RELEASE ON RECEIPT



MCINTIRE PROFESSORS RECOGNIZED FOR INNOVATIVE CLASSES

        CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Oct. 15 -- Three University of Virginia faculty 
members -- Anthony H. Catanach, David B. Croll and Robert L. Grinaker -- at 
the McIntire School of Commerce have won a national award for designing an 
innovative course in accounting.
        The American Accounting Association awarded the three professors its 
1997 Innovation in Accounting Education Award for their project, "A Business 
Activity Model for Intermediate Accounting."
        The project involved a complete revision of the two-semester course 
in intermediate accounting. Instead of relying on a dry "linear" presentation 
of factual information, the new approach teaches accounting principles by 
involving students in solving the day-to-day problems faced by a fictitious 
company. Heavy textbooks have been replaced by a sequence of computer 
spreadsheets that students work on in the school's computer lab.
        Anthony H. Catanach, an assistant professor of commerce, teaches 
financial accounting and auditing at McIntire. He received his doctorate from 
Arizona State University and is a certified public accountant. Before joining 
the McIntire faculty, he served as a senior financial officer for First 
Southwest Financial Services, a manager at Peat Marwick Mitchell & Co., and 
as a captain in the U.S. Marine Corps.
        David B. Croll, a professor of commerce and accounting, teaches 
managerial and cost accounting and intermediate accounting. He received his 
master's in business administration from the University of Michigan and his 
doctorate from Pennsylvania State University. His previous business 
experience includes serving as a program administrator and examinations 
director for the Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts, as a financial 
analyst for Ford Motor Co., and as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy.
        Robert L. Grinaker, the retired Carman Blough Professor of Accounting, 
is a certified public accountant who received his master's degree in business 
administration from Harvard University. Before retiring, Grinaker taught 
accounting theory, financial accounting and auditing at McIntire. His 
previous experience includes stints as a staff accountant at Price Waterhouse 
and as a director of the Allen Park Federal Savings and Loan. He also taught 
accounting on the faculties of the University of Texas at Austin, for nine 
years, and at the University of Houston, for 21 years.
        Joseph J. Schultz Jr., president of the AAA, noted in acknowledging 
the award that the methods used to teach intermediate accounting have proved 
the most resistant to change. Meanwhile, there has been a growing awareness 
in the profession of the importance of using business models in training 
accountants.
        "You have succeeded on both counts," Schultz said.
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                                                            October 14, 1997

         For more information call the AAAUs Joseph J. Schultz at (602) 
965-7197 or, at McIntire, Tony Catanach at (804) 924-0806, or Denise Forster, 
at (804) 924-7005.  Television reporters should call our TV News Office at 
(804) 924-7550.