DH&S Foundation: Two new educational grant programs announced;

              $1.5 million over the next five years...
Two New Educational Grant Programs Announced
The DH&S
The Deloitte Haskins & Sells Foundation recently an-nounced a five-year commitment of $1.5 million for two new programs. The DH&S Doctoral Fellowship Program and the DH&S Graduate Research Assistant Program, both to begin with the 1980-81 academic year, are the latest de-velopments in the Foundation's long history of commit-ment to the improvement of accounting education and research.
According to Robert L. Steele, partner in charge of re cruitment and college relations, "these new programs are a logical outgrowth and extension of the Foundation's activities over the past half century which have became increasingly focused on the support of accounting faculty development,"
The Foundation was incorporated in 1928 by partners Charles S. Ludlam, Arthur H. Carter, Arthur S. Vaughan, Charles E. Morris and Arthur B. Foye. At that time its stated purposes were:
To make donations to legally constituted charitable, educational, scientific, religious, literary, library, patriotic and historical institutions and associations.
To make donations for benevolent purposes, including the promotion of education and study of useful sciences and especially in connection with the profession of accountancy.
Assistance of such accountants and employees of accounting firms, who may be incapacitated by age, infirmity or physical disability, and the education and support of their dependent families, as in the judgment of the directors may be deserving.
To promote the well-being of mankind.
At first the emphasis was on the third of these purposes, and the Foundation made monthly grants to a number of retired employees and dependent families. Over the years the firm's own pension and employee-benefit plans evolved, and the Foundation withdrew from such activity. At the same time its involvement in the support and im-provement of accounting education continued to grow, most dramatically over the past two decades, and that is now seen by the Foundation members as its most impor-tant function.
"The first contributions to the Foundation were made by the firm, and the fund w&s very substantially increased at intervals by bequests of partners. Contributions continue to
be received, primarily from active and retired partners and from the firm.
The Foundation made a number of specific educational grants in the years before 1956, but it had no formal pro-gram of support for accounting education. According to Bob Steele, this lack was related to the fact that there was as yet no centralized recruitment organization for the firm nationally As he told DH&S Reports, "Recruiting efforts were left up to the individual offices, and sustained and productive contacts were maintained on only a limited number of college campuses."
The beginning of a coordinated, firmwide recruitment effort came in the mid-1950s when Lawrence M. Walsh, now partner in charge of the Miami office and regional partner in charge of the New York region, became the firm's first national personnel partner Since then, there has been a continuing progression of increased involvement with ac-counting faculty and students on campuses all over the country.
The Foundation responded to the changed circumstances in 1956 with the establishment of Scholastic Awards for Excellence in Accounting and a number of faculty-assistance grants. The scholastic award was given to a high-ranking student at each of (at first) thirty-eight col-leges and universities. Winners were selected by a faculty committee on the basis of factors "deemed to make for future success in public accounting." The student received $500 and a medallion inscribed "for excellence in account-ing," and the school received a plaque to which the names of subsequent winners could be added. The award pro-gram expanded until in the early seventies some one hundred schools were included. About that time individual practice offices began to take over the administration of the awards for the schools within their practice areas.
In the 1950s the Foundation was already very much aware of the critical need for teachers in the field of accounting. Faculty-assistance grants were established to give financial support to qualified people as encouragement to pursue advanced degrees and go on into teaching. In the first year grants of $1,000 were made to individuals at five universi-ties. This program, too, grew impressively. The DH&S Fellowship Awards, as they came to be called, eventually provided a grant of $3,500, generally renewable for a three-year period, to deserving doctoral candidates at forty-four universities. More than 665 grants were made in all. The recipients were chosen by their school faculties with the concurrence of the appropriate practice offices.
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