Professor of Accounting Michael Sweeney accepted the Teaching Excellence Award from the Michigan Association of Certified Public Accountants at a banquet on Oct. 5.
The association notified Sweeney about the award in the spring, after Lecturer in Accounting Louis Petro nominated him for the honor.
“The MICPA Accounting Teaching Excellence Award recognizes educators who excel in teaching accounting and promoting the CPA profession,” Ryan Cherian, MICPA director of membership, said in an email. “The stellar individuals who receive this award not only emphasize the importance of accounting education to the profession but also the role professors play in supporting CPAs.”
Petro, who is a senior manager at Cendrowski Corporate Advisors, is filling in for Sweeney this semester while he is on sabbatical. He and Sweeney have known each other since meeting at the University of Detroit in 1975, and last year, Petro won the same award after Sweeney nominated him.
“I just knew he was doing a really good job,” Petro said. “I felt because of his experience that he was eminently qualified for that award. He really deserves it.”
Petro noted that Sweeney has to handle a fuller workload than some professors at other colleges.
“At a big school, a professor might only teach the same course over and over again, but Mike’s got four different classes for sure that he has to teach,” he said. “He’s got the depth that these other people have, but he’s got more breadth, for sure.”
Sweeney is a good lecturer, too, junior On Yu Lee said.
“He’s very straightforward, very clear, and he makes the material really interesting,” she said. “He’s one of my favorite professors at Hillsdale College. Many of my friends, who are accounting majors or are taking his classes, say he’s their favorite professor, too.”
Outside his work at Hillsdale College, Sweeney teaches an online class for the University of Maryland, where he won the Stanley J. Drazek Teaching Excellence Award in 2006. Sweeney also assists low-income households with tax filings through the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program, coaches hurdlers on the Jonesville High School and Junior High School track teams, and serves as chairman of the city of Hillsdale Hospital Finance Authority.
Despite his accomplishments, Sweeney is kind and down-to-earth, Lee said.
“Going to office hours is like visiting a friend’s house,” she said. “He’s both a good professor and a good friend to just anyone. Many of us are missing him a lot while he’s on sabbatical.”
After learning of the recognition, Sweeney compiled an extensive list of the people he wanted to thank, including his students.
“I’ve learned more from my students than they’ve learned from me,” he said. “I may know the most about this particular narrow field, but if you take all the different knowledge levels of all the students in that room, the sum of their knowledge dwarfs mine. So it’s been a give-and-take thing.”
Sweeney also expressed gratitude to God; his family; his wife, Susan; and his colleagues.
“I am so blessed,” he said.
