Student Professional Organizations: Fall Update
October 30, 2018 //
It’s been a busy fall for the Department of Accounting’s five student professional organizations (SPOs): Ascend, Beta Alpha Psi, Fox Accounting Association, Institute of Management Accountants Temple Chapter and National Association of Black Accountants. The SPOs welcomed representatives from Baker Tilly, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, Johnson & Johnson, JP Morgan, KPMG, MPI Business Valuation and Consulting, PWC, RSM, SEI and Susquehanna International Group to campus.
Beta Alpha Psi (BAP), the national accounting honors society, hosted an evening recruiters at the start of the year as part of the school’s Accounting Week. Representatives from over twenty organizations attended the event in the Undergraduate Commons of Alter Hall. Ascend brought together students and professionals for their 7th Annual Kickball Tournament, a casual networking and charity event for accounting and finance companies.
With sponsorship from the Institute of Internal Auditors Philadelphia Chapter, BAP and Institute of Management Accountants Temple Chapter (IMA-T) hosted a executive internal audit panel with Lisa Bonnell of Comcast, John Mulcahy of FMC and Dan Tucci of Wells Fargo. The Fox Accounting Association (FAA) hosts a Women in Business panel on November 6 with Susan Manning, CEO of Docuxcel; Linda Guendelsberger, Partner at LG Legacy Group; Jamie Krug, Partner at Centri Business Consulting; and Karen Proietti, Head of Corporate Accounting Policy at Vanguard.
Members of the National Association of Black Accountants attended the Eastern Region Student Conference in Norfolk, Virginia in October. IMA-T members attended the IMA Student Leadership Conference in St. Louis, Missouri in early November.
More about the Department of Accounting’s Student Professional Organizations.
Throughout the month of February, the Fox School of Business is highlighting the voices and businesses of black entrepreneurs, executives, volunteers and more. These talented professionals are striving to make the world a more diverse, inclusive and accessible place for future generations.
To balance his impressively extensive workload, Anthony Copeman, BBA ‘14, chooses to work smart. Since he was a student studying accounting at the Fox School of Business, Copeman has founded a non-profit, began working for the City of Philadelphia, and launched an animated financial literacy YouTube series aimed at millennials called $hares.
His non-profit, Backyard Business, was born while he was still working on his undergraduate degree at Temple. The mission of the organization was to empower inner city youth to create businesses that met the needs of their community. But then Copeman decided that, if he really wanted to make an impact and inspire youth to embrace entrepreneurship, he needed to practice what he preached.
As a result, Financial Lituation came to fruition in 2016. What started as an Instagram account filled with financial inspiration evolved into a one-on-one financial coaching program, and then a digital platform hosting online workshops. The Financial Lituation website describes their mission best:
“FINANCIAL LITUATION is millennial-infused, digital platform which focuses on helping you reinvent your finances and reimagine your freedom. We believe that your mindset is the primarily currency for building wealth, and money is second. We help you start the journey towards financial freedom through mindset, movement, money, and maintenance.”
To build on this vision, Copeman came up with the idea of $hares. The series teaches financial literacy in an accessible way for millennials that might not have had exposure to finance topics. “My desire for starting $hares was to offer a creative way to reach millennials and help them understand personal finance concepts,” he says. “Financial literacy isn’t taught in the classroom. That may be a good thing, because if it can’t be taught in a relevant way than it shouldn’t be taught at all. With $hares, I want to bridge that gap.”
With an unprecedented amount of student debt, a volatile financial future, as well as lower earnings, fewer assets and less wealth than generations past, it can be uncomfortable downright frightening for millennials to talk about finances. When reflecting on the impact that these ventures have had on his audience, particularly millennials and underrepresented groups, Copeman says that $hares creates a safe space for people to be open about their money experiences and goals.
“Our goal is not to preach money, but rather freedom,” Copeman explains. “And that’s why millennials who engage with our content feel comfortable sharing their stories. All of our animated characters are approachable and relatable to the everyday millennial.”
