School of Accountancy College of Business Louisiana Tech University AACSB Accreditation Maintenance Annual Report for 2007-2008
2007-2008 Progress The School of Accountancy s (SOA) strategic management focused on issues relating to areas that needed strengthening, particularly those relating to learning goal assessment and the continued staffing of qualified faculty. Representatives of the SOA also participated in the strategic management plan of the College of Business. This year the College s strategic management efforts centered on: (1) the development of mutually beneficial partnerships; (2) development of initiatives/activities that enhance the reputation of the College; (3) improvement of student enrollment and student success; and (4) the development of programs that create meaningful learning experiences and create an advantage for the College. The College s Strategic Plan is discussed in the College s accreditation maintenance report and is not considered below except when it is central to the SOA s efforts. The SOA s progress this year focused on (1) assisting the College in its ongoing processes through representation by faculty from the School; (2) further streamlining our own assessment process, focusing more on results, but still revising certain assessments as needed; (3) working with our Accounting Advisory Board on further development of their strategic goals; (4) continuing to develop a strategic plan for the School and assisting the College with its revised strategic plan; (5) hiring an additional faculty member, and (6) reexamining and adding to our peer/competitive/aspirant institutions for the School of Accountancy. 1. Outcome Assessment Implementation The School continued to refine outcome assessment, adding additional assessments as appropriate to the current learning outcomes for the programs, modifying some of our older assessment procedures that can be improved. For example, the scale for oral communication assessment has been adjusted to match (or exceed) student performance that has been above expectations. We tend to have realistic learning goals, but want to set goals that will result in an additional increase in student performance. We have also monitored changes in classes that we believe have resulted in better performance. For example, written communication is an area where we are working on further improvement. Over the past three years (refined again this year), an additional assignment has been added at the start of the quarter. As a result of individual consultation by the professor regarding an initial written assignment, the next written assignment has greatly improved, indicating that students can employ principles of good writing when given additional assignments along with increased explanation and supervision. We believe our graduate s writing is much better due to these efforts. All assessments have occurred at least once, with some occurring multiple years. We are beginning to make year-to-year comparisons that will point to areas where changes can be made to offer additional improvement in performance. Refining our assessments and developing new assessments is ongoing. For instance, this year the Graduate Policies and the Graduate Policies and Assessment Committee (GPAC) developed embedded assessments of the doctoral student learning goal of effectively using appropriate statistical tools. The doctoral program was revised Page 2 of 6
last year to require every student to pass a statistical tool qualifying exam at the end of their quantitative analysis (QA) sequence. Accounting and QA Faculty are evaluated the results of the first statistical tool qualifying exam regarding a student s understanding of and application of appropriate statistical tools. After some minor adjustments, future students will also participate in this qualifying examination. We feel confident that the combined effort by the accounting and QA faculty does a better job in ensuring that the accounting students are able to perform the statistical analysis that they are most likely to encounter in their careers. We believe that the original statistical qualifier was a success in accounting. This year, the same student was required to complete a formal research project her second year. This effort was completed during the Summer 2008 and will be discussed in the next report. 2. Activities with the Accounting Advisory Board The Accounting Advisory Board met in October 2007 and again in May 2008. At the first meeting, the Board revisited their strategic initiatives that would assist the School of Accountancy, reducing the number of initiatives and focusing on those. Following the second meeting, the overall strategic plan taken shape, and we are focusing on implementation of certain initiatives that we continued to refine. One of the Board s goals is cultivate a closer relationship between the profession/business and faculty/students. Several ideas have been considered ranging from the establishments a day for accounting professionals to meet our students prior to fall interviews. We also further considered beginning alumni events in the area to develop a closer relationship with our alumni (alumni cultivation). The details of implementation are not yet complete, but should be better defined during our next October meeting (2008). Another goal that the Board is still considering is the facilitation of the marketing of the School. Board members are considering becoming involved in visiting high schools on career days, networking with high schools, and working with high school counselors. This area needs additional planning. However, a letter was developed to give to college students who are successful in introductory accounting courses. The intent of the letter is to inspire those students to major in accounting who show an aptitude to succeed in accounting. One of the Board members also wrote a letter to high school students that seem to show accounting aptitude. We view the Accounting Advisory Board as a group of advocates and friends who are talented, well-connected with business/accounting profession, and financially capable to assist the School, help improve our image, and assist with relevant curricula issues. 3. Development of a Strategic Plan Strategic management continued to focus on staffing faculty positions, establishing the Accounting Advisory Board s goals and beginning to focus on implementation, continued Page 3 of 6
