 It seems that every year on this page we hear that our profession is facing unprecedented changes and challenges. This year is certainly no exception. The effect of the overall economic turmoil on institutions of higher learning has been felt by all of us, small and large, public and private, Ph.D granting and not. The effect of reduced funding is even more profound given the generally increasing enrollments in accounting. Doing more with less would seem to be the charge of academia in general and accounting departments in particular. And of course doing more involves a growing number of constituents including students, faculty, higher administration, state boards of accountancy, accrediting bodies, and the accounting firms and others who hire our students. For each of these constituents there are many issues to be dealt with. For example, how do we incorporate new accounting practices such as IFRS in to our already jam packed curriculum? How do we replace the huge wave of retiring faculty given the shortage of Ph.D. students? How will we pay the ever-increasing salaries for those replacement faculty? How do we provide the best assessment of student learning required for accreditation and the improvement of our programs? Just how to juggle all these balls at the same time is our mandate as program leaders. If that weren’t enough we all need to carve out the time needed to keep up our own intellectual capital. For most of us, administrative responsibilities wreak havoc on our research productivity.
Fortunately, we have a resource to help us direct our programs and maybe even help us set aside some time for our own teaching and research. The mission of the APLG is to “stimulate excellence in accounting education through outstanding leadership of accounting programs.” These are lofty words but what they mean to me is that “we’re here to help.” That help takes several forms including sessions at the annual AAA meeting and an informative mid-year meeting. The mid-year meeting offers a chance to attend formal sessions on the issues above and also to just commiserate with other accounting program leaders to see how they are dealing with the problems that we face. I believe that the meeting provides value for both the new program leaders and those who have been at the helm of their program for some time. Rookie or seasoned, I hope you are able to attend the upcoming meeting in February. The meeting program is available on the APLG section of the AAA website.
I also invite you to get involved with the APLG through membership in its board of directors, involvement in one if its committees, or the administration of APLG activities at mid-year meetings. The more optimistic among us have identified the current economic situation with which we are currently dealing with as not just a challenge but an opportunity. In order to take full advantage of the opportunities that we have we will need the involvement of individuals who are passionate about pushing the quality of accounting programs forward. Please consider being one of these individuals. I hope to see you all in Albuquerque. |
