Led by co-presidents Rob Hemly and Kyle Ray, Beta Alpha Psi hosted the Fifth Annual Intercollegiate Ethics Competition, sponsored by the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) on Saturday, February 26, 2022 virtually. This is the second successful virtual competition that the organization hosted.

The case, titled “Relevance or Reliability, that is the Question. Can the Accounting Profession have both?  Is Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Reporting the Answer?”, was written by Dr. Craig Foltin, associate professor in the Accounting Department. Student presentations debated the ethics around ESG reporting including intangible asset impact on organizations, standards set by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), accounting reliability and regulation, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regulation and sustainability reporting especially as it relates to climate change.

Five student teams submitted video presentations and written responses from four universities: Baldwin Wallace, Case Western Reserve University (2 teams), Heidelberg University and Tiffin University. 

“As the host university, it would be unethical for Cleveland State to participate in the competition,” said Rob Hemly, co-president of Beta Alpha Psi and current graduate student. “All of the teams provided excellent viewpoints on the case. We want to especially thank our judges who debated tirelessly to determine the winning teams.”

Judges included Terry Bingham (retired senior IT auditor at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland), Ken Consiglio (chief audit executive), Jim Deiotte (executive director at UC San Diego Rady School of Management and 2-time alum of Cleveland State University), Dr. Ken Kahn (dean, Monte Ahuja College of Business), Wade Lindenberger (lecturer at UC San Diego), Mary Ann Lawrence (adjunct professor and retired general auditor at KeyBank) and Rich Molina (lecturer at Cleveland State University).

The judges debated for nearly three hours.

First place went to Heidelberg University. Learn more about the Heidelberg team here. Case Western Reserve University was second and Baldwin Wallace was third.