Williams brings big-picture wisdom to campus

BIG PICTURE, FINE DETAIL: Roger Williams University Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration Jerome
BIG PICTURE, FINE DETAIL: Roger Williams University Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration Jerome "Jerry" Williams' stewardship of the school's finances has yielded a promise of flat tuition during a student's four years, even as the Bristol institution has grown enrollment. / PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY

There’s a rock and a hard place that many private colleges find themselves between these days; to cope with poorly performing endowments and rising costs, they’ve had to hike tuition in a time when private higher education is already teetering on the brink of unaffordability.

Meanwhile, out in Bristol, at Roger Williams University, it seems as though they’ve stumbled upon a formula to keep revenue and the endowment growing – and the debt shrinking – all while keeping tuition flat for four years as of this coming fall.

The secret ingredient? According to RWU President Donald J. Farish, it’s Jerome “Jerry” Williams, the university’s executive vice president for finance and administration for the last five years. “He’s a remarkable gentleman,” said Farish, who credited Williams with shouldering the responsibility of identifying nearly $3 million each year in the university’s budget that can be shifted to cover inflationary costs. “I’ve worked with half a dozen CFOs directly over the years, and he’s simply the best I’ve ever worked with.”

To hear Williams tell it, it’s been more of a team effort, but given how Farish characterizes him (well-respected, organized, even-keeled, and “a very nice fellow on top of everything else”), that’s no surprise. By all accounts, Williams leads by example, letting his work speak for itself.

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“I’m not one for fanfare; I’d rather not be talking about myself,” he said, with a laugh. “I attribute my success to a great team. …Working with the team and Don Farish here, I thoroughly love coming to work every morning.”

So to what does Williams owe his success? His sense of humor and personable demeanor certainly don’t hurt, according to Farish, but by no means can a smile put a gloss over thorny budgetary issues.

There have been Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island and utilities to bargain with and creditors to contend with. Williams has worked to negotiate to avoid substantial rate hikes, along with refinancing outstanding debt to today’s more favorable interest rates. There’s money he’s “wrung out” from the budget year after year through internal reallocation, said Farish, though always with an eye on much more than the bottom line. For Williams, it’s just as much about quality as anything else. “He has a way of looking at financial issues in a very holistic manner,” Farish added.

It’s fair to say that this big-picture perspective most likely comes from decades of experience managing both sprawling state departments (the Rhode Island departments of transportation and administration) and municipal governments (Williams’ first role in finance was as the town treasurer for Barrington, where he still makes his home).

One of his crowning career achievements, he said, was when he worked to help shepherd the consolidation of the state’s closed credit unions into Northeast Savings Bank, helping to stem the bleeding of the credit crisis in the ’90s and opening up the flow of assets from the distressed institutions.

“[Much of my work is] looking at larger challenges: How do we continue to move RWU forward, and how do we do it in a way that wouldn’t price ourselves out of the market?” said Williams.

For Williams, that movement has included the Affordable Excellence initiative (referring to the tuition freeze), which he described as being “very important to the board here, the president and me. It’s important for young people to have access to higher education,” he said. “The more we can do this, the more word spreads that [this is a possibility] in higher ed.”

Other initiatives that have helped to reduce costs (or boost revenue) while putting RWU on the map include introducing cloud-based computing to improve collaboration, expanding continuing education offerings and growing research and programmatic grants at the university. Enrollment at the school also has grown. Over the last two years, according to Williams, there has been an increase of 220 students. And a diversified asset allocation and management plan for the endowment implemented by Williams is bearing fruit: over the last three fiscal years, the endowment has exceeded benchmark performance.

The state at large is also still benefitting from his wisdom, according to Scott Avedisian, mayor of Warwick and chairman of the R.I. Public Transportation Authority board of directors. Williams is vice chair of the RIPTA board, and brings the same brand of thoughtful guidance to the agency.

“Jerry Williams has been an integral part of the forward-thinking changes that we have made at RIPTA,” said Avedisian in an email. “Utilizing his years of experience … has allowed RIPTA to make great improvements, enhance service, while still tending to the bottom line.”

Even though he’d never tell you himself, Williams might have the Midas touch. •

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