The Accounting EducatorThe Newsletter of the Teaching and Curriculum Section
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Thoughts on Partnering from Bette Kozlowski, Vice-Chair - PracticeOn a recent visit, my father shared with me the most unbelievable story about the neighbor's cat. My parents were putting groceries away and somehow the neighbor's cat climbed into the freezer. After discovering the cat in the freezer a short time later, much to their relief, the cat still showed signs of life, though the breathing was very faint. They called the vet who told them to put a drop of gasoline on the cat's tongue. My father placed the drop of gasoline on the tongue and the cat jumped up and ran all around the garage. My father was amazed at the transformation; however, without warning, the cat arched in the air and fell over. It ran out of gas. I share this tale with you because there are a lot of analogies to our profession. Is your accounting program frozen requiring an injection of some magic potion to bring it back to life? Are your students running around like scared cats afraid to commit to the accounting profession? The talk at many of our conferences this year has been about the decline in the number of quality students choosing accounting as a major. I don't need to tell you that this is a huge concern to both practitioners and academians. The issue also provides us with wonderful opportunities to partner together as a profession to educate potential students about the unlimited opportunities that an accounting degree affords them. It is not unusual for me to have a faculty ask me to talk to a sophomore unsure of the profession or to host a student for an office visit to get a taste of the profession. Fortunately, to date, the tactic is successful and accounting is chosen as the major. How long has it been since you've invited a practitioner into the classroom to teach a subject, critique group presentations, or share their work experiences? What is the drop of gasoline that you're putting on your students' tongues to wake them up to accounting? As a profession, we need to put on our sales hats to reach out to high school programs, freshman and sophomores, together. Exposing and educating students to the profession is but one way we will reclaim our position as the business degree of choice. The teaching and curriculum section is sponsoring a session at the annual meeting to share partnering best practices. As I travel to campuses, it is encouraging to hear the approaches faculty are using to attract students back to the major. I hope that you will participate and bring your success stories to share with your colleagues. The transformation of our profession is amazing. Working together, I hope we can avoid the fate of the cat that ran out of gas. |