AC 427 Senior Seminar in Accounting

Fall 2006  Haugen

 

Required Text:

 

Leonard J. Brooks, Business and Professional Ethics for Directors, Executives, & Accountants, 4th ed., 2007, Thomson Learning

 

FASB, FASB Concepts Statement No. 7, available for viewing on-line at www.fasb.org.

 

Course Objectives:

 

This is the capstone course in the accounting major.  As the capstone course, it has some specific objectives.

 

  1. The primary objective is to expose students to a variety of ethical consideration in the practice of accounting, both public and private.
  2. Another objective is to provide a brief review of the historical origins of accounting and contemporary changes in the profession.
  3. The third objective is to increase awareness of the problems of fraudulent financial reporting and misappropriation of assets.
  4. The fourth objective is to introduce the Statements of Financial Accounting Concepts by studying one of the statements.

 

Daily Class Activities:

 

Class activities, while varying from day to day, will consist of student presentations, discussion of assigned readings, discussion of in class readings, viewing videotape segments followed by discussion, and other activities as time permits.

 

Student Responsibilities:

 

--- A paper on some aspect of the Future of the Accounting Profession.  Details will be described

    in a separate handout.

 

--- Two group presentations of assigned ethics cases.  Details and assignment

    to groups will be described in a separate handout.

 

--- Attendance and active participation in all class activities.  This includes contributions

     to class discussions.

 

--- Peer evaluation of the ethics case presentations.

 

Class participation is a substantial part of the course grade.  It is to be taken seriously.  Class discussion is an important part of the ethics case presentations.  If you want your case to include successful discussion, then you must be a good participant in the discussions when others present their cases.  Class participation also includes discussion of in class cases and readings and other assignments that may occur from day to day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

AC 427    Fall 2006

Page 2

 

 

Attendance policy:

 

Attendance is required at all class sessions.  Students must notify the instructor of any absence prior to the class period.  One unexcused absence will result in a grade reduction of one whole grade (e.g. B+ to C+), and more than one unexcused absence will mean an incomplete for the course and additional work required to make up the incomplete.

 

Any student not present to participate in the presentation of an assigned case will receive a grade of zero for that case.  The other member of the team will receive an increase of one whole grade (e.g. C+ to B+, with an obvious maximum of A).

 

 

 

Basis for determining letter grades:

              

               Future of the profession paper                                20%

               2 Ethics cases                                                     50%

               Discussion/participation & class attendance           20%

               Peer evaluations                                                   10%

 

Letter grades will be assigned at the end of the term in accordance with policies stated in the Wartburg College Academic Catalog.

 

Reading Assignments in the Brooks textbook:

 

               Topic                                                                      Pages

              

               Stakeholder Models                                                 12-25

               The Sarbanes-Oxley Act                                           87-95

              

               Expectations of Professionals                                   217-226

               Rights of Stakeholders                                             326-354

               Ethics in Tax Practice (article)                                  302-305

               Whistleblower. . . (article)                                         48-53

 

               Conflicts of Interest                                                  143-149

               Conflicts of Interest                                                  252-260

 

               Developing an Ethics Culture                                     149-156

               Professional Codes of Conduct                                  232-247

               Workplace Ethics                                                    390-395

               International Operations                                            395-398

 

Additional topics in the textbook and current articles may be assigned as the term progresses.

 

Dates for the reading assignments will be announced.