Faculty Profil= e

Carleton Donchess<= /span>, Accounting and Finance

Carlet= on Donchess, the Chair of the Accou= nting and Finance Department, is a man on a mission; in fact he is a man = on a number of missions. When you enter his office, you immediately no= tice five brief cases lined up next to his desk. This is Carleton's organizational scheme to keep track of his many projects. At the = top of his list of priorities is positioning his departments to meet the gr= owing demand for accounting and finance professional in this region. The greater Boston area is now considered to be the third largest financial market in the world, and Professor Donchess wants to make every effort to ensure that Bridgewater students can b= uild their careers in this region once they graduate.

Since = 1997 when he became Chair of the newly formed department, Professor Donchess has = been busy positioning his department and his majors by developing new progra= ms, including an accounting concentration in the new Master of Science in Management program and a minor in Accounting and Finance. Prior to becoming a department, the Accounting and Finance program was a concentration within the Department of Management Science since the ear= ly 1980s. Professor Donchess recognizes that his job as founding cha= ir was greatly eased by the fact that the program had an already establish= ed reputation for academic rigor and quality.

Throug= h the efforts of the Accounting and Finance faculty, students in the major ha= ve reaped great rewards and distinguished honors. <= st1:place>Bridgewater Accounting stu= dents have won 38 out of a possible 51 awards presented by the Massachusetts Society of Certified Public Accountants in their state-wide essay contest. As a result of their growing reputation for excellence, = Bridgewater students are actively recruited by national and regional accounting firms such as Er= nst and Young, PriceWaterhouseCoopers and KPMG,= as well as a number of financial firms including Wells Fargo and American Express. Such recruiting efforts are usually not found on other s= tate college campuses.

Profes= sor Donchess readily admits that the accounting profession has taken some h= its over the scandals of Enron, WorldCom and most recently, several mutual = fund firms, which in large part were the result of severe ethical lapses and failures to follow standard accounting practices. In response to = the perception of weakened ethical standards within the profession, the Accounting and Finance Department under the coordination of Professor Kathleen Sevigny held a conference in Octob= er, focusing on ethics in accounting. The conference was organized in partnership with the Massachusetts Association of Accounting Professors (MAAP) and featured a panel including several Bridgewater State College grads, discussing the importance of establishing firm ethical guidelines for accounting professionals.

The bi= ggest challenge facing the new department involved the new "150 hour" certification rule to sit for the CPA exam in Massachusetts= . Students seeking to attain the CPA designation must now complete ten additional courses beyond the bachelor's degree prior to sitting for the exam.

Althou= gh at first this appeared to be a significant burden, Professor Donchess stat= es that this requirement has actually heightened interest in the Master of Science in Management program. Professor Donchess expects growing enrollment in the master's concentrations in accounting as students pre= pare to sit for the CPA exam. Interestingly, as many other institutions are facing sharp drops in enrollment, at Bridgewater there is no ev= idence of a downturn. There are currently 332 undergraduate majors and approximately 40 students choosing the accounting concentration in the Masters of Science in Management program.

It is = clear after talking with him that Professor Donchess is a dedicated teacher a= nd champion of the profession of accounting. His primary commitment = is to provide service to the students and to prepare them for the professi= onal challenges they will face once they leave <= span style=3D'font-size:7.5pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>Bridgewater. Profess= or Donchess is also a team player; he readily praises his faculty for the success the program has attained over the years and compliments the col= lege administration for their support in helping advance the mission objecti= ves of accounting and finance. All those brief cases lined up in his office are a testament to the hard work and commitment of Professor Carleton Donchess. In but a few years, the Accounting and Finance Department has become an academic jewel not only at the college but throughout the region.

L= ast Modified: February 27, 2004