Date of Award

Spring 5-2003

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Honors College

Department

Accountancy

First Advisor

C. W. Elliott

Second Advisor

Joyce W. O'Rourke

Third Advisor

Beverly Wade

Abstract

Historically black colleges and universities have been accused of not producing a quality education to accountants entering Corporate America. Attributes corporate recruiters look for in employment candidates include leadership, communication, and technical abilities. There has also been continuous concern if corporations are willingly hiring HBCD graduates because of qualifications or just filling the affirmative action quota. In order to determine the preparation and qualification HBCD's provided their accounting graduates, I designed a survey targeting accounting graduates of predominately black populated institutions currently employed in the corporate world . Fifty-two accountants representing twenty-one corporations and eleven HBCDs participated in the survey that consisted of eleven questions concerning the institution and four questions concerning the corporation. The accountants gave similar opinions regarding the HBCDs preparations, but varied their opinions in the employment qualification. Although HBCDs provide adequate technical skills, communication skills, professor diversity, and business etiquette skil1s, obviously peer diversity is weak at predominately black institutions. Personal competitiveness is comfortable for HBCD accounting graduates. Politics was the only category the accountants expressed their opinions to favor more weakly than very strongly in comparison to salary, job assignments, and promotion intervals.

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