Oh the proverbial office Christmas party: that time of year when calm, proper-mannered, white-collared professionals of the world unleash their inner crazy self, at least in the movies. That, however, just wasn't quite the case for the CoBA professor at their annual party--but close. For one thing, many of the professors have only a slight degree of insanity, considering how professional they are.

       Needless to say, this office party reflected that. From the story of one professor's mishap on how not to say hello in our country to the betrayal of colleagues cutting in the food line, CoBA seems to have an interesting mix of faculty from the vast reaches of the business world.

      Adding to the high spirits of the occasion was the classic sound of Creedence Clearwater Revival playing in the background and emperor penguins who stood guard over the buffet, seeming to nod their approval to everyone passing through the food line. Faculty sang and danced and gifts were exchanged and...disexchanged. Even now the specifics of it all are lost to me.

      Walking away I thought,"This is an enjoyable job". Having worked here only a few weeks, I'm happy to say that i'd much prefer to work in the midst of this high-spirited lot than anyplace with a lack of character. Oh a very merry Christmas indeed.

For photos please visit:

http://coba.utpa.edu/media/the_leader_images/victoriano.jpg

http://coba.utpa.edu/media/the_leader_images/crazydancer(sm).jpg

http://coba.utpa.edu/media/the_leader_images/emperorPenguin(sm).jpg

http://coba.utpa.edu/media/the_leader_images/IMG_7937.jpg

The 2010 edition of The Princeton Review once again has ranked the UTPA College of Business Administration MBA program among the 301 Best Business Schools.  To compile the rankings, Princeton Review examined a number of factors about each program, such as financial aid, admissions and student life.  

The divorce is final. The Department of Management, Marketing and International Business (MMIB) has now been officially divided into two departments: the Department of Management and the Department of Marketing. The MMIB department had simply grown too large, said dean Teo Ozuna. By splitting the department into its principle business disciplines, each department will be better positioned to thrive and gain national recognition.

 Nine, 40- inch LCD monitors form the new CoBA Comm Center on the first floor of BUSA. The display will keep CoBA student up-to-date on the latest events.

The UTPA accounting team made us very proud at the 2009 ALPFA (Association of Latino Professional in Finance and Accounting) Convention in Boston on August 10.  The team was the runner-up (2nd place) in a very prestigious competition, the KPMG & ALPFA National Accounting Case Study Competition, which includes teams from top schools throughout the nation.  They came in second to Arizona State University.   

It is important to note that the UTPA team was the only UT System team at the national championship; UT Austin, UTSA and UT Arlington were all eliminated at the regional competitions.  The only other Texas institutions that made it to nationals were the University of Houston and Southern Methodist University.  

The Case Study Competition challenges finance and accounting students to solve complex, real-world accounting cases.  Each student team makes a 20-minute presentation of their case and solution to a panel of judges who act as the senior management of the Audit Committee of a client.  The panel of judges is comprised of KPMG partners, senior managers and ALPFA members who are senior accounting or finance professionals from real, public companies from firms like Goldman Sachs, the GAO and the Walt Disney Corp.  

The students on the 2009 Accounting Team are:
1.       Ariana Acosta, Senior Accounting major, GPA is 3.73
2.       Yessica Centeno, Junior Accounting major, GPA is 3.34
3.       Claudia Garza, Sophomore Accounting  major, GPA is 3.75
4.       Alejandro Gonzalez, Sophomore Accounting major, GPA is 4.0
5.       Almaniria Mendez, Senior Accounting major, GPA is 3.4  

The faculty advisor for the Team is Dr. John Darcy.  But key to the success of the team is the mentoring and advising provided by two members of the 2008 UTPA KPMG & ALPFA National Case Study National Championship team, Carolina Mollick (accounting graduate student ) and Cynthia Rios (senior accounting major).  Dr. Dora Saavedra of the Department of Communications provided invaluable training to the team in developing presentation skills.  

The UTPA Accounting Teams have a string of national wins, as shown here: 
  •       2004, Chicago, Illinois.  National Championship
  •       2005, Miami, Florida, National Championship
  •       2008, Phoenix, Arizona, National Championship
  •       2009, Boston, Massachusetts, Runner-up (2nd place)

The institutions who competed in this Case Study Competition include: 

UTPA (defending National Champion)  
Univ. of Puerto Rico (defending runner-up)
Georgia State University
Rutgers University          
Southern Methodist University
Florida International University
Bentley College 
UT-Austin
Florida State University 
UMASS-Amherst
UT-San Antonio
University of Florida
Baruch College
UT-Arlington
University of Arizona
Queen's College
University of New Mexico
Arizona State University
Univ. of Illinois at UC
New Mexico State University
University of Washington
Pace University
San Diego State University
UC Riverside
DePaul University
UC Berkeley
University of Houston 
University of Southern California

In addition to the accomplishments of the team, a member of the UTPA 2008 National Championship KPMG & ALPFA National Accounting Case Study Competition team, Rosa Ybarra, was honored at the convention with the single largest award at the convention, a $10,000 scholarship as the Deloitte Latina of the Year.  This award to Rosa was a highly emotional experience for the more than 1,000 participants at the award ceremony, who celebrated the life and accomplishments of Rosa and her family from the Rio Grande Valley.  

KPMG is one of the world’s largest accounting firms providing auditing, tax and advisory services. It employs more than 123,000 people in over 140 countries.  ALPFA is a 35-year old nonprofit professional organization dedicated to enhancing opportunities for Latinos in accounting, finance and related professions.  It is the largest Hispanic professional organization in the United States.