Wayne E. Leininger Retires
Leininger joined the university in 1971 after earning a Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts. Since 1983, he has served as head of what is now the Department of Accounting and Information Systems. The changes he has seen in the department during his tenure include not just the embrace of information systems in name and curriculum, but a larger and more diverse faculty and a higher number of female students - now half the total enrolled in the department, compared to the handful in the early 1980s.
Leininger actually began as an interim head, filling in for Larry Killough, who was on sabbatical. But he ended up staying on after Killough returned and decided to step down from the position. Leininger says he was swayed by the opportunity to steer accounting education at Virginia Tech along the broad path he and Killough envisaged, away from what they felt was the "narrow, CPA-exam-driven curriculum" at some schools. "We felt that we were preparing people for careers in business, not just in accounting." The department's curriculum, Leininger says, has served, and continues to serve, as a model for other schools. He has stayed in administration all these years, he says, because he truly enjoyed the work, in particular, mentoring faculty and helping students with their problems, whether they were academic, career-related, or personal. His staff members, whom he regards as family, "have been a joy to work with."
Under his leadership, the department has expanded its undergraduate and graduate programs of study. It has been highly successful in cultivating the financial support of its alumni and friends, who have endowed 47 scholarships and fellowships, valued at about $3.5 million. "We've been blessed with generous loyal alumni and friends who share our vision of what we're trying to accomplish." About 40 alumni and friends serve on the ACIS advisory board, which offers guidance on fundraising, job placement, and curriculum matters (the department is one of two in Pamplin with its own advisory board).
Leininger is also very proud of the department's faculty, which he considers its greatest asset: "They come from the country's leading institutions. They have demonstrated their commitment to teaching and their proficiency in conducting research and publishing in top-tier journals." Nevertheless, his faculty members have also been a challenge to work with at times, he says. Given their wide-ranging specialties and interests, from taxation and financial accounting to management control systems and information systems, achieving consensus on departmental goals and direction - "maintaining balance and not allowing any one view to dominate" - has sometimes been arduous, Leininger says.
The aspect of his job that he has found least appealing, however, is academe's structural hierarchy. The layers of approval required at the college, university, and state levels "inhibit our ability to bring about change in a timely manner, especially in our curriculum." Another significant frustration has been the impact of reduced state funding on long-term planning. We've developed a credible strategic plan for the next five years. But whenever we're hit with budget cuts, we have to take some backward steps, making strategic planning irrelevant."
While regretful about retiring during a time of shrinking budgets, Leininger is looking forward to seeing more of his six grandchildren, none of whose birthdays he has been able to attend. He and his wife, Dorothy, are active in church and community service, and he is looking forward to having more time for volunteer activities.
