Cotten Nominated for 2025 CSU Chappell Graduate Award

Turner College professor of finance Brett Cotten has been nominated by the Turner College's Awards & Scholarships Committee for the 2025 CSU Excellence in Online Award. This award recognizes those full-time members of the Columbus State University Graduate Faculty who, in the tradition established by Dr. William "Bill" Chappell, have demonstrated excellence in teaching Columbus State University's graduate students and have contributed outstanding professional service to the Graduate School, the University and the community. Although Cotten only recently returned to teaching in the Turner College's MBA program, he spent a lot of time last winter and spring developing and teaching the Managerial Finance course for the program.  In addition, he worked with and provided input toward the development of the finance portion of a new MBA class, Foundations for Business. In speaking with Turner Business, Cotten explained his pedagogical approach. "I want students to be able to apply the concepts and tools they learn, and I developed two projects to allow them to do so. The first project is a financial statement analysis project in which students analyze the financial statements of a publicly traded company to gain insight into the firm’s profitability, efficiency, liquidity, and solvency. Students conduct their analysis using financial ratios and other tools we cover, and present the results of their analysis and their conclusions about the firm’s financial strength and health in a written report." Cotten's course also includes a capital budgeting project in which students analyze a project under consideration by a firm. Students are required to build proforma financial statements and identify the cash flows associated with the project. After identifying the relevant cash flows, students use a number of capital budgeting tools to evaluate the project. Finally, students present the results of their analysis and their recommendations in a written report. Lastly, Cotten is also able to bring his own research into the classroom when beneficial. Over the course of his academic career he has published in Financial Services Review, Quarterly Journal of Finance & Accounting, Journal of Theoretical Accounting Research, Journal of Applied Research in Accounting & Finance, Southern Business & Economic Journal, Coastal Business Journal, and Tennessee CPA Journal. Turner Business wishes Cotten the best of luck in April 2025, when the winner of the award will be named.