While the entrepreneurial spirit flows freely through Copeman, after completing a year and a half of national service with AmeriCorps from 2013 to 2015, he decided to continue on the path of helping others by becoming a civil servant with the the City of Philadelphia. He is currently working in family court, but is in the process of transitioning to a new position in financial services.
Looking to the future, Copeman is committed to scaling the impact of his various projects, measuring the results, and trying new things. “I am constantly inspired by innovation and creativity. I’m always asking myself, ‘how can I leverage my passion and put my own creative spin on it?’”
For more stories and news, follow the Fox School on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
Temple’s VITA Program Returns for 12th Year
January 31, 2019 //
Temple’s Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA)
program returns for its twelfth year. Operating on Temple University’s Ambler Campus, VITA provides free tax preparation assistance to low- and middle-income individuals and families. In 2018, Fox School accounting majors helped prepare nearly 500 tax returns, and garnered almost $500,000 in tax refunds from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue.
The recent partial government shutdown and the new federal tax bill create some challenges for tax preparers this year, but Dr. Steven Balsam, professor of accounting at the Fox School and director of the Temple VITA program, is ready. “But whether we have multiple changes, or just one, we always train our students to take their time, to be thorough, and to get our clients the largest refund possible,” he says. “Our emphasis is on quality, and that won’t change.”
Accounting students and alumni from Temple’s Fox School of Business will be available each Saturday from Feb. 9 to April 13 to assist with filing state and federal income tax returns. The tax return deadline is Monday, April 15.
To qualify for VITA, a client’s annual household income must not exceed $55,000 (whether filing independently or jointly). A client also is not eligible if he or she owns rental property or owns a business. Schedule an appointment by visiting fox.temple.edu/vita, emailing vita@temple.edu, or calling 215-326-9519.
Announcing the 2019 Accounting Achievement Award Recipients
December 17, 2018 //
Department of Accounting at the Fox School of Business is pleased to announce the honorees of the 2019 Accounting Achievement Awards. These distinguished alumni will be recognized at the third annual awards ceremony at the Lucy on Wednesday, May 1. Hosted by the Department of Accounting, the event will recognize the six alumni with awards reflective of their professional careers and civic service:
Kaitlin (Ziminski) Schott, CPA will receive the Rising Star Award, presented to a public or private accounting professional who has demonstrated leadership skills and a commitment to the Fox School. Schott, BBA ’10, is a manager of internal controls at FMC Corporation.
Joseph Fisher, CPA will receive the Public Accounting Award, presented for outstanding success in the public accounting sector. Fisher, BBA ’93, is a partner in Deloitte’s Investment Management practice and serves as the U.S. Investment Management Audit Leader. He has 25 years of experience in serving clients in the capital markets, including hedge and private equity funds.
Albert Chiaradonna will receive the Corporate Award, presented to an executive-level professional who has responsibility for the financial operations of their organization and has demonstrated industry expertise. Chiaradonna, BBA ’88, is the Senior Vice President, SEI Wealth Platform, North America Private Banking and is responsible for the overall launch and delivery of the SEI Wealth Platform.
Frank Breslin, CPA, will receive the new Non-Profit/Government Award, presented to a professional who has achieved success in the not-for-profit or government sector. Breslin, BBA ’82, is the Revenue Commissioner and Chief Collections Officer for the City of Philadelphia. He has worked for the government for over 30 years and is also an active member of the Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants.
John Milligan, CPA will receive the Community Service Award for outstanding contributions to the accounting profession and local communities. Milligan, BBA ’75, is the founder, CEO and managing principal of Milligan & Company LLC. He served on the board of directors of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia for twenty years. Milligan also served on the board of directors of Montgomery Hospital in Norristown, chaired the board of directors of the Norristown Area School District Education Foundation, and he is currently the President of the Greater Norristown NAACP.
