School of Accountancy 2021-2022 Annual Report

MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR

DEAR SOA ALUMNI, SUPPORTERS AND FRIENDS, Welcome to the 2021 – 2022 annual report of the Kennesaw State School of Accountancy. This has been an exciting and eventful year as we returned to face-to-face classes after the Pandemic. In spite of the disruptions the SOA’s faculty, staff and students continued to make major strides on all fronts. This report will highlight some of those efforts and notable achievements of the past academic year. The redesigned Master of Accounting 2 in 2 program, (both the MAcc and the CPA exam in two semesters) continues to have high demand from both students and employers. Our expectation was to build a cutting-edge graduate curriculum that not only includes advanced systems and analytics, but also incorporates preparing and sitting for the CPA exam. Students are shown the tools to jumpstart their careers in the accounting profession as 100% secure professional placement before graduation. The Michael J. Coles College of Business Ph.D. in Business Administration (Accounting) continues to be highly demanded. This innovative research program specifically prepares candidates to learn the skills required to publish in high quality peer-reviewed academic publications. Both the Coles College and the SOA are committed to continuous improvement as evidenced by our AACSB accreditation. Graduates from our Ph.D. program continue to be placed in tenure-track

AACSB accredited faculty positions. Our alumni research output as ranked by BYU Accounting rankings #80 ahead of many R1 research institutions. In the Fall 2021 we welcomed two new research faculty to the SOA – Drs. Hyungshin Park and Kelly Ha. Assistant Professor Park joins us from Santa Clara University and Assistant Professor Ha joins us from the University of Oklahoma as a new Ph.D. We also welcomed two new full-time teaching focused faculty – Clinical Assistant Professor of Business Law Kent Altom and Lecturer of Accounting Jennifer Smith. We look forward to the impact they will have on our students and their research here at KSU. It is a great honor to work with the faculty and staff of the School of Accountancy to serve the needs of our dedicated students as we prepare them for futures in the accounting profession. Whether you are an alum of the SOA, a Partner of our employer scholarship program, recruiter of our graduates or supporter and contributor to the vision and work of the SOA – Thank you for all you do on behalf of our students. Go Owls!!!

Steven W. Smalt, Ph.D., CPA DIRECTOR, SCHOOL OF ACCOUNTANCY

SCHOOL OF ACCOUNTANCY

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