Center for Teaching and Learning

Faculty Interview
Michael P. Sweeney
Business Administration

Hear the audio clip on helping students overcome the fear of using statistics for quantitative analysis. (2:04)

Like all of us, I have many roles in life that often complement and sometimes conflict with each-other. Some roles that best describe me include: Husband, father, brother, teacher, storyteller, athlete, beer enthusiast.

After two decades of experience in face-to-face classes I started teaching online for UMUC about five years ago; mostly because I wanted to try something new. It has proven to be one of the most rewarding career choices that I have ever made. It forced me to seriously consider, for the first time, how I teach and how students learn. The lessons that I have learned from my experiences with UMUC have spilled over to enrich my face to face classes; renewing my enthusiasm for teaching and fundamentally changing my perception of the learning process.

When not teaching for UMUC I work full-time for Hillsdale College in South-Central Michigan where I hold the United Parcel Service Chair in Economics and Business Administration and serve as a Professor of Accounting.

There are so many people who have helped and influenced me over the years. I'll tell you a little bit about my first academic mentor. I started my undergraduate education as an English major at Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I changed to Business Administration my junior year. (Some of my colleagues in the Liberal Arts jokingly say I “lost my way”.) I signed up for Principles of Accounting I because it was required for my major. My teacher was Mr. Corradinni, a young, energetic new faculty member. At the time I was not, by any means, a stellar student. My choice of college was primarily dictated by my desire to compete on the track team (I did end up with a satisfying career in that regard.) However, up to this point I was used to not fully applying myself academically but still doing well enough to earn B's in most of my classes. In retrospect I was just drifting. I had no passion. This class, though, was different. Here was a teacher who thoroughly enjoyed what he did. Still, I tried coasting for the first few weeks and was rewarded with a D on the first exam; my first (and only) at Aquinas. Not knowing what to do I went to see my teacher outside of class (also a first). I can still see Mr. Corradinni sitting at his desk grading papers. I asked him what he thought I should do. He never even looked up. He said “Maybe you should drop the class.”

That stunned me. I left without a word. Later I became angry. “Drop the class? Me? Drop the class!?! I'll show him!”

Show him I did. I worked my tail off in that class for the rest of the semester. I discovered the satisfaction that comes from working hard on a complex problem until I discovered the solution. I ended up with a B+ in that class and from then on I was hooked. Mr. Corradinni became my mentor and friend. He helped me develop focus and passion and he is one of the reasons that I am a teacher today.

I have come to realize that there is no “one size fits all” teaching method. Therefore, I try to provide several different methods for my students to learn. Textbooks, written notes, slideshow presentations, videos available online (produced at my desktop and also recordings of live classroom presentations), online self-test quizzes, homework feedback and classroom discussions are some of the tools and methods I currently use. My goal is to present the student with a variety of different, but complementary ways to learn.

Since my fist time teaching accounting in 1975, my experiences have influenced the way I teach. I continually tweak my classroom model. I try to incorporate one or two new teaching tools or methods each year.

My area of interest is accounting; management accounting in particular. Management accounting deals with information for internal decision making as opposed to external financial statements. As I am fond of telling my introductory students, financial accounting is rule-based while management accounting “has no rules”! Of course this is a simplification but it does have a basis in fact. Consequently, creativity, listening and communication skills are important as well as the analytical and quantitative skills normally associated with accounting.

In addition to being an academic I am also an accounting professional, having earned both the Certified Public Accountant (C.P.A.) and Certified Management Accountant (C.M.A.) designations. To stay current in accounting I read professional publications such as Strategic Finance as well as academic publications. I attend both professional and academic conferences and have written articles that have been published in professional and academic journals.

•  Read the Wall Street Journal on a regular basis.

•  Read the Wall Street Journal on a regular basis

•  Finally: Read the Wall Street Journal on a regular basis.