Professional Practitioners Bring the Real World into the Classroom

Students at DePaul’s School of Accountancy & MIS learn from a faculty that represents the best of two worlds. From the academic world, the school has 40 distinguished full-time professors and scholars, including authors who have written the top textbooks in the field. From the practitioner world, the school’s faculty has attracted 60 experienced professionals who teach subjects ranging from basic accountancy to technical audit, taxation, and managerial and financial accounting. These practitioners connect students to the real world of accounting by sharing their experiences as partners at Chicago’s top firms, executives at McDonald’s, Walgreens and other major companies, and public servants at the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, the Internal Revenue Service and other agencies.

“Our philosophy is that we want a curriculum that teaches both theory and practice,” says Ray Whittington, professor and director of the School of Accountancy & MIS. “Our faculty have a great deal of knowledge in theory, but practitioners are dealing with practice day in and day out and are uniquely qualified to prepare our students to go to work right after they finish their degrees.”

Whittington notes that one of the biggest strengths of DePaul’s Driehaus College of Business is its location in the heart of downtown Chicago. This allows the accountancy school to hire practitioners that are far better than most other universities can hire because of the quality of the professionals who are within a few blocks of the university. These professionals bring real-world cases to class that allow students to practice what they are learning. “They provide not only relevant classroom content,” Whittington says, “but also good examples of what is expected of professionals, which prepares students for their future careers.”

“Our practitioners are outstanding and do a great service for the time and commitment that they put into DePaul,” says John Vitanovec,senior professional lecturer and coordinator of adjunct faculty. Vitanovec himself brings to DePaul 25 years of previous experience working as a Tribune Co. executive.

“I think enthusiasm and energy are two very important ingredients,” says Vitanovec. “Many subjects are highly technical, and an overly dry presentation of the material, while thorough, may not connect as well with today’s students. This is where interpersonal communication skills and the ability to engage students are important.”

Vitanovec looks for professional instructors who have a strong background of industry practice and excellent professional credentials, such as certified public accountants. Vitanovec also reviews candidates’ academic transcripts to make sure they were excellent students themselves, which indicates that they understand what makes a good teacher.

“Our academic practitioners have generally accepted methods or principles in their industries, and they draw on those experiences to present real-world issues in the classroom,” adds Vitanovec. “Their work experience (helps them to) address the practicality of the profession, the day-to-day issues that students will encounter in their professional practice. Those insights are invaluable to students. Certainly, these adjunct professors bring a degree of currency with recent professional developments and can discuss actual problems that they are dealing with in their professional lives.”

Three of these highly successful academic practitioners reflect on how their professional experience enhances classroom learning at DePaul:

Students Learn Internal Auditing from Ex-Cop and Health Care Executive

Not only is Mike Trendell one of the most popular academic practitioners in the School of Accountancy & MIS, but he is recognized college-wide for his teaching excellence as the recipient of the business college’s Daniel Seiden Adjunct Teaching Award.

“I love working with DePaul students,” says Trendell, who teaches intermediate accounting, internal auditing and external auditing. “Our students are eager to learn and enter the real world, and rarely do I teach them something that I didn’t actually do in real life.”

Trendell grew up on the South Side of Chicago. His father was a firefighter and Trendell wanted to continue the family tradition of public service, so he became a police officer. After six years of service and a few too many close calls, Trendell turned in his badge and decided to go back to school. He earned his MBA in accounting and spent many years working in the internal audit field internationally.

Eventually he decided to settle down in the Chicago suburbs and quickly worked his way up to becoming director of internal auditing and accounting in health care. Trendell also started teaching after hours at a local college and eventually became an academic practitioner at DePaul, where he has spent his last 13 years.

“Although studying from textbooks and passing the CPA exam are necessary, the real-life experience is just as important,” says Trendell. “I think that people working in the industry have invaluable knowledge and experience from the real world. I use my internal auditing, international and management experience to help elevate the lessons and to provide real examples to the students.”

Trendell loves textbooks and thinks they help students pass the CPA exam. However, he supplements textbook learning with examples that he came across throughout his career. He brings in documentation and real work files, changing the names and numbers to hide the sources, and turns them into class projects.

Instilling students with a sense of professionalism, a baseline of knowledge and real-world acumen is important for Trendell. Students get first-hand experience of on-the-job requirements and expectations. “If you turn in a late assignment, you don’t get credit,” says Trendell. “If you have all the right calculations and you give me a wrong answer, you don’t get the credit.” Trendell takes a tough stance on incorrect answers and late assignments because in the real world, “wrong is still wrong,” he says, and rarely is late work for clients accepted without penalty. The ex-cop from the South Side of Chicago learned early on how to be assertive but fair, and how to deal with people. These skills have been helpful in his auditing career and in preparing students for their careers.