refinement of the assessment process, human resource management (HRM) for the College and the School, making certain changes in the doctoral program (e.g., changing some of our class offerings) and its assessment (via a stat qualifier and summer research paper), and policies related to academic and professional qualification. Such issues have required much of our focus again this year. We have started to consider more formally our strategic goals. In recent years, faculty staffing and assessment have dominated our focus. While a formal plan is currently under development, we have centered ourselves on hiring and maintaining a diverse, quality faculty with a strong interest in research. Likewise, we have spent considerable time in developing, implementing, and revising an assessment plan in recent years. Now our concern is starting to shift toward considering the outcomes of our assessment effort, and seeing what changes are essential for improving our programs. In essence, we have spent a greater amount of time in implanting strategy than in getting our strategic plan in writing (with the exception of the College s Strategic Plan). We do have a representative on the College s Strategy Committee and he is heading the School s Strategy Committee. Hopefully, the School will complete its plan during the 2008-2009 year. Among items listed above, we have also completed a report that is a strategic review of our doctoral program, considering the reasons for and against maintaining and strengthening the program. We have also worked to hire an additional faculty member this year that would assist us in teaching and research related to the doctoral program (she has been hired for Fall 2008). These and other items were considered in the interim report provided to the Accounting Accreditation Committee in January 2008. A brief summary of the strategic review of the doctoral program indicates the following conclusions: As requested by the Accounting Accreditation Committee, the College of Business completed a strategic review of the role and value of the DBA program. The College believes that the doctoral program should be retained and that the program be changed from a DBA to a Ph.D. It is recognized that the doctoral program is expensive; however, the marginal costs are not significantly more than the costs are for staffing strong undergraduate/masters level programs. (College of Business Annual Report 2006-2007) 4. HRM Activities/Research Emphasis One of our goals regarding human resource management is to assure that our research is at a level commensurate with faculty in peer doctoral programs. Our research emphasis has been changed substantially, and we are beginning to see this change through faculty research that is underway or forthcoming. For instance, one of our new faculty was published in The Accounting Review during January 2008, others have been published or have forthcoming papers in Category I journals. As such, HRM policies and procedures are at the core of our efforts to improve our research. This year, the College HRM Committee (with representation of the School) worked on Page 4 of 6
reexamining some of the policies. We are seeing that this is an on-going process that will continue to require our attention. The Committee refines certain aspects of the process each year. A new tenure-track faculty member from the University of Houston was hired and will join us in Fall 2008. Likewise a new instructor was hired for Fall 2008. Additionally, a Faculty Credentials and Staffing document was developed (includes our definitions of Academically Qualified and Professionally Qualified). This document has been finished for now. Some of our new HRM policies and procedures concerning faculty evaluation have been in place for a few years and the revision process is beginning. With increased experience in applying these policies, we are seeing areas where the policies and procedures are functioning well, while others need revising. As with other processes, human resource management is a area that requires ongoing change. 6. Reexamining/Updating Our Peers/Aspirants This year, the School considered additional peers and aspirants. Clemson University was selected as an additional aspirant. The current list of peer institutions selected by the SOA is similar to the College s list and included as comparable peers the following universities: University of Hawaii-Manoa, University of Mississippi, Mississippi State University, New Mexico State University, Southern Illinois University, University of Texas-San Antonio, and Virginia Commonwealth University. Louisiana State University is the only competitive peer. The School has the same aspirant peers as the College. These are Clemson University, Oklahoma State University, and Texas Tech University. We have two universities in our conference, the Western Athletic Conference, and most have separate accounting accreditation. All but two (one comparable and one aspirant) of the universities have doctoral programs in the accounting area that have certain similar characteristics to the doctoral program at Tech. 2008-2009 Priorities During 2008-2009, our main focus will concentrate upon the following: (1) HRM Journal Lists, Faculty Evaluation, Workload (at least on the College level) (2) Continuing to focus on assessment results, making additional changes to improve student learning Page 5 of 6
(3) Hiring an additional faculty member to replace a departing professor (4) Continuing to work on strategic planning (5) Working with the School of Accountancy Advisory Board in Alumni Outreach (part of the Board s, the School s, and the College s strategy) Page 6 of 6