Spotlight On
JIM FISHER

Back in the good old days, if they ever really existed, it was common to find people, generally men, who graduated from the college where they were currently working and where they stayed until they retired .In a change to modern times, most college business officers have worked at several different institutions. For example, the EACUBO president is at her fifth school, the first vice president and second vice president are both at their third.

Therefore it’s refreshing to find someone - Jim Fisher, specifically, who appears to come from the old school. Not only is he a graduate of Rochester Institute of Technology, where he currently works as Assistant Vice President for Finance & Administration, but he grew up just sixty miles west of Rochester and currently lives with his wife and family in that same area, and serves on the Board of Education of the central high school from which he graduated. When he graduated from high school, he planned to go to SUNY Cortland to major in sports medicine but, due to being accepted for the spring semester, he found a job working in the Harrison Radiator manufacturing plant nearby, deciding to delay college for a year. His plans changed again when he met his future wife, Connie, and was married in 1978. Jim ended up attending Niagara Community College for a couple of years while working full-time and then transferred to R.I.T. to major in accounting in their co-op program.

In his second semester, eligible for co-op employment, he responded to an advertisement for an internal audit position at R.I.T. and, after six months, his boss persuaded the vice president to create a new full-time position and retain Jim. Common to those times—the early ‘80’s—most of the work was financial, the transition to systems and operational audits not occurring until later in the decade. During the first two years, Jim was both a full-time employee and a full-time student, taking at least 12 hours each semester, including the summer, so he completed his degree in just over two years. He would also go on to earn an MBA in the College of Business and earn the Certified Internal Auditor designation.

Jim spent thirteen years in internal audit, moving steadily up the ladder, until he was offered assistant director of audit positions at two other colleges. At the same time, R.I.T.’s vice president for finance and administration offered Jim the opportunity to become his assistant, a position Jim said came about because of his having developed considerable expertise in information technologies, basically self-developed. Initially, he found himself working with the Human Resource director on a managed attrition labor reduction plan, as R.I.T. went through a down-sizing, followed by an expense reduction plan. Another one of his assignments was the selection and appointment of the external audit firm for the University—twice!! Later, one of his main responsibilities was to spearhead the acquisition and implementation of the university’s web-based financial and human resource applications, starting with the development of the RFP that led to the selection of Oracle’s system.

In 2000, Jim was promoted to his present position of Assistant Vice President for Finance & Administration. His specific responsibilities include purchasing, printing and mail services, systems and technology, as well as the bookstore and food services, both of which are self-operated. Another initiative he has led has been RIT's move into e-commerce, providing a cost-effective and secure way of making tuition payments, one-card deposits, and bookstore sales.

Leaving the discussion of his job, we began talking about his increasing involvement in the activities of EACUBO. Jim said he got started when Peg Cass Ferber was an active member of our Area Programming committee, which she eventually chaired, and together they worked to reactivate the Rochester area. This has been successful and indeed the participation has been expanded, including getting a representative of as many institutions as possible to serve on the planning committee. Jim did point out that he had been active in other associations, both the Institute of Internal Auditors, where he was president of the Rochester chapter and he also chaired the advance planning function for the Association of College and University Auditors. One of his interesting comments was that he found EACUBO a welcoming organization as opposed to other groups that tend to be afflicted with somewhat of a “good old boy” attitude.

Along the way, Jim developed an on-line registration system used for many EACUBO events, provided a listserv capability for the Board and our many committees, chaired the Area Programming Committee, and now has been elected to the EACUBO Board. Jim is clearly a “doer”, a welcome addition to our volunteer organization.