Back in the late nineties, accounting at Tippie was in a groove. With legendary Emeritus Professor Dan Collins (BBA68/PhD73) at the helm, we were training up  Ph.D. students that would become the next generation of professors and our research  reputation was as strong as the 1990 Hawkeye football team that went to the  Rose Bowl. Our undergraduates were feeling important in the new Pappajohn Business Building and getting job offers before they even graduated.

There was just one problem: Their writing skills left a lot to be desired.

We’re sure there were outliers, but we’ve heard anecdotes of students back then choosing accounting specifically to avoid college essays. While their computational and analytical skills were on point, they needed to be able to convey all this knowledge to their superiors when they entered the workforce.

Cue the Accounting Writing & Communications Program.

Even now, more than a quarter century later, few peers can match our dedication to writing. Several of Tippie’s Big Ten business school peers weave communication into ethics or capstones, but none have its dedicated, discipline-specific program. 

The program has been so successful that the college opened the Frank Business Communication Center to  bring the idea to all Tippie majors and even helped the University of Iowa earn the U.S. News and World Report ranking of #1 public university in the nation for Writing in the Disciplines. 

Some of our Ph.D. graduates have carried this momentum to other institutions, like Professor Brad Badertscher (MBA01/PhD07), who is now the chair of accounting at Notre Dame. 

"The number one thing we always hear when asked how we can make our students better is 'have them get better at writing,'" Badertscher said. "We don't hear that our students struggle with analyzing financial statements or not knowing SEC code. It's always writing. Most accounting students are excellent at the analytical side, but if you can do both, that's the magic bullet."

Because of his time at Tippie, he knew just what  to implement at Notre Dame when he got this feedback. Badertscher credits Collins, his Tippie mentor, for insisting on the importance of clear communication and writing. 

"I can still hear Dan's voice in my head telling me that writing is your articulation," he said. "It's what shows how you think. That's why it's so important. If you're not able to write, you can't articulate your message."

That’s what makes Tippie stand out, he said. Technical skills may get you in the door. But writing and public speaking—the skills Iowa insists on—are what will set them apart.

Carl Follmer, who led the Accounting Writing & Communications Program from 2015-2023 and now serves at the Director of the Frank Center, calls it a “secret sauce.”

Unlike most business schools, Tippie embeds communication skills throughout the accounting curriculum, resulting in graduates who not only know the numbers but can explain them clearly and persuasively.

Students get practice with the kinds of writing they’ll actually use in their careers—audit memos, tax documents, client correspondence, technical reports—plus workshops and one-on-one coaching that sharpen clarity, tone, and audience awareness. 

Indiana’s Kelley School of Business, like Iowa, employs a separate group of faculty focused solely on developing and polishing student written and verbal communication, according to Kelley Professor Sonja O. Rego.

One reason? Rego was an assistant and then associate professor at Tippie from 1999 to 2011 and had a front row seat when the initiative launched and saw what worked. 

Rego describes the Tippie model—delivered by leading accounting scholars and highly experienced writers—as among the best in academia.

At Iowa, with the writing and communication programs now in the capable hands of Assistant Director of Communication Barb Wester, the approach is constantly evolving. Today, students learn to use AI in their writing—not as a shortcut, but as a professional tool.  

"We're doing a number of things, both technologically and pedagogically, to enhance the writing and communication experience for our students,” Follmer said. “We are trying to prepare them not for the world that we envisioned a couple of years ago, but for the world we anticipate will exist when they graduate.”

In other words, staying ahead of the game.

This article appeared in the 2025 issue of Iowa Ledger.