A grant given in the name of a professor totaling $200,000 will be awarded to NIU’s accountancy department over the next ten years.

NIU accountancy professor Patrick Delaney is the recipient of the grant, or professorship, which helps pay for the professor’s expenses and cost of living increases.

This is the third professorship awarded to a professor in the accountancy department. It was sponsored by Arthur Andersen & Co., a Chicago-based accounting firm.

Richard Disney, a spokesman for Arthur Andersen & Co. and an NIU graduate, said the professorship was awarded because of his efforts and the efforts of other NIU graduates working for Arthur Andersen & Co.

About 250 NIU graduates are currently employed in the accounting and computer science areas of the firm. Arthur Andersen & Co. has been employing NIU graduates since the 1960s.

Delaney was chosen for the professorship by Andersen representatives Richard Brown, dean of the College of Business, and John Smith, accounting department chairman.

Disney said, “The NIU accountancy department produces the finest graduates in the country.” Disney said the quality of education has not changed since he graduated in 1973.

A national survey taken in Dec. 1987 ranked the NIU accountancy department third in the nation.

The accounting firm also targeted the scores of NIU accounting students on Certified Public Accountant exams as reason to grant Delaney the professorship. NIU undergraduates taking the test (a four-part, three-day exam) for the first time have scored the overall highest pass rate in the country.

In 1986, 70 percent of NIU’s accountancy students passed the CPA exam on their first attempt while the national average was 19.4 percent.

Delaney graduated from Lewis University, received his MS and PhD degrees from the University of Illinois and was the accountancy department chairman between 1979 and 1985.

He was named the NIU Department of Accountancy Outstanding Teacher several times and was selected by Lewis University as a distinguished alumnus.

The “CPA Examination Review” and the “GAAP: Interpretation and Application” are two textbooks the professor helped to write.

Other professorships were granted to accountancy professor Donald Kieso by Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co in Sept. 1986. More recently, Smith was awarded the Household International, Inc. professorship in Dec. 1987.