H. Richard Haverstick, Jr., CPA will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award, presented to a professional who has advanced the accounting profession through their sustained leadership in public accounting, business, or academic communities. Haverstick, BBA ’74, has had a distinguished career in the Philadelphia area, including serving as a partner at EY for over twenty five years. Haverstick is currently a board member of Brandywine Realty Trust, Bryn Mawr Trust Mutual Funds, and Thomas Jefferson University and Jefferson Health, where he has just been named Chair-Elect of the Board of Trustees. Haverstick also is a member of the Fox School of Business Dean’s Council and chair of the Executive Committee of Fox’s Accounting Circle.
The Accounting Achievement Awards honor the accomplishments of Temple University alumni and recognize the impact professionals in accounting and related fields have on the business community. The net proceeds from the event are added to the Accounting Achievement Awards Term Scholarship Fund, which supports high-achieving accounting students pursuing undergraduate and Master of Accountancy (MAcc) degrees.
To RSVP to the event on May 1 at the Lucy by Cescaphe visit fox.temple.edu/accountingawards.
Message from Eric Press, Chairman of the Department of Accounting
November 1, 2018 //
Greetings from Alter Hall! Here is your Fall 2018 Footnotes from Fox. What have the students, faculty, and our alumni been up to? We search out and dispense the news about department doings to our loyal readers.
We begin with a story about data visualization and analytics. Under the guidance of our departmental curriculum committee, headed by Professor Elizabeth Gordon, we are refurbishing our courses to incorporate career-relevant training. MAcc students work on a case that requires they use Tableau to illustrate visually the whys of decision-making. Undergraduate auditing students have been trained in ACL software. Successful completion of the work they’re given leads to Data Analyst Level I Certification.
Speaking of Elizabeth Gordon, she was chosen to lead the 2019 New Faculty Consortium by the American Accounting Association. Over 130 Assistant Professors assemble bearing newly-minted PhD degrees, to be initiated and acculturated by over 30 senior faculty between January 31 and February 3, 2019 at the Lansdowne Resort and Conference Center in Leesburg, Virginia, a convention center in Virginia.
The Fox School Department of Accounting is honored to have been chosen as the newest home for the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) Student Center for the Public Trust (StudentCPT). This group focuses on ethical decision making and leadership. The group hosts speakers who come to share their experiences dealing with challenges related to ethics in corporate settings.
Our next story reports on the honors, research accomplishments, and recognition afforded three of our number: Professors Jayanthi Krishnan, Sheri Risler and Cory Ng. In an article in the Pennsylvania CPA Journal, Cory and Sheri discuss how they developed their data visualization courses, referred to above.
In late September, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and the Institute of Management Accountants hosted a panel discussion on how technology is impacting accounting and auditing. About 60 students—plus a number of faculty including yours truly—attended the event, held in the “Egg” on the first floor of Alter Hall.
We welcome SIX new members to the leadership group—the Accounting Circle Executive Committee—that guides the Department of Accounting. Who might they be? Read the piece and find out! PLUS, the other six communiqués we prepared for your illumination await your attention.
Before I quit, let me remind you that—if you know of a Fox Accounting graduate young or old, just starting or winding up a distinguished career—use the link in the Accounting Achievement Awards advertisement to submit your nomination. I hope you will be able to attend the May 1, 2019 awards banquet, where the honorees will be honored.
As is ever the case, you get full disclosure when you read Footnotes from Fox.
Emerging Technologies in the Accounting Curriculum
October 31, 2018 //
In keeping with current trends, the Department of Accounting has spent the last year evaluating the curriculum for opportunities to include emerging technologies such as data analytics into the its course work. Part of a long-term project, the department is examining how to incorporate technology into current classes and how to provide additional coursework in these subjects in an effort to better prepare students for careers in the accounting industry.
“It’s changing rapidly and drastically,” Professor Elizabeth Gordon, chair of the department’s curriculum committee, says of the industry. “And so we have to change the way we’re teaching. We’ve gone out and talked with a lot of the accounting firms. We’ve talked with publishers and talked with other teaching resource providers to understand what is available, what’s out there that we can adopt or adapt for our courses as needed.”
Undergraduate students benefit from Accounting Information Systems, a core accounting course, that covers data creation and manipulation, statistical analysis and data management. Students use Access to to explore how to manage and analyze data; the course also includes an introduction to data visualization.