“DePaul students work hard and are eager to learn,” says Trendell. “I like to give them a small taste of what it is like in the real world, hoping it inspires them to see themselves working in the industry years from now.”

Tax Pro from RSM Leads Online Learning

Most academic practitioners teach graduate students in the evenings after working a full day or on the weekends. DePaul is fortunate to have academic practitioners who also teach courses online. Tom Blaze (MST ’08) teaches state and local taxation courses exclusively online in the Master of Science in Taxation program, and reaches his students through live weekly virtual classrooms.

“As an MST graduate, an academic practitioner and a tax professional, I’m in a good position to know what students want to know and need to know,” says Blaze. “In my day job I’m constantly advising on real-life tax issues and opportunities, and I use that experience in my lectures.”

At RSM’s Chicago office, Blaze leads its local tax practice. He is also a member of RSM’s national state and local tax team, where he serves in various leadership roles. He is an appointed member of the Illinois CPA Society state and local tax committee. In his day job and as an instructor, Blaze must keep on top of the ever-changing state and local tax laws.

“When you go to my class, in lieu of using textbooks, I present a lot of real-world examples and data,” says Blaze. “I just had a call with a client yesterday and I can present to my class a question my client asked me. With changing tax laws, instead of using out-of-date tax textbooks, I present slides with the most relevant and updated information.”

Sometimes this means updating the slides before class. This year, Blaze was teaching about nexus, which determines where tax returns should be filed. It’s a fundamental concept in state and local taxation. As soon as his lecture went live, the United States Supreme Court issued its decision in South Dakota v. Wayfair, overturning the long-standing “physical presence” nexus standard established under Quill v. North Dakota in 1992. In his next lecture, Blaze was able to cover this topic and its major implications for tax laws. He was also able to talk about how it affects clients.

“I always try to be up-to-date not only in my areas of specialization, but also in every area of taxation,” says Blaze. “This provides the best value to students and keeps me at the top of my game at work.”

Blaze offers more instruction and interaction through weekly virtual classrooms online, where he is available to answer questions or chat one- on-one with students about classes or the tax profession. He uses this time to supplement his lectures and review homework and quizzes and to update any changes to the material that happened throughout the week. He also makes sure students are learning from his class and getting value out of his material.

“Having an instructor who is working in the industry is extremely important,” says Blaze. “What you teach from a textbook is important and provides fundamental learning, but sometimes converting it to what you learn from practical experience is just as important.”

Prosecutor Promotes Experiential Learning

With Frank Perri, DePaul not only has an academic practitioner with an impressive career as an Illinois prosecutor and criminal defense counsel, but also a published scholar in the field. Perri’s practical and academic background, specializing in fraud, makes him an ideal instructor for students in the Master of Science in Audit and Advisory Services program.

“One of the things that drew me to teaching was that I started doing quite a bit of publishing in accounting and behavioral journals,” says Perri. “What I noticed was a lot of gaps in the accounting curriculum for teaching students about the criminology and psychology of fraud offenders.” Perri found that much of the information that did exist on these topics was incorrect or incomplete.

Perri fills the information gaps by teaching students how to think about real accounting and fraud issues across industries.

“What I like about DePaul is that you get a variety of international students and a broad mix of students working in the field,” sa

ys Perri. “This makes it interesting because the issues we talk about in class transcend borders and industries. You really get a sense of the issues that are global, and they really affect everyone in the same way.”

Perri’s hands-on teaching approach comes from his extensive experience working as a prosecutor and from his own research. Since there are no textbooks that teach holistically his specialty of detecting white-collar crime, organizational misconduct and fraud, Perri brings in his extensive research, his journal publications and several of the court cases that he has worked on to supplement the learning in class. Perri also recently published a book called “White-Collar Crime Organizational Misconduct and Fraud Examination,” which covers individual and organizational risk factors that trigger white-collar crime and corporate fraud.

“I try to combine both quality scholarship and the practical. There’s been a disconnect in the accounting profession on how to leverage the two to become more proficient in our jobs,” says Perri. “I get the best quality research that I could find, combine my prior experience a

nd blend it together for the students to learn in a real-world environment.”

Not only is it important for students to understand how to identify and prevent fraud, but they also must understand and explain the behaviors that can lead to fraud. Perri is very active on calling on students in the classroom because he wants them to think on their feet. He wants them to experience the sensation of having to explain their position on an issue. This approach not only prepares students for the real world but also creates an atmosphere of discussion and free thought.

“I really pour my heart out in the classroom to make sure they get the best current information available so that when they go out into the working world they are equipped with something that is applicable not only professionally but personally,” says Perri. “I think what happens so often in the real world is that when it comes to fraud, accounting professionals who don’t understand legal issues get in trouble, and part of my goal is to show them how to protect themselves in addition to becoming better professionals.”