Is Beta Alpha Psi Still Relevant to the Accounting Profession?

By William L. Stephens

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The purpose of this article is to assure the profession, as well as accounting majors, that BAP has always been, and will continue to be, an essential element in the preparation of accounting students to take an immediate, active, and contributing role in the profession and organization they join. BAP should continue to be an essential organization for professionals, and far more than a line on a resume for students.

Reasons for Concern

The importance of BAP has long been recognized by the many organizations that recruit on college campuses throughout the United States. During its lifetime, BAP has always been considered by recruiters to be the primary source of outstanding college graduates in accounting.

Not only was a great deal of time spent developing relationships with local chapters in an attempt to attract the “best and brightest,” many companies also contributed large sums of money to the organization, especially at the international level. Many organizations also volunteer their executives to serve on the BAP advisory forum and international board of directors, where they provide valuable insight and advice on the future direction of BAP. Some of these individuals even become the president of the international organization, where they can share the ultimate benefit of their leadership skills.

The AICPA has also long understood the importance of Beta Alpha Psi to the profession, assisting BAP in numerous ways during the last 20 years. It provided office space in midtown Manhattan, technical support, employees dedicated to the BAP initiatives, and representation on the international board of directors.

A large percentage of the strongest students at any university with a chapter would typically be attracted to BAP, often for the sole reason of gaining the interest of and access to the major recruiters. Although this reason for joining was merely one of many benefits to the members, this appeal was typically used as the attraction chapters would use to recruit new members.

During the last 10 years, more and more students have realized that it is no longer necessary to have BAP membership on their resume to be attractive to recruiters. This has become the case for a variety of reasons. The demand for recruits is far beyond what BAP membership alone can provide. Many firms realize that mere membership in BAP does not guarantee a quality recruit—only an academically qualified recruit. In addition, firms have become more and more willing to hire “nontraditional age” students; therefore, an increasing percentage of their best recruits are individuals who may work full time and have a family, and may be less likely to see the benefits of joining a traditional student organization.

After so many years of continued support, the question before us now is: Should the profession, firms, and other organizations continue, expand, or reduce the level of support they currently offer BAP? If Beta Alpha Psi is no longer relevant, the answer would be to reduce support. If, however, as I will passionately argue, Beta Alpha Psi is still relevant, then the answer should be to increase the support being offered. Either way, the status quo of simply continuing the current level of support is unacceptable.

Why is BAP still relevant? The answer is simple: BAP is a special organization that produces special people—people that the profession needs and firms should prefer to hire.

The Special Nature of BAP

Readers who were never involved in BAP, or have never recruited on campus, may wonder what is so special about this group of people. Why should BAP still be the primary source of outstanding college graduates for the accounting firms and other professional organizations? What sets BAP members apart from other quality graduates?

The simple answer is that a variety of qualities can be uniquely developed in each and every active BAP member in a strong BAP chapter. More specifically, BAP continues to assume a vital role in developing young men and women into active and contributing professionals who have the skills needed to make an immediate impact upon graduation, far beyond mere accounting, finance, and information systems technical skills. BAP accomplishes this by building a bridge from the academic to the professional world.

BAP as a Bridge to the Future

BAP can best be described as a “bridge” to the future—a bridge for the student to take, and a bridge for the profession to embrace. The values that BAP imparts to students can be highlighted through the following acrostic:

B: Building relationships with peers and professionals

R: Recognizing and rewarding scholastic success

I: Instilling commitment to lifelong professional development

D: Developing leadership skills

G: Giving back to the community through service

E: Encouraging ethical behavior.

This is hardly a complete description. Expanding upon these requires an understanding of all the ways BAP members can develop as they cross over from academia to the real world.

B: Building Relationships with Peers and Professionals

Friendships. As trite as this might sound, many BAP members say this is the most-appreciated benefit. Although most of us have friends, and may not sense a need to expand our circle, BAP friendships are different because they are professional friends, possibly for a lifetime. An active member from a reasonably large chapter can enter the profession with 50–100 friends that she would probably not have had without BAP. More important, these friends are now professional contacts that can benefit an individual as well as the company that employs them and any professional organizations they may join.