This semester a number of other courses have integrated data analytics and data visualization into the curriculum. Professors Jagan Krishnan and Sheri Risler added an ACL Certified Data Analyst Level 1 Certification to their auditing class. Students learn the process by which data are obtained, cleansed, analyzed and transformed into information using analytic routines. ACL software is used across the accounting industry for fraud detection and prevention.
Professor Cory Ng has incorporated Tableau, an interactive data visualization software, into a graduate level course. Students in the class not only learn how to use the software, but also how to apply it to complex financial and non-financial data and to use it to make intelligent business decisions.
“Each student is required to deliver a final project that uses Tableau to visualize a complex data set. The deliverable for this project is a data visualization using an executive dashboard or story point that enables a user to explore the data,” explains Ng. Additionally, students have to prepare a manual on how to use the visualization to explore the data, requiring them to strategically consider the user’s experience.
The goal is not only to teach the students how to use use these tools, but also to teach them how the tools can assist with problem-solving and decision-making. The critical thinking skills developed with these classes will be transferable to many other software programs and real-world situations.
“I firmly believe that students will benefit from developing these skills in their studies and their careers,” say Ng. His students report that they expect to use data visualization in professional settings and that these skills make them more marketable to potential employers.
Professors Risler and Ng discussed the development of their data visualization courses in the Fall 2018 Pennsylvania CPA Journal.
Temple Newest Chapter for NASBA’s Student Center for the Public Trust
October 31, 2018 //
Temple University was identified by the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) for a new chapter of NASBA’s Student Center for the Public Trust (StudentCPT), a national organization promoting ethical decision-making and leadership among college students. The opportunity to participate in this NASBA program was identified by Professor Sheri Risler, a member of the Pennsylvania State Board of Accountancy and the new chapter’s faculty advisor. With sponsorship from Deloitte, the new Temple StudentCPT launched with a special kickoff event on October 10 in Alter Hall on Temple University Main Campus. Over hundred students gathered to hear Alfonzo Alexander, president of NASBA’s Center for the Public Trust.
“Alfonso Alexander really drove home that young professionals need mentors,” says Temple’s StudentCPT president Jennifer Serafino. “If there’s anything we can do well at StudentCPT, it is to show students that ethical dilemmas do not need to be faced alone. It’s through the careful mentorship from programs like StudentCPT that will prepare them to be better ethical leaders in their own places of work.”
StudentCPT promotes ethical decision-making through community service activities and partnerships with the national organization that include the Ethics in Action Video Competition, the StudentCPT Leadership Conference and Ethical Leadership Certification Program. The Temple StudentCPT is one of 40 chapters nationwide and the only chapter in Pennsylvania.
With chapters on college campuses nationwide, the StudentCPT provides an interactive environment where ethical business behaviors and ideas can flourish. Chapters create opportunities for students to network with the business community and develop professional leadership skills with guest speaker events. Temple StudentCPT chapter’s second event was a conversation with For Eyes founder, and Temple professor, Daniel E. Goldberg on starting and sustaining an ethical business.
For more information or to be a guest speaker at StudentCPT event, contact Professor Sheri Risler.
Fox School Hosts International Auditing Panel with IMA and ACCA
October 31, 2018 //
On Monday, September 24, the Fox School of Business, with the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and the Institute of Management Accountants, hosted a panel discussion on how technology is impacting accounting and auditing. Guest speakers Brian Cassidy, CPA of Deloitte, Andrew Gambier of ACCA, and Giuseppe Venezia, CMA, of Essity spoke about how the industry is changing and how accountants can adapt to these changes.
“What I would tell you is the tools are going to allow you to do better things, more thoughtful things,” said Brian Cassidy, Audit Senior Manager at Deloitte and former Professional Practice Fellow at the Center for Audit Quality. “Those technology tools will help you do better risk assessment, better analysis. It’s also going to give you opportunities that you don’t even recognize you have in front of you.”
Leaders of the department’s student professional organizations moderated the discussion which touched on automation, cyber security, data analytics, industry standards, and more. Members of the audience also had the opportunity to network before the event and to ask questions during a Q&A section.
