By Rory Dulock | Staff Writer
The Accounting Society is currently in the process of being chartered and aims to be official for the next academic year.
China Spring sophomore Caleb Brown, who will be the president of the Accounting Society, came up with the idea for the society in hopes of immersing students in accounting outside of the traditional classroom setting. He said the society’s bylaws have already been written, and he submitted the application form to Student Activities a couple of weeks ago. The soon-to-be organization also has a faculty adviser, clinical associate professor Don Carpenter.
Brown said the goal of the Accounting Society is to expose students to the field of accounting in a low-stress environment. What will be notable about the club is that anyone can join, even if they have not declared an accounting major.
“For one part, you have the directly accounting stuff, which is more about the kind of profession, like different areas of accounting,” Brown said. “And then more indirectly is like helping you build skills that will be helpful as an account, like communication skills.”
A typical meeting will include debates and guest speakers who will introduce students to different niches in accounting, Brown said.
“It’s partially learning more about accounting by doing, but also improving communication skills as well,” Brown said. “We also plan to have a student-run accounting journal, so basically that’ll cover just all sorts of accounting issues.”
Brown said the club plans to have many activities throughout the year once it’s chartered, including being involved in the community.
“We will also have social events,” Brown said. “We think that would definitely include an end-of-year banquet. That’s the only thing we know for sure at the moment. And then service activities, but we’ll also be working on trying to help accounting students serve their community.”
Brown said the timeline depends on how long it takes the Charter Council to approve the group. The council is meeting on March 22, and since the application was submitted before the deadline, it’s guaranteed to be reviewed this semester.
“Presumably, if there are no material issues, then it would be approved sometime this semester, so that would probably be like April at the earliest,” Brown said. “It could even be next semester, … but I think most likely it will probably get approved this semester. Given just the nature of society — it’s academic-related — I would imagine they would be very supportive of that.”
Amarillo sophomore Chloe Miller is another one of the eight officers who have been appointed. She will be the chaplain of the Accounting Society, and her role will be to encourage service activities while connecting accounting and faith.
“[One] big thing that I would address is how you want to incorporate your faith into accounting,” Miller said. “[Accounting’s] not a ministry vocation, but you want ministry in your vocation.”
Brown said the current goal for membership is to have around 300 members by May 2027.
“I feel that [300] is reasonable because accounting is the largest major in the business school,” Brown said. “There is, I think, a little under 500 accounting majors in this school — and that doesn’t count students that have not said, ‘This is the major I’m going to do.’ So, when you add up there, it’s a lot.”
Once the Accounting Society is chartered, Brown said there will be multiple interest meetings throughout the academic year.
