By Rose Marie L. Bukics, CPA
Most people have heard the expression, "Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach." That cliche can’t be further from the truth when it comes to accounting educators. The reality is today’s professors must be able to "do" accounting, and then some. They also have to be entertainers, technology gurus, and creative problem-solvers, as well as accounting profession liaisons with the ability to anticipate future events.
The demand for most of these skills is evident daily in the classroom; the last skill, however, is particularly important since professors must be capable of anticipating in advance how regulatory authorities will change the profession. Only in this way can they best prepare the professionals of tomorrow. Complicating all of the above is the fact that professors serve three masters simultaneously: their academic institutions, the accounting profession, and their students.
Requisite Skills
A professor’s work does not solely consist of the time spent in the classroom. This is something that is not fully understood until one chooses a teaching career. The time spent in preparation dwarfs the time spent in the classroom, even if courses are taught more than once. This aspect of teaching has taken on even more prominence in recent years with the recognition, and incorporation, of different learning styles. Couple this with today’s students, who live in a wired world and want information in "sound bite" length, who commonly think research is synonymous with Google, and who have spent years completing work driven by a cooperative and collaborative learning style.
In the past, understanding financial accounting standards and breaking down their complexity to a level appropriate for 19 and 20 year old students was a challenge. The process was more about the delivery of information in concrete, digestible components that provided students with the building blocks to master the important elements well enough to be able to answer questions that might appear on the CPA Exam.
Today, how that information is delivered and digested by a student is pre-eminent. This changing dynamic has increased the time commitment to reflect and ultimately produce creative ways to deliver material and design assignments. These assignments, however, are not restricted to learning the accounting methods and standards; they must also effectively incorporate the other skills required of accounting professionals: excellent communication skills, ethical considerations, and computer expertise.
One might wonder: why would anyone choose a life of teaching accounting? The answer is simple: the reward. It’s not a reward of the monetary kind; rather it’s a reward of the intrinsic type. And it is what keeps professors toiling endlessly to serve the needs of the profession.
Rewards
When I reflect on the changes in my own teaching over the years, I am truly stunned by both the range and depth of the changes. Yet, there is one constant that remains - the young student sitting in front of me who ultimately joins me as a lifelong member of the accounting profession. How I can affect that young person’s personal and professional life is awe-inspiring, and it is fundamental in the daily working environment of an accounting professor. This opportunity and its subsequent rewards keep accounting professors going.
Many times, years may pass before you realize the impact you have had. Recently, while attending a lunch with a firm recruiting at the college, a member of the recruiting team introduced himself. I was ruminating on his name, and commented that I thought I taught him. His response was, "Yep, you sure did, 20 years ago." He told me that, quite honestly, he didn’t learn much accounting in my class, which was taken his second semester of his senior year. While I was busy processing that stinging comment, he went on to elaborate that he felt he had learned other, more intrinsic things from me that have served him well, both in his professional career and his personal life. He then added that he had been waiting 20 years to tell me that, and to thank me. Needless to say, he made my day.
Rose Marie L. Bukics, CPA, is the Thomas Roy and Lura Forrest Jones Professor of Economics and Business at Lafayette College in Easton, and is a member of the Pennsylvania CPA Journal Editorial Board. She can be reached at bukicsr@lafayette.edu.
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