Accounting professor attends Deloitte’s invitation-only Trueblood Seminar

04/27/2012 5:34 PM

By Tim Belter ’13

Professors at the Foster College of Business Administration often bring plenty of real-world experience to the classroom and many constantly work toward keeping that professional knowledge up to date.

That goal led accounting professor Dr. Stephen Kerr to refresh his connection with the professional world by attending the Trueblood Seminar for Professors sponsored by the accounting giant Deloitte and the American Accounting Association.

“The seminar is an investment by Deloitte in making sure the faculty who are teaching future professionals are up to date,” Dr. Kerr said. “When I’m teaching my students, I want to deal with tomorrow’s stuff, not yesterday’s stuff.”

Deloitte, one of the largest accounting and financial auditing firms in the world, hosted the seminar in Westlake, Texas, in February. The invitation-only program brought together professors from around the country to discuss the latest financial issues that businesses face.

“These seminars help our faculty build upon their already extensive knowledge in the field of accounting,” said Dr. Robert Scott, the college’s interim dean. “The Trueblood conference keeps us on the cutting edge of the business world and offers professors new insights on how to teach and challenge their students.”

At the seminar, the professors interact with professionals employed by the firm to re-create and discuss real case studies from the world of finance. After the program is over, the professors have access to classroom materials they can use to teach these difficult cases to their students.

On the last day the seminar organized a competition around the case studies to determine the best ways to handle those issues.

“As a professor, you’re not used to the student perspective of competition and being evaluated. It’s valuable to experience that again,” Dr. Kerr said. “Through the seminar, you get a front-end exposure to exactly what the hot topics are in the field that your students are going to be working on.”