H&S day for Howard Business Club;

              H&S DAY FOR
HOWARD
BUSINESS CLUB
Joseph D. Wesselkamper,
Executive Office,
displays an Auditape
reel as he explains
the H&S Auditape System
to visiting Howard
University students.
April 3rd was Haskins & Sells day in
New York for thirty-one members of
the Business Club at Howard Univer­sity,
Washington, D.C. The occasion
was the first day of a three-day field
trip to New York, designed to give
Howard students of business adminis­tration
a chance to learn about career
opportunities in business. Students
visiting in groups are a familiar sight
in H&S offices.
Chartered by Act of Congress in
1867, Howard at its start was a school
for Negro freedmen. Since that time it
has expanded greatly in size and pur­pose.
The University admits students
of both sexes and every ethnic back­ground,
but its special responsibility
remains the training of Negro students.
Since World War II, an influx of stu­dents
from the West Indies, Africa, and
other former colonial areas has made
the Howard student body broadly
international. Howard alumni are in­creasingly
represented in the profes­sions
and business around the world.
The Howard University Business
Club day at H&S developed from cor­respondence
early in 1968 between
Edwin R. Lang, H&S National Per­sonnel
Partner, and the club's field trip
chairman, Sammy L. Watson. The
club's first letter of inquiry about a pos­sible
introduction to a major public ac­counting
firm elicited from Mr. Lang a
prompt invitation to visit H&S. As club
President Conliffe L. Thomas later ex­plained
it, Ed Lang's response was one
of genuine cordiality and sincerity.
Communication led to action. Lang
flew to Washington, conferred with
club leaders ("in a spirit of complete
frankness," President Thomas said) and
helped to arrange the club's program
for the full three days.
The field trip schedule was rugged.
It began at 2:30 in the morning on
April 3rd, when the group boarded a
bus for the 240-mile drive to New York
City. Accompanying the students was
the Club's faculty advisor, Joseph J.
Urciolo. By 9 a.m. the students were
being welcomed into the H&S confer­ence
room by Ed Lang and Irwin C.
Rust, Assistant Personnel Director.
From there on it was like an intensive
five-class day at the University, in
which lectures and question-answer
periods followed one another in rapid
succession. Speakers and subjects in­cluded
Colin Park on H&S auditing
practice; T Milton Kupfer on tax prac­tice;
Gordon L. Murray on MAS; Rob­ert
L. Steele on H&S international prac­tice,
and Joseph D. Wesselkamper on
Auditape. The students remained
keenly alert throughout. Their sharp
questioning showed that the H&S
speakers had stimulated an intense in­terest
in the part to be played by men
and women with accounting skill in
the unfolding world of tomorrow.
That evening, when representatives
of the Firm and our student guests had
dinner together at the Barbizon-Plaza
Hotel, there was no mistaking the pre­vailing
spirit. Messrs. Thomas, Watson,
Lang, and Rust arose to exchange com­pliments
and thanks. And everyone
present sensed the larger meaning of
the day—that both Haskins & Sells and
Howard students, looking to the future,
were extending hands to one another
in a cooperation that can greatly bene­fit
both in the years ahead. Their mu­tual
gain would be reflected in the
accounting profession as a whole. •
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