Associate Professor of Accounting & Information Management

1. You are being featured in the Academic Exploration Program website and on Instagram, what would you like to share with our audience about your story?
MC – I spent 14 years in the professional service industry as the accountant and business advisor. To me accounting is not just like the stereotype about dry # and tax. It means the full Access to the whole picture of any business and Accountability based on the financial facts/evidences. A good accountant should be a smart questioner, a discerning observer, a wise reviewer and a prudent tester. He knows the business language, analyze how & if business works and bridge the gaps between silos by interpreting the issues/solutions in specific context. In order to fulfill this role of business analyst and interpreter next generation professional accountants must be an expert generalist, which is the integration of general education and professional study. I am a big fan for Peter Drucker, Charlie Munger and Herbert Simon. Drucker entered into a new subject every 3-5 years as a social ecologist even we call him management guru. His wife said he read lots of non-business books -J Munger criticized both modern accounting and higher ed (basically people like me as the accounting faculty) in his funny Poor Charlie’s Almanac; Simon promoted the reform in Carnegie Mellon business school regarding the GenEd integration. I deeply Amen it and follow the same practice. If you check my borrowing history in our Golisano library system you will see I just do the same. Most of my reads are not just accounting but more about the organizational, social, system and data context, in which businessman needs to perform. My teaching philosophy in professional accountancy is “Christian Faith – GenEd – Business (a social function) – Accounting (as a service) ”, in this order.
2. What inspired you the most about being a part of RWC family?
Roberts is a serious & committed Christian College. I used to audit many Fortune 500 companies. I also performed my spiritual audit to Roberts in the past 1 year and I will definitely issue my “unqualified” opinion regarding its faith practice. Just simply refer to our mission statement, we focus on spiritual formation, scholarship and service orientation. When I had reflection of us in the overall higher ed I referred to 2 Peter 1:5-7, there apostle Peter clearly state the heavenly supply chain in this order: “faith – virtues – knowledge – self-control – endurance – godliness – kindness – love”. Due to the secularization many colleges & universities start the education from knowledge rather than faith & virtues. In Roberts we stand very firm in our faith in Jesus Christ and educate for characters, followed by knowledge. That is the orthodox of higher education, that is why I follow my calling and the vocation in RWC, not just a job. That is my defined purpose.
3. If you haven’t already, would you share how exploration impacted your life path?
Again I am big fan for Peter Drucker. He is always interested so he is always interesting. Life is a journey to seek the truth and our roles in the truth. Surely “exploration” is the right word for this process including academic side. When I read history I noticed Romans 12:2, where apostle Paul mentioned “don’t be fashioned according to this age”. I checked some papers and found one of the fashions in Rome in Paul’s days is the popularity of unintellectual or superficial amusement activities, including public bath, debauchery, colosseum etc. I strongly believe the college life with proper balance of GenEd and professional study is so crucial to our next generation in such a fast changing environment. We need to labor for the wholeness of a person, a deep person with well ordered & balanced spirit, soul and body. Academic exploration absolutely plays the critical role. It is not just job readiness, it is related but beyond that.
0 Comments