Respondent’s perceptions of demographic, social and behavioral characteristics of union members were analyzed in comparison to the statistical data regarding union members. Respondents also provided perceptions regarding unions themselves as well as future joining intentions. Overall, respondents accurately identified some characteristics of union members and were incorrect on others. General union image was poor as well as future joining intentions. The results of this analysis suggest that union density declines in the private sector will continue.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-pagination: none;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">In the past decade, there has been an increasing level of distress over the perceived lack of ethics exhibited by members of the accounting profession.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>This distress has resulted in a call for a greater emphasis on ethics coverage as part of a college-level accounting education.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>However, one could argue that the various organizations that are leading these calls, and the academic institutions which are charged with implementing this enhanced ethical education, often suffer from ethical failings of their own.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The purpose of this paper is to examine the degree to which these organizations &ldquo;practice what they preach.&rdquo;<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Recent history is rife with examples of ethical shortcomings on the part of accounting professionals; Enron, Worldcom, and Tyco come to mind as examples which have received extensive media coverage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The resultant public concern over ethics in accounting has led several governmental and professional bodies to mandate or promote codes of ethical conduct.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The Congress of the United States, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and other bodies have all made public pronouncements which explicitly insist upon the importance of ethical behavior.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Similarly, many education-related organizations (i.e., universities and accrediting bodies) have taken the position that education in ethics is an essential part of any college-level education.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Finally, although the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), which formulates generally accepted accounting practices for commercial firms in the United States, has not made an explicit statement regarding the importance of ethics, the standards which they promulgate are the measure of what is and is not adequate financial disclosure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Since a failure to follow generally accepted accounting principles is usually thought of as misleading and hence, an ethical violation, it could be argued that the FASB is, in fact, charged with &ldquo;codifying&rdquo; ethical behavior as far as financial disclosure is concerned.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>All of the organizations mentioned above can be criticized, to some extent, for ethical failings of their own.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Political bodies, such as the Congress and the Securities and Exchange Commission, can often be accused of bowing to special interests and entities which enforce codes of ethics (whether the AICPA in accounting or the American Bar Association in the legal profession or the AMA in the medical profession) are often justly accused of turning a blind eye to all but the most egregious behavior of their members.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The FASB, while ostensibly independent, is also subject to pressures in its standard setting process.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Finally, the educational establishment has exhibited ethical shortcomings of its own.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>These problems run from well-publicized institution-wide problems in discrimination and college athletics down to the individual class and faculty member who engages in less-than-ethical behaviors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The paper will examine the recent ethical failings in business and the resultant calls for greater ethical behavior on the part of the accounting profession.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">A brief summary of some of the literature related to ethical education and development will then be presented.<strong><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span></strong></span>After this, the behaviors of the various regulatory, standard setting and educational institutions will be examined to determine the extent to which their individual behaviors coincide with their stated positions on ethical behavior and the degree to which these behaviors match the standards that we are encouraged to teach to our students.</span></span></p>

A common problem addressed in Managerial and Cost Accounting classes is that of selecting an optimal production mix given scarce resources. That is, if a firm produces a number of different products, and is faced with scarce resources (e.g., limitations on labor, materials, or machine time), what combination of products yields the greatest profit to the firm? Solver, an optimization package included within Microsoft Excel (or Optimizer in Quattro Pro), is an ideal vehicle by which to analyze these problems. In most cost or managerial accounting texts, students are asked to address this type of question when there is only one scarce resource (e.g., Material X); such problems can be readily solved by hand. In the case of two or more scarce resources, students are usually referred to their management science classes and Linear Programming packages such as LINDO for further enlightenment, with the comment that such matters are beyond the scope of an accounting text. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how the Solver package in Microsoft Excel can be easily used to solve optimization problems in management accounting. Although not as powerful or flexible as stand-alone packages such as LINDO, Solvers presence within a universally available spreadsheet package makes it an extraordinarily powerful teaching tool. Instead of parameters being entered into the optimization problem as constants, they can be expressed as functions of other spreadsheet cells. This interactive structure allows an instructor (or student) to create complex production environments where it can be illustrated how minor changes in one aspect of the production environment can flow through and have a profound impact on optimal production schedules.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt; mso-pagination: none;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Over the past several years one of my responsibilities as a faculty member of the State University of New York Institute of Technology has been to teach both graduate and undergraduate classes over the internet via the SUNY Learning Network (SLN).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Although the work load for a faculty member teaching an on-line course can be substantial, there is evidence that there are unexpected rewards in terms of the caliber of the students who takes such courses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Although the characteristics of the students comprising the initial enrollment of the class mirror those of standard &ldquo;in-person&rdquo; classes, there seems to be substantial initial attrition among those students who are less motivated to devote the necessary time to the study of the material.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Additionally, the additional responsibility for &ldquo;active learning&rdquo; on the part of students appears to motivate many students to a higher level of effort.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt; mso-pagination: none;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">&nbsp;</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt; mso-pagination: none;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">This paper provides evidence via ex-post and a-priori surveys, as well as through an analysis of the students&rsquo; final grades, that there is a self-selection bias among students that can lead to an overall increase in the caliber of the on-line class relative to the conventional on-campus class.</span></span></p>

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