennes as interim director of the SOA. Karen has been a member of the faculty since 2008 and has consistently been recognized as one of the top instructors in the college. There is great momentum in the SOA, and I have no doubt she will help carry this forward.

Wayne B. Thomas

Interim Dean

George Lynn Cross Research Professor

SCHOOL NEWS

Online Master of Accountancy Program

Continues to Thrive

Growth and interest in the online MAcc program continues. In spring 2019, the online MAcc program graduated its first class of 8 students and enrollment in the program reached 79 students, the highest to date. In addition, the program received national recognition when it was ranked #8 for online, accredited master’s in accounting programs by The Best Schools.

Randall Stephenson, Steed SOA alum and Chairman and CEO, AT&T, offered his congratulations to the first graduating class during a May visit to the Gene Rainbolt Graduate School of Business. During a Skype session with members of the graduating class, graduates expressed their gratitude to Randall and Lenise Stephenson, whose generous financial support was instrumental in the creation of the program. The Steed SOA is deeply appreciative to the Stephensons for the sincere encouragement and funding to make accounting education more accessible

As the program continues to make graduate accounting education available to a diverse group of students, scholarship support is greatly needed and appreciated. There are currently no scholarships designated for online students. Please consider making a donation today by giving online or contacting the Price College Office of External Relations at (405) 325-7670. Be sure to designate your gift to the online master’s program.

BBA/MAcc Program Update

In this academic year, 54 students graduated from the BBA/MAcc program. Public accounting continued to be the most common path for graduates to enter the accounting profession; 85% of the graduates accepted jobs with public accounting firms at the Big 4, national, regional and local levels.

For students entering the program in fall 2019, the bachelor’s degree will be awarded in time for students to sit for the CPA exam prior to graduation.

Fraud Investigation Project Offers BBA/MAcc Students Rich Experience

BBA/MAcc students Jonathan Gibson, Sam Jew, Tyler Blackwell and Hunter Hansen interrogated a “fraud suspect” (played by Deonette Lambert, SOA Ph.D. student) as faculty member Kevan Jensen looked on. The interrogation was the culmination of a 3-week fraud investigation project in the graduate fraud class, a student favorite in the BBA/MAcc curriculum.

AIS Students “Wrangle Data” in Case from Professor Ashley Davis’ New Publication

Faculty member Ashley Davis is shown with AIS students working on a case written by Davis and recently published by Pearson. In this case, students apply the following 3-step data analytics procedure on data sets with over 1,000,000 records: 1) "data wrangling" (transforming raw data into another format prior to analysis); 2) analyzing data using SQL; and 3) visually presenting analytic results with Excel or Tableau.

Oil and Gas Accounting Students Learn about Real-World Financial Reporting at ExxonMobil

Kristy Walker, Stewardship, Analysis & Reporting Manager with ExxonMobil, recently visited faculty member Jean Hale’s Oil and Gas Accounting class and provided an overview of ExxonMobil’s financial reporting process.

McLaughlin Prizewinner Presents to Price Faculty

The 2018-19 McLaughlin Prize for Research in Accounting and Ethics was recently awarded to Andrew C. Stuart (Suffolk University), Jean C. Bedard and Cynthia E. Clark (both of Bentley University) for their manuscript, “The Value of Assurance And Ethics in Difficult Times: Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosures and Investor Decisions.” Associate Dean Fran Ayres is shown here giving the award to Stuart, following following his presentation of the study’s findings to Price College Faculty.

Steed SOA Faculty Offer Study Abroad

Courses in Summer 2019

Faculty member Karen Hennes taught “Financial Reporting Issues in Energy” in the Energy Management program offered at the UK-based University of Reading. The Price College students pictured here attended their first corporate visit in London at Orsted, a Denmark-based wind energy company, to learn about offshore wind installations and how UK and US perspectives on energy differ. Serving as a host for the group was Adrienne Barber, a 2009 Price College Energy Management graduate. Other corporate visits included Anadarko Petroleum Company, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Phillips 66.

Janet Nelson Wins Staff Award

At the annual Price Staff Awards luncheon, Jan Nelson, managerial associate for the Steed School of Accounting, received the Dean’s Excellence Award for Support Staff.

This award recognizes and rewards staff members who consistently make outstanding contributions to their specific department as well as the college as a whole. The award recipients have displayed characteristics in the performance of their jobs that meet or exceed the dean’s determination of excellence. But, the plain reality is that our staff members are some of the hardest working on campus.

According to Steed SOA faculty members, “Jan makes it easier for us to do what we do.” If you’ve had the opportunity to interact with Jan, you understand why she was chosen for this award. Congratulations to Jan!

Steed SOA Board of Advisors Update

Mike Adams recently completed his 3-year term as chair of the Board of Advisors. The Steed SOA faculty greatly appreciate the steady guidance that Mike has provided to help connect board members to faculty and students. Phil Brockhaus will serve as the new chair. Phil is a 1969 accounting graduate and earned his MBA in 1970. He currently works at Peters and Chandler, P.C. Welcome and thank you, Phil!

Also, Jennifer Davenport will serve as vice chair. Jennifer has most recently been involved in the board’s mentoring program. She is a 2009 accounting graduate and currently works at EY.

New members to the board are Jeremy Humphers, Dave Marshall and Tyler Jones. If you are interested in becoming a board member, please see the details at the end of this newsletter.

