Letter from Jon Davis

Chairman, Department of Accounting & Information Systems

We’ve had another great year at Wisconsin. Last year, I mentioned that the Department had identified a list of three strategic priorities. The first was to increase the size of our professional programs. We’ve made considerable progress on this priority. Enrollments are up 20 percent and student quality is also up. We are hoping for more growth in next year’s incoming class. Second, as I noted last year, we kicked off a campaign with a short-term goal to raise $6 million by the end of 2008. We stand at $3.8 million right now. Despite the condition of our economy, alumni continue to step forward to help us meet this goal. We are also continuing our activities on the professional education front, and our faculty has participated in several executive programs offered through the Wisconsin School of Business.

We’ve had many other wins over the past 12 months. Chronicles of Higher Education ranked Wisconsin Accounting at the #1 position in its study of scholarly productivity in the discipline on a per-faculty member basis. Public Accounting Reports ranked our programs at #12. We continue to lead the nation on the number of interns we place at the Financial Accounting Standards Board and we continue to be in the top set of schools on CPA exam first time pass rates. Two Big 4 firms added us to their target university recruiting lists. We also made it to final five again in Deloitte’s tax case competition.

The department hired two new faculty this year. Qiang Cheng received his Ph.D. from Wisconsin-Madison several years ago. Since leaving, he has been a member of the faculty at University of Washington and University of British Columbia. As you might have heard, university faculties generally don’t hire back their graduates. The rare exception is when someone distinguishes himself or herself as a star. Qiang fits this category. He’s developed a very strong publication record and he is great in the classroom. We’re very lucky to have him back.

Also joining us this year is Qiang’s wife, Xia Chen. Xia is a graduate of University of Chicago’s Ph.D. program. She was also on the faculty at British Columbia. Xia is a recent graduate, but she has also done very well in the research game for the short period of time that has elapsed since finishing her degree and I’m confident that she will be a valuable addition to our faculty.

The Wisconsin School of Business as a whole has also fared well over the past year with both an $85 million gift to allow the school to retain its name for the next 20 years and a beautiful new addition to Grainger Hall for the MBA program. The architecture and furnishings in the Grainger addition are impressive. Be sure to take a look next time you are in town. If you do stop by, be sure and drop by the department. We’ll give you a tour.