Members of the sixth cohort of the College’s Master of Accounting (MACC) program graduated on October 21, 2005. The approach of Hurricane Wilma did not damage the good spirits of the 28 graduates and guests—totaling seventy people—who attended the event at the Rusty Pelican Restaurant.

Students made awards to fellow cohort members and to faculty. They voted Gloria Xu most dedicated student, and Eduardo Alvarez, most knowledgeable. The students named Dasaratha Rama, professor of Decision Sciences and Information Systems, as most helpful professor, and designated Lewis F. Davidson, professor of accounting and faculty director of the MACC program, as most challenging professor.

Andres Suarez (BA ’99) received an award as the student with the highest grade point average (GPA).

“I always liked accounting,” said Suarez, who majored in finance in the College as an undergraduate and in 1997 began working at Regions Bank, where he currently is a senior credit analyst in its international division. “Getting this degree was always at the back of my mind.”

He needed to complete a number of pre-requisites to get into the program and many friends tried to talk him out of the effort. But he has no regrets.

“I am very glad I did it,” he said while acknowledging that it was very challenging. “Because of the group orientation of the program, we had lots of meetings, so it was quite time consuming.”

Not only was he already working, but also he is married and he and his wife were preparing to welcome their first child, who arrived less than a month after the graduation ceremony.

He has no regrets about selecting the College’s School of Accounting for the advanced degree work.

“I looked at other schools, but I had heard so many good things about the School of Accounting,” he said. “And besides, the University already had my heart.”

“All the students in the cohort—with the exception of the two international ones—have jobs,” said Michael Pischner, program manager of the Master of Accounting, a Friday evening/all-day Saturday offering that enables participants to complete the degree in ten months.