Iowa Ledger (2022) - Tippie College of Business

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I graded papers for Dan. “ It was my senior year and I don’t remember much about it except that I thought Dan was very handsome.” — MARIE (GRUNEWALD) DARBY (BBA69) The Accounting Writing and Communications Program In the late 1990s, Dan Collins (BBA68/ PhD73) was the accounting department executive officer. He heard from the board and alumni in industry that accounting graduates were great at accounting—but there was a catch. They weren’t so great at communicating. You could have all the data and knowhow in the world, but if you couldn’t communicate it via executive summary for your boss or in an email to your client, what good did it do? And it wasn’t just Iowa grads. It was an industry-wide problem. Where others saw a crisis, Collins saw an opportunity. He rallied the board and donors and the Accounting Writing Program was piloted the fall semester of 1998. “I first met Dan when he was interviewing me to coordinate the fledgling Accounting Writing Program,” remembers Pam Bourjaily, who was the first director of the program and is now the director of Tippie’s Frank Business Communications Center. “His enthusiasm for what was then little more than a good idea and a website was compelling and, it turns out, contagious. Dan embodies the power of positivity—he makes the ‘yes’ happen.” Over the last twenty-four years, the program has grown its reach (thanks in part to funding by Bob Nicholls (BBA80)) to serve around 300 undergraduate and master’s students any given semester, and expanded its mission to include speaking and data visualization in addition to writing. Currently, all accounting undergraduate and required Master’s courses feature writing assignments. Using private and corporate gifts (largely secured by Collins), as well as departmental funds, the program employs a team of writing consultants who meet with students prior to paper submission dates to provide guidance. The consultants also assess for communication objectives and leave feedback for students after the submission date. By applying this feedback from one project to the next, students improve gradually in their writing abilities. The writing program’s model curriculum initiative is now beginning to take shape in other departments throughout the college, and Tippie accounting students are becoming known—and getting hired—for their communication skills. Reputation building at its best. WATCH DAN COLLINS’ RETIREMENT TRIBUTE VIDEO (WITH A TISSUE) qrco.de/dancollins “ I met Dan Collins in 1979. He was my professor for Intro to Accounting and many other classes over the next three years. Back then I wasn’t the greatest student and Dan was all business—a full agenda with no wasted time in the classroom. Those piercing eyes and dry sense of humor; my brain was always exhausted after each class.” — BOB ARZBAECHER (BBA82) Retired chairman and CEO Actuant Corporation “ I’ve had a blessed life, and a lot of it is because of Dan.” Hegarty and her husband, John, honored Collins through the creation of the Kay and John Hegarty Accounting Faculty Excellence Fund in 2020. — KAY HEGARTY (BBA80) Associate Professor of Instruction Retired partner, RSM
Another program that Collins spearheaded is the First Year Scholars program. He secured corporate gifts from the Pella Corporation and Deere & Company in 1997 to launch the scholarship program based First Year Scholars Program on student potential. Historically, the department and college awarded a substantial number of scholarships to juniors and seniors with outstanding academic records. Aiming to attract promising young students interested in accounting, Collins came up with the idea of giving out scholarships to incoming students as a recruitment tool. The first year, 13 scholarships were awarded. As a group, they maintained a 3.7 GPA in high school, scored an average of 28 on the ACT exam (90th percentile), were active in many extra-curricular activities, and graduated in the top 15% of their class. Turn to pg. 4 to see how the investment panned out—spoiler, it was a huge success, with several C-suite level executives among the group. And it wasn’t a one-time thing. For the past twenty-five years, the scholarships have launched the next generation of accountants and executives. The program has now awarded more than 300 student scholarships and has been an irrefutable success. 2022 First Year Scholars Ph.D. Program Much of Collins’ 45-year career was spent building the Iowa accounting Ph.D program’s national status and reputation. Since the 1970s, Collins has ceaselessly been an advocate for the program and catalyst for its excellence. Importantly, Collins excelled as much at fundraising as he did at educating and mentoring his students. He was passionate about hiring top-flight faculty, an enthusiasm he shared with Henry B. Tippie (BSC49). The two shared a memorable professor, Gil Maynard, and agreed on the compounding effect an excellent professor could have—hire a great faculty member and influence generations! Collins also deeply cared about supporting doctoral students. So much so that when his wife Mary passed away in 2003 from breast cancer, Collins established The Dan and Mary Collins Accounting Ph.D. Fellowship Fund, to which he has personally made significant donations. And he didn’t just offer financial and academic support. He often treated Ph.D. students like family. “Many of the doctoral students are international students, and I was one of those,” said Paul Hribar (PhD00), the current graduate program director. “When you move here, you don’t know too many people, and what amazed me most about Dan and Mary was how much they really adopted the Ph.D. students.” “He took the time to meet my mom and sisters and comforted them with the care he showed for me,” remembers S.P. Kothari (PhD86), MIT professor and former chief economist and director at the SEC who came from India for his doctoral education. “They felt assured that I had a family thousands of miles away from them.” Collins’ efforts—large and small—have certainly paid off. The program is wellranked and his influence as an academic mentor is truly far-reaching. His Ph.D. mentees have gone on to become professors and deans at prestigious universities across the country, as well as countless more that have made it to the top echelons of industry. As current department chair Cristi Gleason said in Collins’ retirement tribute video, “It was really strange to watch him clean out his office and to throw out decades of books and papers.” “But his legacy isn’t in those books and papers,” she said. “It is in the scholars around the world that he’s trained and in whom he’s instilled his values.” • The tradition continued until his retirement! “ Dan and I graduated from Marshalltown High School in 1964, and we both played baseball for Marshalltown Community College before we were roommates at the University of Iowa. It was around then that I christened Dan with the nickname ‘booker’ because he was always studying and ‘booking.’ It obviously paid off!” —JIM WOLFE (BSPH70) “ This is the custom-made bobblehead the doctoral students in my cohort made of Dan’s ‘nod’ (of approval), which is widely sought after. Dan frequently nods in approval when he is following along and agreeing with a speaker, particularly in workshop. The student with the best workshop comment each week got to keep the trophy.” — JANE Z. SONG (PhD18) Assistant Professor of Accounting, University of Georgia
Page 1 and 2: 2022 IOWA LEDGER UNIVERSITY OF IOWA
Page 3 and 4: Iowa Ledger is an annual publicatio
Page 5 and 6: CAMPUS NEW FACULTY Learning from th
Page 7 and 8: 1 2 3 ANDREW CHRISTIANSEN (BBA01/MA
Page 9 and 10: Yet even the numbers seem inadequat
Page 11 and 12: CAMPUS RETIREMENTS Raising the Bar
Page 13 and 14: RESEARCH The Case for the Chief Acc
Page 15 and 16: The air was abuzz with anticipation
Page 17 and 18: Shea Fowler (BBA94) didn’t know m
Page 19 and 20: Dan Collins By Lucas Underwood Mixe
Page 21: The evening of Dan Collins’ retir
Page 25 and 26: Accounting Department Executive Off
Page 27 and 28: FEATURE BY • JENNIFER SETER WAGNE
Page 29 and 30: BRANDON MILLER WORK HARD Brandon Mi
Page 31 and 32: When he was a student at Iowa, Anth
Page 33 and 34: JOIN OUR LINKEDIN GROUP! University
Page 35 and 36: Ardwin Joseph (Joe) Droessler Feb 2

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