All three presenters spoke about the way technology might disrupt the profession and provided career advice to the students. Giuseppe Venezia, Americas Business Controller at Essity and EMBA candidate at Temple University, discussed how technology is affecting not only the business, but also the hiring process. He encouraged students to continue learning about emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and blockchain.
Andrew Gambier, Head of Auditing and Assurance at ACCA, emphasized that while the industry is changing rapidly, there will always be a need for the decision-making and problem-solving that can only be done by accountants.
Faculty News: Jayanthi Krishnan, Sheri Risler and Cory Ng
October 31, 2018 //
Merves Research Fellow Jayanthi Krishnan was promoted this fall to full professor. Krishnan joined the Department of Accounting in Fall 2000. She teaches cost accounting and intermediate accounting for undergraduate students, and financial and managerial accounting for the school’s MBA programs. Her research interests are in the areas of audit quality, audit regulations and the impact of international diversification on auditor decision-making.
Dr. Jayanthi Krishnan has been named to the Fox School Dean’s Research Honor Roll and has received the Business Honors Association Teacher of the Year Award, 2008 Musser Excellence in Leadership Award for teaching and several other faculty awards. Krishnan is also the recipient of the 2015 American Accounting Association’s Notable Contribution to the Auditing Literature Award for “Audit Committee Quality and Internal Control: An Empirical Analysis,” printed in The Accounting Review. She is an editor of Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory, and serves on the editorial boards of The Accounting Review, Accounting Horizons, and Current Issues in Auditing.
Director of the Master of Accountancy program Sheri Risler, CPA was promoted to Associate Professor of Practice this fall. In 2011, Professor Risler was named the Director of the Fox School Master of Accountancy Program. She has received several faculty awards, including the 2009 Beta Alpha Psi Teacher of the Year Award, the 2012 Master of Accountancy Faculty Award, the 2013 Musser Award for Faculty Service and the 2017 Student Professional Organizations Faculty Award.
Professor Risler is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and the Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants (PICPA). Risler was the recipient of the 2016 PICPA Volunteer Service Award. In March 2017, she was appointed to the Pennsylvania State Board of Accountancy as a board member for a four-year term. Prior to joining the faculty in 1997, she was an Audit Partner with the Philadelphia office of Ernst & Young where she provided a broad range of services to entrepreneurial, middle market and public companies.
Professor Cory Ng, was named a Dean’s Teaching Fellows by the Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning for 2018-2019, for his consistent demonstration of innovation and excellence in the classroom. Professor Ng’s professional background as a Certified Public Accountant and as an educator taught him the importance of critical thinking, problem solving, respecting diversity, keeping a global perspective and behaving ethically in the workplace. He is also a Honors Faculty Fellow for 2018-2019 academic year.
Since joining the Department of Accounting in 2015, Ng has developed a new special topics course for the Master of Accountancy program focusing on data visualization using Tableau software. Ng was also the recipient of the Department of Accounting’s Departmental Adjunct Teaching Award for Excellence in the Classroom (2015) and the Student Professional Organization Award (2017). Beyond the Fox School, Ng has published four papers in the Pennsylvania CPA Journal since 2016 and was recently appointed to the Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants Board of Directors.
Accounting Department Celebrates Centennial with Conference
October 31, 2018 //
In August 2018, the Department of Accounting hosted over 75 academics for the two-day 100th Anniversary Accounting Conference, bringing together researchers from Finland to Hong Kong. The program featured three keynote addresses and fourteen presentation sessions, and was opened with remarks from the Fox School of Business interim dean Ronald Anderson. The department was especially pleased to welcome back to campus several PhD graduates for the conference and introduced them to the current doctoral students.
Dr. Ray Ball of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business gave the Thursday evening keynote address at dinner in Morgan Hall. His speech was on the criteria for evaluating financial reporting. Also on Thursday, Baruch College’s Dr. Douglas R. Carmichael presented a talk on the challenges facing the accounting profession. Dr. Greg Waymire, of Emory University and Chapman University gave a keynote address on Friday about Adam Smith, the Scottish economist and philosopher and his influence on modern accounting principles.
