UA Accounting Professor Receives National Education Award

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Ed Schnee is no stranger to winning.

As the Hugh Culverhouse Professor of Accounting at the Culverhouse School of Accountancy at The University of Alabama, Schnee won the School of Accountancy’s Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award in 1990. And he received the American Tax Association Outstanding Service Award in 2004.

Last month, he won the 3.0 division championship in the Pritchett-Moore Men’s City Invitational at Indian Hills Golf and Tennis Club, the largest tennis tournament in West Alabama.

But his selection earlier this month for the Outstanding Tax Educator Award by the American Taxation Association has a special meaning for Schnee.

The award is named in honor of the late Dr. Ray M. Sommerfeld, long-time professor of accounting at the University of Texas at Austin. Sommerfeld, the first recipient of the award, earned a reputation as a pioneer of tax education and provided a lifetime of service to students, colleagues and the profession of taxation. Sommerfeld was an avid sailor, and the award that now sits on Schnee’s office bookshelf is a representation of a billowing mainsail.

“Ray really changed the course of tax education both from a research and a teaching point of view,” Schnee said. “Ray also found time to assist any faculty member, and not just those at his institution. He was sort of a mentor to many of us.”

The award, presented in cooperation with the Ernst &Young Foundation, recognizes outstanding contributions by a faculty member teaching taxation at a recognized academic institution and is based on teaching, research and service.

In making the award, the ATA Awards Committee considers contributions to curriculum or program development (including related research and/or superior teaching), participation in student activities, service to an academic institution, participation in professional activities, and activities furthering taxation as an academic field of study and research.

Schnee said receiving the Sommerfeld award “means that my attempt to emulate and apply the knowledge I gained from Ray has succeeded to the point that my colleagues have been able to recognize it and that my striving toward excellence has been recognized.”

Making the award even more meaningful was the presenter, Alabama graduate Dr. Hughlene Burton, now an associate professor of accounting at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

Schnee, who received his Bachelor of Business Administration degree from City College of New York, his MBA and doctorate from Michigan State University, teaches accounting seniors and master’s students and has been the coordinator for the Culverhouse School of Accountancy Master in Tax Accounting program for the past 26 years.

That means that Schnee has sent more than 400 students with master’s degrees in tax accounting out into the business world.

Schnee acknowledged that his reputation as a teacher is “tough but fair.”

“My job in the classroom is to incorporate policy, history and business planning,” he said. “I have tried to maintain consistent standards for the entire time I have been here. In doing so, I provide my students with the knowledge and ability to succeed in practice.”

“Today’s students are much more knowledgeable in technology, but they have not been challenged as much in the reasoning and communicating areas,” he said. “Critical thinking is essential.”

Schnee said he is concerned that MTA programs around the country are in danger of being discontinued.

“Because of financial reasons, more and more schools are eliminating the tax program. We offer something very special and different for our students,” he said.