UHV assistant accounting professor helps students reach potential
Ziyun “Calvin” Yang, a University of Houston-Victoria assistant professor of accounting, started his career working in Shanghai in the accounting department of a big corporation.
But after three years, Yang shifted gears, setting in motion a career in teaching and research.
“I’ve always been interested in research,” he said. “After three years of working in the private sector, I applied for a doctoral program and was accepted by UH.”
Fresh off earning his accounting doctorate, Yang joined the UHV School of Business Administration faculty in 2012. His teaching goal always has been to develop students’ potential and help them achieve their learning objectives.
“I encourage my undergraduate students to pursue a master’s degree and prepare them as much as possible for employment,” he said.
His other goals are tied to his research and school service.
“One paper my colleague and I just published is focused on the U.S. banking system,” Yang said. “While studying public and private banks, we found that public banks have more incentives to manipulate earnings.”
Yang, 37, also is working on a paper about social capital, community banks and earnings management behavior.
“We have found that when their regional social capital is higher, community banks are less likely to manipulate earnings,” Yang said. “The financial crisis has left us with a lot of unanswered questions, so that’s what I’m trying to do – come up with those answers.”
A Chinese native, Yang earned his bachelor’s degree in accounting from Nanjing University in Nanjing, northwest of Shanghai, and a master’s degree in accounting from Lingnan University in Hong Kong. That is where Yang developed his nickname, Calvin. Most students in Hong Kong are known by their nicknames, he said.
Yang will commute from Sugar Land, where he lives with his wife and 6-year-old daughter, to Victoria to teach “Financial Statement Analysis” two mornings a week during the fall semester. He also will be teaching other UHV courses at the new UH System at Katy campus and online.
Yang has watched UHV continue to grow the past four years. Once the incoming student center, library, residential hall and new academic building are completed, Yang said he expects to see even more students in Victoria.
While the new food court at the student center might be a good lunch destination in 2018 for Yang, right now he usually opts for Jaguar Hall Dining or the nearby Dairy Queen.
“I enjoy the food from Jaguar Hall,” he said. “It’s a good choice for faculty and students.”
Faculty Feature is an online feature highlighting faculty members from each of the University of Houston-Victoria’s three schools. To nominate a faculty member, contact Jeremy Shapiro, UHV communications manager, or call 361-570-4296.
The University of Houston-Victoria, located in the heart of the Coastal Bend region since 1973 in Victoria, Texas, offers courses leading to more than 80 academic programs in the schools of Arts & Sciences; Business Administration; and Education, Health Professions & Human Development. UHV provides face-to-face classes at its Victoria campus, as well as an instructional site in Katy, Texas, and online classes that students can take from anywhere. UHV supports the American Association of State Colleges and Universities Opportunities for All initiative to increase awareness about state colleges and universities and the important role they have in providing a high-quality and accessible education to an increasingly diverse student population, as well as contributing to regional and state economic development.
