By Christian Bell

News Editor

Beginning next year, the Economics and Business department will offer a new five-year professional program in accounting. The program will graduate students with a Bachelor of Science in Public Accounting (B.S.P.A.) and will stretch course work over 150-credit-hours in requirements.

The proposal had been in the works for some time, however, the final seal of approval was given to proposal EPC01-6 at Monday's Faculty Senate meeting.

The program was created out of ``a confluence of external demands,'' according to Academic Dean David Diephouse.

One of those external demands was to conform to guidelines set by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. AICPA, which is the leading professional association for CPAs in the United States, requires all new members to have completed a minimum of 150 hours of college education.

However, the organization stresses a broad focus on education, not just in the technical aspects of the field.

``The intent is to give more background not in accounting but the liberal arts,'' said Economics and Business Professor Roy Slager.

Because of this, the college found the creation of the new program to be very much in keeping with its existing educational philosophy.

``The question was whether students should have greater exposure to technical training or liberal arts learning,'' Diephouse said. ``The answer, of course, is `yes.'''

The new program also conforms to guidelines for Public Accountancy set by the state of Michigan.

``Each state sets its own guidelines,'' said Slager. ``Principally our program is set up for Michigan. If students are coming from other states, they need to find out the requirements from there.''

And perhaps most remarkable about the new program is that it is being implemented without any major changes to existing departments and programs.

``This is an unusual situation where we have a chance to add a degree program without adding a single class or professor,'' Diephouse said.

Diephouse also said that the new program will be a more effective use of already existing courses, and it has the added benefit of increasing revenue, since students will be here a fifth year.

``Because the course work we had available, we're basically there without us adding curriculum,'' said Slager. ``We had basically everything in place.''

The current courses meet all the requirements, and currently the college plans to keep the course structure in the Business and Economics department as it is. However, further expansion has not been ruled out.

``We've talked very briefly about a Master's program but we decided not to go that route at this time,'' Slager said.

Ideally the program is aimed at incoming students, however current students will be still have the opportunity to graduate under it, provided they meet all the requirements.

``You could retrofit that to existing students, and there are other ways they could get to the 150 hours,'' Slager said.

The major is structured under the guidelines of the new core, with the exception of one reduction in the Foreign Language requirement.

``It leaves a little bit more room for electives,'' Slager said. ``It gives students space to do more formal work, such as internships.''

However, some professors are concerned with the academic compromises that must be made, even in a five-year program. French Professor Irene Konyndyk spoke to the Faculty Senate about the reduction in the program's foreign language requirement and her concern over whether the program would take away students from other departments.

``The point I was trying to make is that all people need to know a foreign language,'' said Konyndyk. ``I wonder why that's where the cut has to be.''

The mere fact that accounting major will be a five-year program instead of a four-year one is by itself raising flags of concern among the faculty.

However, fitting the 150 hours required by the standards groups and state laws requires a five-year program. The advantage to the program being stretched across five years is that students in the program will have a greater degree of flexibility with their schedule, but it will cost students more moeny for the fifth year and still leave them without a graduate-level degree.

Also, the admissions department must communicate the new program to high schools and what the expectations will be for incoming students who hope to enroll in the program, including high school course requirements.