Out of Practice, but Not Out of the Profession
By Valerie Lum, The Trusted Professional Staff

The Trusted Professional – August 1, 2008 - Unfortunately, when it comes to future accountants and the teachers who teach them, the numbers just don’t add up. According to data released by the U.S. Education Department, the combined number of full-time and part-time accounting faculty in all educational institutions fell by 13 percent between 1993 and 2004. Meanwhile, student undergraduate enrollment has increased by 12.3 percent during the same period.

Some CPAs have stepped up to the plate and forgone the higher pay scale that can be found in practice, in favor of teaching the next generation of CPAs.

Cynthia Krom, a member of the Mid-Hudson Chapter and chair of the Higher Education Committee, said she had always envisioned herself being a partner at a Big Eight firm. “But back in the 1980s, it wasn’t all that easy to be both a mom and on the partner track,” Krom said.

Instead, she turned to the flexibility of a teaching position and is currently a professor at Marist College School of Management in Poughkeepsie. But when she first started teaching, she quickly realized that she had to make a few adjustments.

“One thing most CPAs enjoy is being the expert in the room, which does continue when you’re in front of a class,” Krom said.

“However, it is a real challenge not to come off as a pompous know-it-all, an attitude which alienates the students immediately.”

Even though Krom teaches in the classroom for only 12 hours a week, she said she puts in at least another 30 hours preparing, researching and grading papers.
“It’s like being an actor,” Krom said. “The time on stage is only a fraction of the time required to be a true professional.”

Practical Experience versus Ph.D.

James M. Fornaro, a member of the Suffolk Chapter and an associate professor of accounting at SUNY Westbury, became a full-time professor five years ago, after spending 25 years as a CPA. Six of those years he spent taking night courses to earn his Ph.D. Fornaro believes there is only a perceived shortage of accounting teachers.

“There is a whole wealth of knowledge from people who are partners in CPA firms with years of practical experience who are willing” to enter academia, Fornaro said. “But these full-time positions are only available for people with doctorates.”

Eugene Farley, a member of the Northeast Chapter, was an assistant professor at Siena College and is currently developing the curricula for the master’s program the school estimates it will open by September 2009. He spent 25 years working as a CPA for the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance before deciding to start his second career as a professor.

Farley said the standard of the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business of requiring a doctoral degree in order to become an accounting professor is a tough order for many CPAs to follow.

“If you’re requiring practitioners to go off and spend five years to get a Ph.D. late in life, that’s probably about half a million dollars of salary not earned,” Farley said. “There have to be more leniencies on allowing the more professionally qualified [CPAs] into the hierarchy.”

Terrence W. McCarthy, CPA, CFE, Partner at Green & Seifter, Certified Public Accountants, PLLC, a member of the Syracuse Chapter, still works full-time as a CPA, but is also an adjunct professor at Syracuse University.

“An adjunct generally means a professor who hasn’t gotten [his] doctorate,” McCarthy said of what has become an increasingly common way to add accounting teachers at colleges and universities.

“There’s a lot to be said for people who have gotten doctorates; I had to learn to become a better teacher.”

Accounting for the Future

George Mansour, a member of the Queens Chapter and the Higher Education Committee, is also an associate professor at DeVry College in New York. He said he was inspired by an accounting professor to become a CPA, and realizes that students look to their teachers as role models. So, he tries to take advantage of this.

“If they see us happy in this area, the more excited they get about the field,” Mansour said.

And perhaps, those same students will be excited enough to pass on their passion for accounting to a future generation of CPAs.