FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
97-60


     CHIEF ACCOUNTANT SELECTS ACADEMIC ACCOUNTING FELLOW


     Washington, D.C., July 17, 1997 -- The Securities and
Exchange Commission's Office of the Chief Accountant
recently selected Professor Walter R. Teets of Gonzaga
University as the Academic Accounting Fellow for a one-year
term beginning August, 1997.  Currently, Professor Teets is
a member of the accounting faculty in Gonzaga's School of
Business Administration, located in Spokane, Washington.
He received a Ph.D. degree in accounting from the
University of Chicago, a master's degree in accounting from
the University of Wisconsin_Whitewater, and a bachelor's
degree in music education from the University of Colorado
at Boulder.  Prior to joining the Gonzaga faculty, he
taught at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
and Washington University in St. Louis. Professor Teets'
research focuses on the relation between accounting
earnings and stock prices, using both empirical methodology
and computer simulation.   He has served as a reviewer for
the Journal of Accounting Research, The Accounting Review,
and the Journal of Accounting, Auditing & Finance, and has
also presented CPE seminars on accounting and auditing uses
of the World Wide Web, and on Statement of Financial
Accounting Standards No. 123.

     At the Commission, the Academic Accounting Fellow
serves as a research expertise resource for the Staff by
interpreting and communicating extant research materials as
they relate to various projects in process or general areas
of interest to the SEC.  In addition, the Academic Fellow
has been assigned to mainstream OCA projects, including
rule-
making, liaison with the professional accounting standard-
setting bodies, and consultation with registrants on
accounting and reporting matters.  Professor Teets will
replace the current academic accounting fellow, Robert
Lipe, who will become the KPMG Peat Marwick Centennial
Professor of Accounting at the University of Oklahoma in
August.

                              
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