UpDate - Vol. 11, No. 6, Page 10
October 10, 1991
Araya Debessay wins award for innovation in business ed

     Araya Debessay will be recognized tomorrow by the Middle
Atlantic Association of Colleges of Business Administration
(MAACBA), which will give him its 1991 Innovation in Business
Education Award for his work on a senior-level auditing course.
     At a meeting in Pittsburgh during the final day of MAACBA's
annual conference, Debessay, a professor of accounting, will brief
more than 100 educators on his custom-made course, which he said he
began "experimenting with" five years ago.
     William Markell, chairperson of the Department of Accounting,
said Debessay is constantly modifying the course, which is required
for accounting majors. Debessay said he began to restructure the
course, which currently includes a 17-page syllabus, after hearing
employers' complaints about the abilities of new college graduates.
     The syllabus has already been published by McGraw-Hill in its
Innovative Accounting Course Outline Series.
     With the Innovative Business Education Award, MAACBA aims to
"highlight an innovative, creative or unique course or program in
business administration that has been implemented at a member
institution," according to a letter from the organization's
president soliciting nominees.
     The adaptability of the innovative approach from one
institution to others is an important consideration in selecting
the award-winner, according to the letter.
     Debessay said the key to transferring his course successfully
to other schools is strong University support systems.
     At Delaware, the English department and the University Writing
Center are important components of the auditing course, which
includes brief presentations by faculty and staff from both units,
he said.
     In addition, students with deficient writing skills who are
identified early in the semester through an in-class test are
required to submit their written assignments to an English
professor, who serves as a grader.
     Debessay also makes use of videotapes developed by the Big Six
accounting firms to promote "excellence in audit education," as
well as videotapes and cases that stress the importance of high
ethical standards.
     The most unusual feature of the course, however, is a project
making use of the public records of real-world companies located in
the mid-Atlantic region and involving the audit partners of those
companies, Debessay said.
     The project, which is completed in groups of five or six
students, involves preparing written and oral reports that assess
the audit risk of a publicly owned company. The assignment is
designed to prepare students for real-world auditing, which is
often done in teams, he said.
     Auditors from the Big Six accounting firms take part in the
projects by reading group papers on companies they have examined
professionally and by attending in-class oral presentations on the
student audits. The professional auditors provide the students with
written and oral comments on their projects.
     At Homecoming, Oct. 5, Dave Gens, Delaware '90, a former
student of Debessay's and a former student representative on the
Education and Training Committee of the University's Board of
Trustees, said Debessay was "very dedicated to the end result of
what we learned, more than any other faculty member."
     "He wanted us to learn and he tried different ways to
facilitate that," Gens said.
     Still, Debessay said, "students who are not motivated have
problems with the course.
     "The good students like the course," he said. "I think that is
because it prepares them for the challenges of the real world. Some
students complain it's too much work, but there really is no free
lunch."
     The Center for Teaching Effectiveness (CTE) deserves credit
for promoting innovative teaching on campus, Debessay said. CTE is
"a tremendous source of good teaching ideas," he said. "It's also
one of the more impressive resources of the University of
Delaware."
     Debessay, who is a graduate of Syracuse University and Haile
Selassie I University in Ethiopia, added that a grant from the CTE
helped him to revamp the auditing course.
     An associate fellow of CTE, Debessay joined the University
faculty in 1978. He received the University's
excellence-in-teaching award in 1989 and is a two-time winner of
the College of Business and Economics' Outstanding Teacher Award.
     Debessay has served as a regional president of the American
Accounting Asociation in 1988-89, and as an officer of the Delaware
chapter of the National Association of Accountants.
     Of Debessay's latest award, Kenneth R. Biederman, dean of the
College of Business and Economics, said, "I think this award is
reflective of the fine teaching job Prof. Debessay does. It's a
competitve and prestigious award.
     "Often, in academic circles, the focus is on research. More
attention should be given to good teaching. In that respect, Prof.
Debessay's award is particularly gratifying."
                                        - Stephen Steenkamer