The growth of stock reacquisitions in the past three or four years has created the need to examine the relevant ethical principles. The law provides certain minimum standards of ethical conduct, but the conscientious executive is interested in doing more than the minimum required by the law. Adequate accounting disclosure is an important consideration in such financial transactions. Our inquiry indicates that disclosures of corporate stock reacquisitions in the financial press have not been common. Executives should give more consideration to the public relations aspect of such an important activity, if only to quell speculative rumors when a sizable amount of funds is involved. The increase in stock reacquisition indicates a greater awareness of the possible financial consequences. Ethical considerations should receive the same attention. These include not only adequate disclosure, but also the avoidance of conflict-of-interest situations, and a careful evaluation of the method of repurchase in relation to the amount of stock to be reacquired.

There is one major problem confronting the accounting profession that will occupy the attention of the administration of the Association of University Instructors in Accounting in the year 1931. Avenues of entry into the practice of accounting are not clearly defined. It is extremely difficult for a young man who shows some aptitude in this field to determine upon the proper method of preparation to secure admission to the profession. Up to the present time the professional societies have not set forth the qualifications of an accountant or the proper training methods. It seems to the author that the time has come for practitioners and teachers of accounting to attack this problem with a view to establishing a relationship that compares with other professions such as law, medicine and engineering. The present situation perhaps is to be expected in a young and growing profession. Accounting has passed the stage of infancy now and it seems that it should be ready to accept implications involved in being recognized as a profession. There are still some who look upon accounting as a trade or business but most practitioners prefer to be known as professional men and to have their occupation recognized by the public as a profession.

Accounting has been offered in some form to students in engineering schools for at least twenty years. It is only recently, however, that serious consideration has been given to this subject as an integral part of the required curriculum. The fact that engineers were entering positions of administrative responsibility in which their technical training was not directly applied, brought to the attention of engineering faculties the need for some adjustment in their established curricula. The collegiate Schools of Business started their phenomenal growth about the same time as the movement for industrial management in engineering and largely for the same reason. The first call for business training came from concerns that needed trained accountants and cost analysts. Somewhat later, the schools of business began to give more attention to the fields of marketing and finance which at present occupy a considerable part of their attention. The accounting courses in engineering should be a part of a management training program fitted into an adjustment of the curriculum of the existing courses in mechanical, electrical, civil and chemical engineering.

In many of the institutions it has been necessary to increase the size of classes in accounting in order to meet the increased demand for this type of instruction. The number of students enrolled has increased much more rapidly, than the growth in the faculty personnel. This situation has brought some very difficult problems of teaching technique. The "Accounting Exchange," having as its purpose the presentation and discussion of teaching methods and material, has been turned over to a newly-formed committee appointed by President Rosenkampff. The limitation of adequate reading assistance for one thing has hindered the conscientious instructor in the grading of student papers. Furthermore, the many deviations from predetermined solutions, various interpretations of problem statements and the wide divergence in speed capacities of students working under examination conditions, all add to the difficulties of equitably grading the results attained by the typical questions and problem method. An attempt is being made this year at the University of Minnesota to adapt the objective type of examination to the large elementary courses in accounting.

Courses in accounting occupy a distinctive place in the curriculum of every collegiate school of business. The particular location in the course of study, however, differs quite widely between the various institutions. Furthermore, the character of the subject matter taught under the title of accounting means different things in the several schools. In view of the fact that professional schools of business are still in the early developmental stage, one can hardly hope for anything approaching standardization in curriculum making. Annual revision of courses will continue until the various professional business occupations become more clearly defined than they are at present. One of the chief difficulties encountered in attempting to generalize on this subject is the number of different types of institutions offering collegiate instruction in business. There are the four-year schools which admit students directly from high school, the two-year courses to which students are admitted who have completed either two or three years in an arts college, and the graduate schools which offer instruction only to those who have completed a full four-year academic course. In addition to these, there are the schools, which have specialized in certain fields such as retailing, and personnel administration. Each of these institutions is attempting to adapt its course requirements to meet the demand for technically trained men in business.

The article focuses on the proceedings of the twelfth annual convention of the American Association of University Instructors in Accounting, held at Washington D.C., between December 28 and 29, 1927. After some introductory remarks by the organizers, papers were read by W. W. Nissley of the American Institute of Accountants, John R. Wildman of the company Haskins and Sells, David Himmelblau of Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, William A. Paton of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, and J. L. Dohr of Greene and Hurd and of Columbia University, New York, New York. The second program meeting was given over to a discussion of various features of the federal income tax law. Johns Hopkins University's, Baltimore, Maryland, professor presided at the session and opened it with a brief statement introducing the speakers of the afternoon, all of whom were representatives of the Bureau of Internal Revenue. The third program session consisted of a joint meeting with the American Association of Collegiate Schools of Business. The general topic for discussion was "The Place of Accounting in Commerce Curriculum."