The Fox School’s Department of Accounting will co-host the 2019 Conference on Convergence of Managerial and Financial Accounting Research with the University of Calgary’s Haskayne School of Business next summer in Lake Louise, Alberta.
William Petty, a senior accounting major, was selected to participate in Temple University Diamond Peer Teacher Program for Spring 2019. The program provides opportunities for students to experience the challenges and rewards of college-level teaching through the Office of the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Studies. Petty will be assisting Professor A.J. Kreimer with the introductory level financial accounting course, meeting regularly with Kreimer and other peer teachers to develop his pedagogical skills. The program only accepts forty students per semester and provides recipients with a small stipend.
Petty is the co-head tutor of the Department of Accounting Tutoring Center, supporting a staff of ten peer tutors. He is also a member of Beta Alpha Psi, the accounting honor society, and he is pursuing a minor in Management Information Systems. Petty has accepted a position with Deloitte as an audit assistant, following his graduation in May.
Professor Elizabeth Gordon Gives Back
October 30, 2018 //
As chair of the American Accounting Association (AAA) 2019 New Faculty Consortium, Professor Elizabeth Gordon of the Department of Accounting helps support new faculty members during their critical transition from doctoral student to colleague. The annual event brings together over 130 new faculty members and 30 senior faculty members for three-day conference, held this winter in Leesburg, Virginia.
“We want faculty to be able to succeed in the profession, so the AAA has made the commitment, with the funding of Ernst & Young [Foundation] to provide this development opportunity,” says Gordon. “We help them understand and identify what’s expected at their institution.”
A premiere event for the American Accounting Association, the New Faculty Consortium has been running for decades. Gordon attended the conference as a young academic and has presented on balancing research, teaching and service in the past. She was selected to join and chair the New Faculty Consortium Committee because of her commitment to the profession and to the development of the next generation of teachers.
The program’s mission is to support recent doctoral graduates and new faculty members as they develop into successful scholars. The AAA’s working definition of a scholar is “someone who gains new knowledge and disseminates it to others through teaching, research and service to his/her institution, to the academy and to the accounting profession.”
The senior faculty members present on topics such as: enriching your career through service; understanding the editorial process; navigating the research and administrative process; and balancing your career and your personal life. The program also provides valuable workshops on teaching and learning, for attendees who may not have taught as PhD students. Senior faculty also mentor the new faculty in groups and individually, with the hope that the connections built at the conference continue.
For Gordon it is important to include members who have had more challenging career paths. “For some it might have been a bit rockier road and that’s always good for the new faculty to hear,” adds Gordon. “Sometimes you might hit some bumps but your success is out there.”
New Accounting Circle Exec Committee Members
October 30, 2018 //
The Department of Accounting has added six more members to the Accounting Circle Executive Committee, a group of business leaders who provide inspiration, leadership and support to the Department of Accounting at the Fox School of Business: Kim Bordner, Executive Vice President and Executive Audit Director, Wells Fargo Audit Services; Anthony Diianni, CPA, Partner, BDO; Julius Green, CPA, JD, Partner, Baker Tilly; Karen Proietti, CPA, Head of Corporate Accounting Policy, Vanguard; Anthony Stranix, CPA, Partner, Mazars; and Gregory Wright, CPA, Vice President, Financial Reporting, Comcast Corporation.
Greetings from Alter Hall! Enclosed is Spring 2018, issue #18 of our semi-annual Footnotes from Fox. Once again, we deliver news about department doings. What have the students, faculty, and our alumni been up to?
It was great to see so many of you at our Second Accounting Achievement Awards event at the Bellevue Hotel on May 2. Over 250 people attended. For those who could not make it, our first story informs about the event and the 2018 Award winners.
