MISSION
CAPI will serve as the public’s accountant, shedding light on financial matters of concern and interest to the local and regional community including students, alumni, parents, taxpayers, businesses, not-for-profit and government agencies.

Overview:
The Center for Accounting in the Public Interest (CAPI) is.....

• the Public's Accountant
• the Champion for Financial Literacy
• the Champion for Fraud Education
• the Champion for Stewardship Ethics
• Real World Application (Hands-on Work)

Need for the Center:
The Center for Accounting in the Public Interest (CAPI) serves the public’s need for a restored sense of confidence and trust in how financial issues are handled by business and government.

Our local community faces a complex prism of challenging issues at the intersection of ethics and accounting. Pensions, budgets, audits, and ill-gotten financial gains provide rich case studies for the kinds of issues that CAPI helps to analyze and then explain. CAPI provides an informed and objective interpretation of financial issues, while helping to increase the public’s financial literacy.

Role of the Center:
Most important, CAPI is not an advocate, nor an adversary, but provides a platform from which to disseminate unbiased analysis and explanations of financial projections and assumptions. CAPI serves the target population of the San Diego public by working with the university population of students, faculty, administrators and alumni.

The purpose of the Center for Accounting in the Public Interest (CAPI) is to provide a place that is pro-active, that is focused on what works, and that provides a forum to seek solutions without assigning blame. Research coming from the Center includes participative methods which seek to combine practical applications with theoretical concepts. The Center recognizes and accepts responsibility for making a difference in the community by embracing the University’s potential to transform students, faculty and the community.

Goals of the Center:
The Center will focus on the following goals to guide its choice of initiatives:

• Practicing and Sharing by developing continuing professional education (CPE), college course modules, internships, service-based learning, and a College of Business Administration (or School of Accountancy) student honor code.
• Pondering and Thinking by hosting speakers, conferences, and workshops.
• Publicizing and Informing by use of a website, newsletters, and public service announcements (using KPBS).
• Partnering with other campus groups, other institutes, city and county government, industry groups, businesses and not-for-profit entities.

Significance of CAPI:
Public perception is that one cannot trust what is being said or done at corporate and government institutions because of a lack of transparency, completeness, independence and objectivity. San Diego State University is uniquely positioned to lead the way to both restore public trust and confidence, and at the same time, to help enlighten our students and the public with increased financial literacy skills. This is another form of confidence building, because when individuals become more confident in their abilities to critique information, they may become more active and involved as citizens.

The School of Accountancy is synergistically aligned with the Center for Accounting in the Public Interest (CAPI) through existing course offerings such as Fraud Examination and Regulatory Issues. We have faculty currently conducting research in ethics and corporate governance, which also support the Center’s mission. We offer graduate credit for service-learning in the Fraud examination course.

The School of Accountancy is also eager to expand its course offerings both to students and industry professionals in the area of Sarbanes-Oxley and other regulatory compliance issues. CAPI intends to aggressively pursue these priorities by providing training courses and thought leadership in this area.

School of accountancy faculty current activities:

• Offer graduate courses in Fraud Examination, and Regulatory and Management Controls
• Publish research papers related to Corporate Governance
• Plan to develop a Corporate Governance Track within the MSA Program
• Partner with the Corporate Governance Institute (CGI) in research endeavors
• Facilitate student participation in:
  - Campus Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program (VITA)
  - Financial Literacy Project with the CalCPA
• Other volunteer pursuits
  - Examine financial aspects of aging
  - Host speakers to discuss relevant public concerns

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