STUDENT NEWS

7 Steed SOA Students Awarded Oklahoma Society of CPAs Scholarships

Recently, the OSCPA announced that seven Steed SOA students were awarded scholarships: Dexter Brown, Kaylyn Edwards, Eleanor Green, Hector Gomez, Andres Gonzales, Riley Guy and Allie Wehrli.

Hector Gomez Awarded AICPA Legacy Scholarship

Hector Gomez, accounting and MIS/MIT student, received a $5,000 AICPA Scholarship Award for Minority Accounting Students. As a recipient, Gomez becomes a member of the AICPA Legacy Scholars Program, created by the AICPA to help students be successful in the accounting profession.

Claire Wilson Awarded FEI Scholarship

Claire Wilson (pictured in the center), a BBA/MAcc senior, was awarded a $1,000 Scholarship from the Oklahoma City chapter of the Financial Executives Institute. Faculty member Jean Hale, the FEI Academic Relations Chair, is pictured to the left of Wilson.

Hunter Hansen Named FEI Outstanding Accounting Graduate

Hunter Hansen was named the 2019 FEI Outstanding Accounting Graduate. Hansen plans to work as a tax professional with EY in Oklahoma City. You can’t spell OUtstanding AccOUnting Graduate without OU!

Ph.D. Students Accept Faculty Positions

Two Steed SOA Ph.D. students recently defended their dissertations and will begin their academic accounting careers as tenure-track assistant professors in the fall 2019 semester. Curtis Farnsel has accepted a position at the University of Dayton and Mark Smith will join the faculty at the University of North Florida.

Beta Alpha Psi Update

BAP members take a break from studying at HeyDay with bowling and laser tag.

Also, students Hannah Kamphuis and Colena Peyton represented the OU BAP Chapter at the Regional meeting in Dallas this past semester.

Price College Student Shares Accounting Trivia at Academic Team Tournament

While enrolled in Intermediate Accounting I, Thatcher Chonka, finance major from Tulsa and National Merit Scholar Finalist, submitted an accounting trivia question at a national academic team tournament. Chonka's participation on OU’s Academic Team led him to audition for the Jeopardy! College Championship, where he finished as a semi-finalist.

Test your trivia knowledge

AlUMNI NEWS

Asher Brown Receives Elijah Watt Sells and OSCPA Silver Medal Awards

Asher Brown (BBA/MAcc, 2018) was one of 110 winners of the 2018 Elijah Watt Sells Award, given by the AICPA for earning a cumulative average score of more than 95.50 across all four sections of the Uniform CPA Examination on his first attempt. Nearly 86,000 individuals sat for the CPA Exam in 2018. He also received the Silver Medal by the OSCPA at the 2019 New CPA Ceremony for having the highest score in windows III and IV of the 2018 exam. Brown is on the staff of the Oklahoma City office of Grant Thornton, LLP.

Class Notes

Steed School of Accounting alums are on the move! Read recent news about our exciting Steed graduates.

FACULTY NEWS

Steed SOA Faculty Recognized at Price College Honors Luncheon

At the 2019 Price College Honors Luncheon this spring, the following faculty members received awards:

• Joe Dulin received the Hurley Roberson Award for Teaching Excellence

• Kevan Jensen received the Business Ethics Award

• Cindy Cuccia received the Purpose of Price® Faculty Award

• Ph.D. student Curtis Farnsel received the Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant Award.

Faculty recognized for outstanding research published in the past year included Brant Christensen, Richard Price and Interim Dean Wayne Thomas.

Jean Hale Presents to IIA

Faculty member Jean Hale combined her knowledge of internal auditing and teaching experience in a presentation, “Creating Internal Auditors in the Classroom,” for the Institute of Internal Auditors.

Ph.D. Alumnae and Wayne Thomas Recognized for Research

Ph.D. alumna Herita Akamah (faculty member at University of Nebraska), Interim Dean Wayne Thomas and co-author Ole-Kristian Hope were awarded the Responsible Research in Management Award for their 2018 article, “Tax Havens and Disclosure Aggregation,” published in Journal of International Business Studies.

Wayne Thomas awarded Don Herrmann Distinguished Ph.D. Alumni Award

Interim Dean Wayne Thomas recently received the Don Herrmann Distinguished Ph.D. Alumni Award by the School of Accounting at the OSU Spears College of Business. Herrmann, who passed away in 2018, and Thomas met while they were accounting Ph.D. students at OSU. The two friends collaborated on research and were co-authors, along with David Spiceland, of the Financial Accounting textbook published by McGraw-Hill Education.

Steed SOA Board of Advisors - Call for Membership

The objectives for the Board of Advisors are to foster and support the missions of the Steed SOA. The Board does so in a number of ways, including thought leadership, curriculum development, student mentoring and financial support. The board’s support represents a vote of confidence in the future of our students and faculty. If you are interested in contributing to furthering the education and development of the Steed SOA and its students, please consider joining the Board of Advisors. For more information, please contact Charles Woods.

CONTACT PRICE
University of Oklahoma
Price College of Business
307 West Brooks
Norman, OK 73019-4004
(405) 325-3611

Price College Home

INTERIM DEAN
Wayne Thomas

ASSOCIATE DEANS
Frances Ayres
Laku Chidambaram
Robert Dauffenbach

CONTACT SCHOOL OF ACCOUNTING
John T. Steed School of Accounting
307 W. Brooks
Adams Hall, Room 200
Norman, OK 73019-4004
(405) 325-4221

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