The money will be placed in the Al Arens Teaching Excellence Fund.
The money will be used to make contributions to the university’s lower-level accounting programs, including providing teaching assistants to those classes.

“We thought it would be appropriate to honor (Arens’) contributions to MSU,” said Paul Balas, an Alumni Association Board of Directors member and assurance partner with the PwC Academic Foundation.
Balas worked closely with MSU on the project.

Balas frequently interacted with Arens for several years as a result of his work with the university.

“He was a very caring person,” Balas said. “His vocation was to make sure accounting students had a great learning experience.”

Along with recognizing Arens’ legacy, PwC’s work with MSU also was a major factor, Balas said.

“They’ve been such a great source of staff over the years,” Balas said. “We think we get hardworking students (from MSU).”

Furthermore, something that set MSU apart from other schools is MSU focuses more on its undergraduate programs than other schools, Balas said.

Accounting junior Nicholas Berti, president of the Accounting Student Association and teaching assistant, is encouraged by the donation.

“Providing the money to have student assistants is great,” Berti said. “It helps pay for our salary and gives teachers the ability to continue to have student assistants.”

In addition to assisting professors, Berti­ believes the grant will help students in terms of their personal visibility and job opportunities.

“Grants like this put the spotlight on MSU as a whole,” Berti said. “It’s a branding issue, where we can market the fact that ‘I went to MSU.’”

The fact that the money is donated in honor of Arens also is fitting, said Kathy Petroni, a Deloitte/Michael Licata professor of accounting.

“He was such a strong leader and a good mentor and he set a really good example,” Petroni said.