From the Chair

Dear Friends of the Accounting Department,
I hope this newsletter finds you well! The past year has been exciting  for the accounting department, replete with growth and change. The 2021-2022 academic year kicked off with U.S. News & World Report ranking our undergraduate accounting program #4 overall! Our high program rankings in recent years have helped the department maintain more than 1,300  declared undergraduate accounting majors, at a time when accounting enrollments are dropping across the country. In Fall 2021 our 3/2 MBA program enjoyed a large incoming class with more than 60 students and our new Master of Science in Accounting and Data Analytics (MSADA) program launched with almost 40 students matriculating in its first cohort. (See GAP updates.) Overall, our accounting enrollments are strong, especially relative to trends at other universities.

In August 2021 we welcomed seven new full-time faculty to the department. To my knowledge the department had not previously hired that many full-time faculty in a single year. I  certainly did not expect to witness such growth again during my time as department chair. However, by the end of the 2021-2022 academic year, we had hired eight additional, full-time accounting faculty and several adjuncts! (See new faculty spotlights.)

While the past two years have seen a number of faculty retirements and departures, the net growth in full-time accounting faculty has been driven primarily by significant growth in  undergraduate enrollments at the Kelley School, which has experienced a more than 30 percent increase over the past five years. As we approach the start of the fall semester in August 2022, the Kelley School has just enough office space to accommodate all of the Kelley faculty!

To ensure that our students continue to receive an outstanding accounting education, in the past year we sought to enhance our curriculum in multiple ways. For example, we offered the new pre-workshop course, “Introduction to Careers in Accounting” during Spring 2022. In this sophomore-level course, Professor Dave Greene introduced students to more than 35 possible career paths that are open to students pursuing accounting degrees. (See article on page 3.) This course is intended to attract more students to the field of accounting and help them select the career path to which they are best suited.

In Spring 2022 we also launched the new accounting analytics course, “Communicating Accounting Analytics.” This one-credit hour course introduces accounting majors to the accounting analytics framework, which focuses on using accounting data to make informed business decisions. Professors Brian Williams and Jeff McMullin developed the course and also lead the department’s initiative to incorporate accounting analytics into all accounting major courses. (See article on page 5.)

The past year also witnessed a flurry of activities focused on diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB). Professor and Weimer Faculty Fellow Bridget Stomberg leads the  department’s DEIB initiatives by chairing both a committee comprised of accounting faculty and also the Accounting Advisory Group’s (AAG) DEIB taskforce. Under Professor Stomberg’s leadership these groups have launched several initiatives intended to attract more diverse students to our accounting programs and to better support them once they arrive on campus.
(See article on page 28.)

I hope you continue reading this newsletter, which highlights many additional department events from the past year! But first, I would like to say “thank you” to the many people I have had the good fortune of interacting with in the past year, especially the Accounting Advisory Group members, alumni, and recruiters who support the department in countless ways. It is truly a
privilege for me to serve as Chair of the Accounting Department at Kelley.

Warmest regards,
Sonja Rego
Chair, Department of Accounting
KPMG Professor of Accounting