Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Accounting Education journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jaccedu Educational Case Power from the ground up: Using data analytics in capital budgeting Ben Angelo a , Douglas Ayres b , Jason Stanfield b, ⁎ a Purdue University, United States b Ball State University, United States ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Data analytics Capital budgeting Not for profit ABSTRACT In this case, you will perform quantitative and qualitative analyses to determine if a university should repair its existing coal powered boilers or replace the aging system with a geothermal plant. Politicians and local coal workers are pressuring the university to repair the existing coal furnace because this strategy requires a lower initial investment and supports the local coal industry. Faculty and students are pressuring the university to make an investment in green energy by constructing a geothermal plant, despite the higher initial cost. In conducting your analysis, you must balance the desires of these stakeholders against financial realities. You will: (1) apply statistical skills to evaluate cost behavior and consumption trends using historical data, (2) develop skills in predictive data analysis to forecast future possible outcomes, (3) analyze the impact qualitative factors may have in making appropriate recommendations from data from the perspective of various stake- holders, and (4) strengthen applied spreadsheet skills and proficiency. 1. The case Elizabeth Robertson looked through her office window onto the campus mall at the protesting students and audibly sighed. Since taking the Chancellor’s post at Holt State University, Elizabeth had developed a reputation for getting her way. A frequently divided Board of Trustees often made the job difficult. Though no one knew for sure, rumors flew when she was first appointed that she was a contentious choice and only squeaked by in the final vote. Still, Robertson was a hard woman not to like, with a reputation of being approachable to students, inspiring to alumni, and effective with donors. Generally respected by the faculty as an accomplished academic, she could deftly navigate political waters and get things done. The problem was, this time, she wasn’t sure what she wanted to accomplish. This was her fourth year as Chancellor. It had been three years since she first learned about Holt State’s aging coal-fired boilers that were used to heat the entire campus. The plant was first constructed in the early 1960s for a campus of 10,000 students. Now the boilers were nearing the end of their useful lives and needed to be refurbished. However, it was hard to argue with the protesting students who insisted there was no environmental future for coal. Robertson’s personal convictions told her to go grab a sign and protest with the students. Spending millions of dollars to continue burning coal just felt wrong. Despite that, the price of investing in green power was impossible to ignore. “More than twice the cost” was appearing every- where in news headlines questioning the proposed geothermal system, and that was going to be a hard sell to the taxpayers of Ohio. Politicians from the coal producing counties of southeastern Ohio were delivering veiled threats to defund the university. Coal miners were worried that this change to geothermal heating would hurt the Ohio coal mining industry, possibly costing them their jobs. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaccedu.2017.12.004 Received 4 May 2017; Received in revised form 22 December 2017; Accepted 23 December 2017 ⁎ Corresponding author at: Whitinger Business Building, Muncie, IN 47306, United States. E-mail address: jwstanfield@bsu.edu (J. Stanfield). Journal of Accounting Education xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx 0748-5751/ © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Please cite this article as: Angelo, B., Journal of Accounting Education (2018), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaccedu.2017.12.004