New Barton School of Business Dean appointed
By Amy Geiszler-Jones
John Beehler, who has served as an associate dean at the University of Texas at Arlington, will become dean of the W. Frank Barton School of Business July 1, according to Peter Zoller, interim vice president for academic affairs.
Beehler will replace longtime faculty member Gerald Graham who after spending seven years as dean will return to full-time teaching.
A certified public accountant, Beehler had been the chief operating officer of UTA's College of Business Administration in his position as associate dean for academic affairs and administration from 1996 until recently. He currently serves as chair of its accounting department.
Before joining the UTA accounting faculty in 1988, he had taught at the University of Oklahoma (January 1986-December 1987) and Indiana University (January 1981 to December 1985).
"The Barton School is already a very good business school, and that’s a positive," said Beehler, who will receive an annual state salary of $175,000. "There are things we can do to make it even better."
He was encouraged to see the school already has strong support from the university administration and local business community. "That’s the kind of atmosphere I was looking for," he said. He would like to broaden some of that support and interaction with the business community to include those outside of Wichita.
Beehler also would like to enhance the school’s technology infrastructure and curriculum, which has had limited progress with the upgrading of some classrooms and the addition of the management information systems degree in recent years. "We really need to upgrade the technology in the school so we can teach this new wave in curriculum and technology," he said.
At UTA, he chaired a task force that successfully got $400,000 in funding to develop eight distance education classes in the MBA program within the entire University of Texas system.
Besides leading Kansas' largest business school, Beehler also will be a part of the WSU accounting faculty. He's won three teaching awards over the course of his career.
His teaching and research interests are in taxation, and he has published in several notable publications as the Journal of Taxation, the Journal of Applied Business Research, Today’s CPA, The Tax Adviser, and Tax Notes.
Beehler earned his degrees from two of the top business schools in the United States: the doctorate in accounting in 1985 and the MBA in 1982 from Indiana University's Kelley School of Business and the bachelor's degree, with highest honors, in accounting in 1977 from Smeal College of Business Administration at Penn State.