Organizational and team-building skills. A successful BAP chapter has a large variety of programs and activities that can meet the needs of all of its members. Whether these programs are accomplished through committees or officer positions, they all require a great deal of organization and team-building skills. Whether it is hosting a regional or international convention, providing a CPE conference, developing a “best practices” project, or simply putting together the activities for the chapter, every member of a BAP team can see how the product is better because of their involvement.

R: Recognizing and Rewarding Scholastic Success

BAP recognizes academic achievements in the classroom. Serving in BAP continually reminds students of the importance of maintaining their scholastic achievements, not only from the recruitment perspective, but also because of the need to maintain the reputation of BAP on campus, the respect of their professors, and the pride in their success. There is seldom an accounting class in which a member does not have many friends with whom they can share the experience, work together, and undertake friendly competition. There is also the collective recognition that comes to the chapter when its success as a team is recognized in regional and local competitions.

I: Instilling Commitment to Lifelong Professional Development

Introduction to lifelong learning. A great deal can be learned as a member of BAP, and there is much to learn about the profession outside of the classroom. Some of this knowledge can come from chapter activities, such as weekly meetings, seminars, field trips, and conferences. The vast majority of lessons, however, will come only after graduation.

Introduction to continuous improvement. A common theme in the modern management environment is one of continuous improvement at all levels of any organization. The status quo is never acceptable in the dynamic, competitive world in which we live. This is also a common theme of BAP, which has a competitive program, “Best Practices,” that has been successful in motivating many chapters to be dynamic. It does this by encouraging chapters to share with each other how they have continually improved.

Big picture of profession. Involvement in BAP usually provides members with a much bigger picture of the profession—its role, its importance, its expectations, and its problems. Much of this evidence comes from outside the classroom, where BAP happens to be.

Better career decisions. Though I have no empirical evidence to support my observations, during my 38 years of college teaching, BAP members, on the whole, seem to make more-informed decisions about their career, their first employer, and their later moves than non-BAP students. Members become informed about every aspect of important career decisions they must make, including:

• Discipline: Accounting, finance, or information systems
• Sector: Public, private, or government
• Size: Local, regional, or international
• Specialty: Auditing, tax, consulting, or a unique specialty
• Work experience: Internship, co-op, part-time, full-time
• Timing of interviews: Early or late
• Vision: Long-range versus short-range plans.

A more-informed student is better-equipped to make good choices. The same is true for firms that have gotten to know members well during their tenure with BAP. They can make better, more-efficient decisions in achieving good matches between recruits and a firm.

Interdisciplinary relationships. Today’s sophisticated information environment is quite interdisciplinary, involving a great deal of expertise and interaction outside of the accounting discipline. Although accounting professionals seem to also be innately comfortable dealing with professionals in related fields such as information systems and finance, the change in BAP from just an accounting organization to one that embraces the finance and information systems disciplines better prepares its graduates for the professional environment they will enter.

D: Developing Leadership Skills

Opportunities to lead. BAP develops leaders by providing its members with as many opportunities to lead as possible, while they are still part of the university. Given the opportunities, along with proper oversight, a great deal can be learned from their successes and disappointments. Upon graduation BAP members, armed with a valuable set of skills, can take what they have learned from these experiences and adapt their new knowledge to new challenges in their new environment.

An active BAP member should be ready to quickly assume additional leadership responsiblilities. Anecdotal evidence of this leadership potential has been observed on the part of BAP graduates once they leave the university. They seem to be much more likely to assume leadership positions within professional organizations; more likely to become involved in their firm’s interaction with the university and community; and more likely to become leaders in alumni organizations of the school, college, or university. Finally, they seem to be more likely to provide the department, college, and university with financial support when they are in a position to do so.

