News

May 2019 MAcc graduate Lana Latif received an offer for a position with Ernst & Young (EY) in Pittsburgh. This is a great success story, because Lana decided to return to WVU for the MAcc after living with her family in Palestine. Returning to West Virginia was not a decision she took lightly, but she really wanted to pursue securing a job with a Big 4 firm. She’s now made that dream a reality, thanks to the mentorship of Executive in Residence and MAcc coordinator Gary LeDonne .

The Forensic Accounting and Fraud Examination Coursera MOOC (massive open online course) is now at over 75,000 participants and growing!

It is easy to dwell on the negative impact of COVID-19, but positive things have emerged during the pandemic, and these things will continue to be part of our new normal. For the Chambers College, West Virginia University and West Virginia, this is a wonderful opportunity to show businesses and consumers how we are championing entrepreneurship and innovation!

This summer, our HIT Lab team explored what we can do to help to limit the spread of virus and how we can empower consumers and businesses with new tools and technologies that will help us move forward without fear.

West Virginia, birth place of Chuck Yeager, the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound, will now be at the center of developing the next innovation in barrier-breaking transportation.

Virgin Hyperloop announced Thursday, Oct. 8, that it will locate a certification facility on nearly 800 acres of land spanning Tucker and Grant counties where it will leverage intellectual capital and resources from  West Virginia University, Marshall University and from across the state.

You could say Seattle came alive with more than an even flow of tourism dollars from a pair of highly-anticipated Pearl Jam concerts, according to rockin’ new research by West Virginia University economists.

Dubbed the “Home Shows,” two Pearl Jam concerts in August 2018 helped net the seaport city $58 million in additional hotel revenue and $9 million in hotel tax revenue. Compare that to Seattle Mariners baseball games, which generate $140,000 in additional hotel revenue on game days, and the researchers make a clear case for large, one-off events as economic boosters.

As Reynolds Hall, the new hub for business education on the campus of West Virginia University continues to build on the Morgantown waterfront, a John Chambers College of Business and Economics alumnus has given a gift that will ensure that it will build the business leaders of the future by way of experiential learning when it opens in 2022.

Visa executive and WVU alumnus William Sheedy and his wife, Patricia, are donating $2.5 million to the Chambers College for an experiential learning pavilion. 

West Virginia University’s Center for Financial Literacy and Education, housed in the John Chambers College of Business and Economics, has partnered with PRA Group, Inc., a global leader in acquiring and collecting nonperforming loans, to advance financial literacy efforts as part of WVU’s land-grant mission.

PRA Group’s generous $210,000 contribution will fund two seminars on financial literacy in civics, business, and math led by the Chambers College and WVU Extension Service to maximize impact across the state. The first seminars in October 2020 include community leaders representing all 55 West Virginia counties. The second seminar will begin in February 2021 and will focus on primary and secondary educators. Both seminars are expected to positively impact more than 3,500 West Virginia students. PRA Group, Inc. will also support financial lunch and learns across the state for high school seniors preparing to go to college, college students, and adult learners.

Welcome back to campus!

Now that all West Virginia University undergraduate courses are online through Friday, September 25, it’s easy to lose track and stray from your weekly study schedule. However, it’s important that you keep your focus and find ways to stay motivated.

The Chambers College team is doing big things, and we want to know about them! Share through this form to see them in a future edition of Let’s Talk Business and/or our other communications vehicles. Want to recognize your colleagues for their accomplishments? Click here .

The Accounting department was informed by AACSB in May 2020 that the department has achieved accounting accreditation for five additional years.

The forensic accounting group conducted its first ever virtual residencies. Pitch-to-Prosecutor, Crime Scene Investigation - Financial, Interviewing for Deception and Moot Court were all conducted using virtual platforms. Moot court included 20 participating lawyers from Steptoe & Johnson, PLLC.

MAcc Coordinator Gary LeDonne, along with Accounting 200, 201, 202 TAPS Nancy Lynch and Cindy Dalton put together a teaching assistant program this summer to support large online sections of these courses. The participating MAcc students will help ensure that entry-level undergraduate students have high levels of support, quick feedback to questions and a more personalized experience.

Professors John Treu and Ji Woo Ryou had articles accepted in the Accounting Review this summer. Ji Woo Ryou also had an article accepted in the Journal of Corporate Finance.

The Board of Governors voted to accept the recommendations of the Graduate Councils for MS Forensic and Fraud Examination to continue with its current level of activity.

The American Accounting Association (AAA) recognized Lauren Cooper, D. Kip Holderness, Jr., Trevor L. Sorensen, and David A. Wood as the recipients of the 2020 Accounting Horizons Best Paper Award for their article "Robotic Process Automation in Public Accounting," published in the December 2019 issue.

Professor Christian Schaupp’s international efforts in the Honors Program continue to receive recognition. His proposal for the Virtual Exchange Faculty Grant has been accepted for his project utilizing global consulting projects with Münster University of Applied Sciences, Fulda University of Applied Sciences, and Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana.

It did not take long for one of John Chambers College of Business and Economics’ newest programs to demonstrate its value in serving West Virginia University’s land-grant mission by stepping up to help the state in a time of critical need.

Data Driven WV launched just one year ago as the brainchild of Business Data Analytics students, faculty and alumni. It was operationalized by Dr. Brad Price, Dariane Drake and Katherine Kopp, who all connected with its mission of supporting the technology infrastructure and resources to provide Business Data Analytics students with the opportunity to apply their data analytic skills to real-world experiences.