This paper describes the rationale, implementation issues, and our learning experiences in designing and teaching a senior accounting capstone course. A capstone course is usually a culminating academic experience that ties together all previous courses in an academic discipline and facilitates transition to a chosen career (Henscheid 2000). The rationale for our accounting capstone course is based on institutional and departmental objectives, as well as accounting education change initiatives. We review characteristics of capstone courses in undergraduate education, and discuss similarities to our course. We also address implementation issues with respect to course content, instructional methods, assignment of faculty, class size, and assessment. Finally, we describe course requirements and specific assignments from our accounting capstone course. Appendices include our course syllabus, and a comprehensive list of topics and readings.

The purpose of this study is to examine the association of managerial incentives and political costs with hospital financial distress, recovery or closure. The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission has stated that hospital closures are important for evaluating the distribution of cost, quality and access to healthcare throughout the US. Using Logistic regression, we demonstrate that hospital closure is associated with low occupancy, return on investment, asset turnover, and lack of affiliation with a multihospital system. It is also significantly associated with urban location, teaching programs, high Medicare and Medicaid patient populations, and high debt. Essential access nonprofit hospitals are less likely to close, while this does not affect governmental and for-profit hospitals. Our research hypotheses are supported by these results.

The paper describes an integrated, interdisciplinary nonprofit management three-course concentration developed for an undergraduate public service major at a small, private college. We describe the course development process and implementation issues pertinent to nonprofit management education that include where to house programs, faculty issues, interdisciplinary teaching, students' needs and experiential learning. Our course objectives aimed to develop business competencies from accounting, finance, management and marketing in the context of nonprofit organizations for students with no prior business knowledge. The paper concludes with a description of our three courses.

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