Associate Professor of Accounting
Coordinator, M.B.A. Program in Professional Accountancy
If you're serious about a career in business management, you'll have to understand accounting. If you're lucky, you'll get to study it with Ithaca College professor Pat Libby. One of the best in the business, she wrote the book on the subject. Literally.
Libby is coauthor of Financial Accounting, the nation's leading accounting text. Now entering its fifth edition, her book redefined the way accounting is taught. The approach she advocates has become the centerpiece of accounting education at more than 100 leading business schools.
"Traditionally, accounting was taught as bookkeeping. That was it," Libby says. "When you were done, you were good at number crunching but you didn't know anything about applying that knowledge toward management decision making. It didn't reflect the real world. So we took a different approach. We said, 'It's not just the numbers; it's what you do with them that's important.' That's what you need to know to be successful in any business field."
In her book, as in her classroom, Libby weaves the skills of accounting into a multidisciplinary study of real-world companies and their real-world business challenges. She integrates the principles with their practical application, showing how accounting affects everything from global finance to local employee bonus plans. That hands-on, interdisciplinary approach reflects Ithaca's overall commitment to comprehensive education and proves that in the right hands, even the "driest" subjects can become remarkable.
"It's still one of the hardest courses you'll take," she says. "It's not meant to be easy. But I believe that challenge presents opportunity. My philosophy is to always strive for the highest quality. I have an expectation of professional performance, from my students and from myself."
Libby's approach, which is shared by her colleagues at Ithaca, yields tangible results for students. Ithaca's placement record is among the nation's best; 93 percent of the College's recent accounting majors accepted job offers before Commencement. Our graduates work at such prestigious firms as Ernst and Young, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Goldman Sachs. The success record is a tribute to Ithaca's talented students and to its remarkable faculty -- dedicated educators like Pat Libby.
"I have a passion for having my students succeed," Libby says simply. "That's where it all begins."
