Board reviews eligibility
for student examination
By Elizabeth Eble
Staff
Writer
Students waiting to know of their eligibility for
the Certified Public Accounting exam received encouraging news though
their status remains officially unknown.
The State Board of Accountancy stated in an Oct.
20 meeting that its intent was that Purdue and Indiana University graduates
will have met the required standards for the exam if each has taken
18 credit hours of accounting courses, said Robert Eskew, professor
of management.
The students planning to take the exam in November
received a letter earlier this semester stating that they appeared to
be ineligible due to recent changes in the state rules governing undergraduate
education requirements for CPA candidates.
Deborah Putts, a senior in the School of Management,
remains skeptical. "I won't be comfortable until I get verification
from exam services that I can take it," she said.
Putts first found out that she might not be eligible
for the exam, which she planned to take in May, when Jack Hatcher, a
professor of management, interrupted her tax class to tell students
the news. The students who received letters were the first to know,
employers were second and university faculty and staff were the last
to know, said Putts.
Despite having members on the board, management
professors were surprised by the change.
"Somewhere along the lines the original intent
and original language was changed," he said. "Nobody at the academic
side noticed a change and apparently no one at the state noticed it
either."
Indiana passed the 150-hour education requirement
on Jan. 1 for students wanting to be certified public accountants. The
university previously required 124 credit hours. The Indiana Association
of Certified Public Accountants thought students needed more maturity
and rounding, said Eskew, and that is what led to these changes. Purdue
faculty were aware of this change and expected their students to continue
to be required to take 18 credit hours in accounting as well, believing
that Purdue would be considered accredited because of their business
school accreditation as it was in the past, said Eskew.
However, in its final form, the law stated that
students must receive these credits from a university with an accredited
accounting program or department. Purdue does not have an accredited
accounting program, and because of this its students must complete 24
credit hours in accounting, rather than 18 to meet the current requirements.
Only Ball State and Notre Dame meet the accounting
accreditation requirements and Purdue did not seek accreditation because
it didn't seem necessary, said Eskew.
"We as a faculty say that this doesn't have value,"
said Eskew. "We would be unlikely to suggest that we try to do that."
According to Eskew, only 10 to 15 percent of accounting
graduates become certified public accountants, and if one wants to practice
accounting there are a lot of companies that would hire accountants
without this certification and pay them well.
"It's a question of is this the best way to serve
that 10 to15 percent of our graduates?" said Eskew.
Eskew also questions the cost efficiency of the
new accounting program, which adds a fifth year to students' undergraduate
time.
"It is a big deal if you are putting yourself through
school," he said. "It's a bit discriminatory in the direction of people
who are not wealthy because it's much harder for them to do that."
Many top 20 schools do not have accounting accreditation,
said Richard Cosier, dean of the Krannert School of Management.
The state licensing board said it would work to
have the wording of the rules changed permanently so that Purdue and
Indiana University would meet the requirements with only 18 credit hours
of accounting, but this will take about a year, said Eskew.
"Our position is that our students should be allowed
to take the exam," said Cosier. "We believe they are going to reword
the requirements for the exam."
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