UA Graduate Accounting Program Ranked 17th

TUSACALOOSA, Ala. - The University of Alabama's graduate accounting program is ranked 17th nationally in the latest rankings by Public Accounting Report, the most-often cited ranking of undergraduate and graduate accounting programs. The most recent survey was completed in summer 2000.

Public Accounting Report is the leading provider of competitive intelligence for

accounting firms and is well known for its reporting and analysis of the news, developments, and trends in accounting.

Public Accounting Report is aimed at public accounting firm partners and professionals, opinion leaders, and industry observers.

"This is a tribute to Dr. Thomas Howard and his faculty," said J. Barry Mason dean of the Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration. "It also underscores the quality of the students receiving their advanced accounting degrees here, and it shows once again that leaders in the accounting profession are making the right decisions in seeking out our students."

Howard, director of the Culverhouse School of Accountancy and professor of accounting, said the ranking is the one of a series of recent accomplishments by the accounting department.

Howard said the accounting program played a prominent role in the just-concluded annual meeting of the American Accounting Association (AAA) held in Philadelphia.

Dr. Mary S. Stone, Ernst &Young Professor in the Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration, was installed as the new president-elect of the 8,240 member American Accounting Association.

The AAA is a worldwide association of accounting academics. Its mission is to foster excellence in the creation, dissemination and application of accounting knowledge and skills.

Stone is the first UA faculty member to hold the top AAA position since the late Dr. Paul Garner, former dean of the College of Commerce and Business Administration and chair of accountancy, was elected to the post in the 1950s.

In addition, Dr. Amelia Baldwin, Arthur Andersen Faculty Fellow and Associate Professor of Accounting, was awarded the "Outstanding Artificial Intelligence/Emerging Technologies Research Award" by the AAA.

The Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration was founded in 1919. It has been consistently ranked in the top 3 percent of the nation's business schools. The Techno-MBA program is ranked fourth by ComputerWorld, the MBA program is ranked 21st among regional universities for return on investment by Forbes Magazine, and the undergraduate program is ranked 45th by BusinessWeek among 1500 business schools.