Communication skills. An important quality of an effective leader is the ability to communicate. Communication skills, however, are often lamented as the most serious weakness of college graduates. Many BAP chapters provide unlimited opportunities for their members to hone these skills, especially verbal ones. These opportunities may come at a local high school, in front of accounting classes, or at a regional convention. In addition, at this writer’s university, each BAP member has the opportunity to compete in a semi-annual speech contest (nonaccounting topics), with attractive prizes to assure broad participation. By the time a BAP member graduates, he should have a much greater level of comfort speaking in front of people. In the past, BAP has also sponsored paper competitions at both the graduate and undergraduate level, to promote writing and critical thinking skills.

Self-confidence. As an advisor for 35 years, there is one thing I observed in nearly every BAP member whom I knew well enough to assess and who was actively involved in chapter activities. That is the personal growth in confidence that occurs during one’s tenure in BAP. Some members visibly go from being quiet to outgoing; some go from followers to leaders; some from loners to team players; and some from awkward to eloquent. Almost without exception, each individual later credits the significant role that BAP had played in their development.

G: Giving Back to the Community Through Service

Community conscience. A significant element of BAP is the promotion of members’ individual roles in the community and in society as a whole. Members are expected to spend a great deal of their time in activities that benefit others less fortunate. BAP graduates enter the profession with a deep and unselfish awareness of the need to embrace community involvement and be a good citizen in the professional environment.

E: Encouraging Ethical Behavior

Ethical people lead to ethical behavior. Involvement in BAP means exposure to the importance of ethical behavior and the need to be an individual of the highest integrity. This is continually emphasized both philosophically and practically at the international level of BAP, and at the local level as well. Members know that BAP has zero tolerance for unethical behavior, as the organization has repeatedly shown its willingness to take strong steps when such behavior is suspected. Naturally, this in no way guarantees that all members are ethical people. It should, however, be clear to all members that unethical behavior will not be tolerated, and they must act accordingly.

There was no correct order for the discussion of benefits above, other than they fit into the acrostic, BRIDGE. It does make sense, however, that ethics comes last. All of the benefits that preceded it can and must play a significant role in the development, appreciation, and fine-tuning of ethics and integrity. In addition, the last step off the bridge is also the first step into the real world. Accounting graduates who find that ethics were an integral part of the academic world understand what is really driving the firm and the profession they will eventually join.

Lasting Value

For more than 90 years, Beta Alpha Psi has served as fertile ground for the recruitment of outstanding accounting graduates into the profession. BAP has continually changed with the times along with the profession it serves. The demand for accountants is currently a buyer’s market, and many students no longer perceive the need to enhance their resumes with membership in BAP. As a result, some professional recruiters realize that BAP is no longer the only game in town and have diverted some of their attention in other directions. Does this mean, however, that BAP today is any less relevant or significant to students, firms, or the profession? My answer is a resounding “No!”

The main reason that some may consider BAP to be less valuable today than it had been in the past is a complete misunderstanding about the true value of BAP in the first place. The real value of BAP has very little to do with getting a job, for it does so much more than simply provide the market for the courtship and marriage between great students and great firms. BAP was never intended to simply show off its members so they could get jobs and so recruiters could maximize their efforts. BAP should do more than simply provide raw material to the profession. Instead, the organization wants to help bridge the gap between academia and the real world. BAP will never be irrelevant as long as it maintains its true vision. It should never simply be a headhunter for the profession; it must always add significant value to the students who join.

This value comes in the form of many skill sets (leadership, communication, networking) that are necessary to be successful. These are skill sets that can be learned, practiced, and refined before they are needed in the real world. For a chapter and its members to reach this potential, it needs the support of the professional community. It needs CPAs, CPA firms, and their professional organizations to find ways to develop relationships with nearby BAP chapters. Any effort firms expend can pay meaningful dividends, as long as such resources are viewed not as an expense, but rather as as a long-term investment with deferred rewards.

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