Beginning October 27^th, the business office adopted the new title of department of accounting and finance. This new alteration helps to communicate the two distinct uses of the new department.  

Scott Stewart holds the title of Controller for Cornerstone University, in that he manages all of the university’s accounting and audit functions. Holding such a title, it is no wonder that he has also been appointed as the head of the accounting division of the department of accounting and finance. Stewart has remained quite supportive of the new title change for a good while now.

“We would do customer service surveys within our department, but would get responses back like, ‘We really appreciate the accounting professors.’ People were getting the accounting department confused with the business department, which we saw as a problem,” Stewart said.

Stewart has found the new alteration to be effective thus far.

“Accounting is replacing a lot of the regular business offices. We still receive student payments, cash checks, make accounts payable on payroll, and do a lot of other things,” Stewart said. “This change is just making things more specific for the students. Instead of being instructed to go to the business office, we can now tell people to please go to the customer service office in the accounting department, so it makes things easier to find.”

Stewart was also quite clear on the fact that although the name of the department has changed, the functions will remain the same.

“Really all we are doing is changing the way that we will be recognized now,” Stewart said.

Director of financial analysis Stephen Popp oversees the financial division of the department of accounting and finance. Prior to the new title alteration, Popp had worked alongside budget analyst Gina Knight in an isolated environment from most of the business department. Popp finds that the new change has improved this problem greatly.

“I think it has brought cohesion to our staff,” Popp said. “Before, we had the business office and then Gina and I on the side. By giving the entire department this new title though, it brings us all together as a team. We have always worked well with one another, but the name has allowed us something to claim together so that we can work as one.”

Some of Popp’s duties include overseeing CU’s budgeting process and looking ahead at future financial opportunities for the university.

“While Scott’s [Stewart] looking at more transactional, day to day stuff, we’re actually looking forward to new and different ventures. We mainly deal with budgeting, forecasting, and modeling,” Popp said.

Popp has found that one of the biggest differences derived from the new title change is the providing of more financial infrastructure data base support with different software and databases.  He said that the change will have little to no effect on students, due to the more administrational setup of the financial division.

Senior vice president and chief financial officer Nancy Schoonmaker oversees the new department. She works with both Stewart and Popp on a day to day basis, and has seen the positive effects the change has already yielded for both of them. It was actually she that allowed the change to happen.

“What really made things evident to me was to see what Stephen [Popp] and Gina did, though they were not really part of the business office,” Schoonmaker said. It really seemed to be two distinct functions to me. So I thought, ‘how can we bring this under one umbrella, but have two distinct functions?’” 

Schoonmaker found that dividing the department in two would be an excellent idea, and since its two main functions were financing and accounting, the division was chosen as such.

“I’m excited about the efficiencies it [change] will bring on a day to day basis. I’m also very excited to get to work with Scott and Stephen. I think we’re in a very strong position to move forward,” Schoonmaker said.