Professor and Director Ray Whittington
This is a year of great transition for the School of Accountancy & MIS at DePaul University. We have some changes in our faculty, new initiatives for student success, and new developments in our accounting program to bolster the preparedness of our undergraduate students.
In June 2019, six of our senior faculty members retired: John Ahern, Mark Frigo, Mark McCarthy, Elizabeth Murphy, Belverd Needles and David Roberts. We are forever grateful to these outstanding faculty members for their many contributions to the school over the last few decades. Fortunately, Mark Frigo and Bel Needles have agreed to continue to teach for us on a part-time basis. The school is currently recruiting new tenure-track faculty members to continue our legacy of excellence.
Meanwhile, our continuing faculty has accomplished great things in teaching, research, and service to the university and the profession over the last year. In recognition of their achievements, several faculty members have been appointed to new positions: Molly Mercer is the Ezerski Endowed Chair, Cindy Durtschi is the EY Professor, Ning Du is an Epstein Fellow and David Wang is a Driehaus Faculty Fellow.
We recently launched a new strategic plan that was developed to address all major stakeholders. Last year, we identified a number of goals around student success, educational climate and external relations. To enhance student success, we developed a new Office of Student Success and Engagement to augment the school’s extracurricular services, including providing extended mentorships and more opportunities for students to connect with professionals through an executive-in-residence program. We are certain that this new office and its programs will make our students even more prepared to enter the profession.
Lastly, the school’s faculty has been taking a fresh look at our undergraduate accounting program to make sure the curriculum prepares our students for the technology-enhanced profession of today and the future. As part of this review process, the faculty developed a set of data analytics case studies last summer that will be integrated into most of the required accounting courses. Our goal is to make DePaul’s accounting students the first choice for accounting firms, companies, government agencies and not-for-profit organizations in Chicago and beyond.
I am deeply grateful to the members of Ledger & Quill for their ongoing support of our school and its ambitions for the future. Together, we can ensure the continued success of our students and maintain the impressive caliber of our faculty for generations to come.
Ray Whittington
Professor and Director
School of Accountancy & MIS