Our next two stories are about VITA, the IRS-sponsored tax assistance program we run at the Ambler campus. Under the guidance of Professor Steve Balsam and assisted by a few of our faculty and tax professionals who volunteer, our students prepared nearly 500 tax returns, and garnered almost one-half million dollars for their clients. This was the 11th consecutive year the Department has sponsored this program. But even more persistent, our faculty have been achieving and realizing professional successes outside the classroom for decades. We tell you what’s been done of late.
Justin Grothmann, a future Fox Master of Accountancy (MAcc) student, was the first Temple student to graduate under the Fly in 4 program. We’re proud he’s one of ours, and tell you more about him. Speaking of MAcc, this year we’ll graduate the largest ever cohort from our seventh class. Where are they off to?
Blockchain is a word that’s been on the tips of many tongues of late. Professor Cory Ng shares his views on blockchain technology and its implications for the accounting profession.
Finally, 2018 marks the 100th Anniversary of the Department of Accounting, as well as the Fox School of Business. In August, we’ll hold a research conference to celebrate. We also report on the Conference on Financial Economics and Accounting we ran (jointly with the Department of Finance) in November 2017. Over 165 academics from across North America came for two days of research presentations.
As I write this in late spring, the only entrance into Alter Hall is via Liacouras Walk. The 13th Street entrance to Speakman Hall is closed, pending the recladding of Speakman’s exterior, and the Liacouras Walk entrance to Speakman is shut. Construction of a sky bridge connecting the refurbished 1801 Liacouras Walk building to Speakman Hall is in full fury. Click here to learn more. Better yet, make a trip to campus to visit us and see for yourself.
As is ever the case, you get full disclosure when you read Footnotes from Fox.
The Department of Accounting is celebrating 100 years of academic excellence and fiercely forward thinking with a conference on research this summer—the Temple University 100th Anniversary Accounting Conference, taking place Aug. 9–10, 2018 at the Fox School.
The Department of Accounting shares with the Fox School, in celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2018. The department was founded the same year in which the Fox School was established as Temple University’s business school in 1918.
To commemorate the occasion, the Fox School Department of Accounting aims to bring together scholars interested in all aspects of accounting and welcomes research on all research topics. The event will take place immediately following the American Accounting Association’s annual meeting in Washington, D.C, on Temple’s Main Campus.
Keynote speakers for this conference include Professor Ray Ball, Sidney Davidson Distinguished Service Professor of Accounting at The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and Professor Gregory Waymire, Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Accounting at the Goizueta Business School, Emory University, and professor at the Argyros School of Business and Economics, Chapman University.
Registration is available for those interested in attending. Learn more and register online.
The August 2018 conference follows another major conference held in November 2017 by the Department of Accounting hosted jointly with the Fox School Department of Finance—the 28th Annual Conference on Financial Economics and Accounting (CFEA). The annual CFEA conference is hosted by members of a consortium of eight universities: Georgia State University, Indiana University, New York University, Rutgers University, Temple University, Tulane University, the University of Maryland, and the University of Toronto. It is a highly selective and refereed conference of research papers in financial economics and accounting. The conference aims to bring together financial economists and accounting scholars to share their research relevant to theory and practice of business.
Approximately 160 people gathered at Temple University’s Fox School of Business for the 2017 program, featuring two distinguished keynote speakers: Luigi Zingales, Robert C. McCormack Distinguished Service Professor of Entrepreneurship and Finance and Charles M. Harper Faculty Fellow at the University of Chicago, and John Core, Nanyang Technological University Professor and Professor of Accounting at the MIT Sloan School of Management. More than 330 papers were submitted; only 14 percent were accepted. Over the course of the two-day conference, speakers discussed 46 papers on significant topics within the two subjects, including pertinent topics such as blockchain and bitcoin.
The luncheon keynote speaker was Professor John Core, Nanyang Technological University Professor and Professor of Accounting at the MIT Sloan School of Management. His address, titled “Expected Profitability and Expected Returns,” examined how new asset-pricing models that revive a role for accounting numbers in predicting future stock returns will likely shape future research in several areas of corporate finance and financial accounting. He highlighted inconsistencies in profit measurement between two competing models and also explored the implications for research on cost of capital and performance evaluation.