St. John Fisher is often overshadowed by its headline-grabbing sister colleges in Rochester; it doesn't have a fancy new arts center or scientists conducting cutting-edge medical research. The school's profile did get a serious bump, however, when the Buffalo Bills moved their training camp to Fisher in 2000. The camp attracted more than 88,000 visitors to the campus this year.

"I think the students enjoy the recognition and, frankly, the prestige of being at a college where a national franchise operates," says Fisher president Donald Bain.

What Fisher has going for it, Bain says, is tradition, consistency, and a growing range of opportunities for students in emerging or job-abundant fields, including pharmacy and nursing. Fisher added schools for both fields of study to its East Avenue campus in recent years. This year's freshmen class has 76 pharmacy students from nine states, and those students were chosen from a field of more than 1,500 applicants.

Fisher is also a reliable factory for accounting professionals and Rochester media talent - including half of City's newsroom. There are 163 students currently enrolled as communications-journalism majors at Fisher, or 6 percent of all undergraduates at the college.

Fisher is also studying the possibility of a downtown law school. Some legal professionals, including the dean of the Albany Law School, say that there's no need for another law school in New York State. Bain refuses to say much about the proposal, except that the study will determine whether or not the project goes forward.

Fisher's tradition comes from its Catholic roots. The Basilian Fathers founded Fisher as a men's college in 1948, and the Fathers still maintain a presence on campus, though that presence has diminished appreciably because of the declining number of men entering the priesthood. There are daily Masses on the campus, and Fisher's core curriculum includes courses in religious studies. It is believed, Bain says, that about half of Fisher's students are Catholic.

Bain is a fixture at the college. He's been a member of the faculty since 1975, serving as a professor; chair of the history department; dean of faculty; and provost and dean of the college; and has held other positions. He was named interim president following the death of Katherine Keough in 2004, and made president in November 2005.

In a recent interview, Bain talked about Fisher's growth, its Catholic traditions, and the school's reputation.

The following is an edited version of that conversation.

CITY: In recent years, Fisher has added a pharmacy school and a nursing school. Do you have any further expansion plans?

Bain: We do. Among other things, we have academic programs that we are developing. We've launched into some very entrepreneurial, but also academically very sound initiatives. For example, we now offer three doctorates: pharmacy, education, and nursing.

We wanted to try satellite operations, establishing partnerships with other institutions. And the test case has been enormously successful, and it is locating part of our Ed.D. program - doctorate in executive leadership - at the College of New Rochelle.

I traveled awhile ago to Waterford, Ireland - Waterford is Rochester's Sister City - and discussed with the president of Waterford Institute, which is sort of the RIT of Waterford, possible partnerships there. So that would be a first step toward international partnerships.

What about actual bricks-and-mortar construction? And how would you manage that, given that your campus is pretty much built out?

We have a few ideas. There are areas of the campus where there are existing buildings that may be to the point of age or usefulness that they could be replaced. I'll give you one example: There are some older buildings down near the sports fields that might be eventually replaced by newer facilities that could accommodate buildings, grounds...

Academically, we have room on the main campus for the possibility of adding to existing buildings as programs expand. Our School of Nursing, for example, is considering an addition that would involve a nurse anesthesiologist component. It's a complex, high technical program. It's just in the early stages of development.

What role does Catholicism and Catholic teachings play in a Fisher student's education today?

We continue to have great respect for that heritage and belief in the Basilian Fathers' motto, which is to teach goodness, discipline, and knowledge

There's a core program and religious studies courses, along with philosophy courses, is included in that.

And there's daily Mass on campus. The campus minister is a 1983 graduate of the college, and he's a Basilian priest.

The campus ministry also takes, I think, very appropriate but also substantial efforts to reach out to the more ecumenical student body. So there are provisions made for a variety of Christian, Jewish, Muslim, students.

How many of your classes are still taught by priests? Is that shrinking, given the declining number of men entering the priesthood? And are you worried about losing Fisher's strong Catholic affiliation because of that?

When I came here 35 years ago, there was a considerable number of Basilians teaching. At the moment, we have a Basilian as the Catholic minister, and we have Basilians who teach a course or two - in other words, part time. But there's no doubt that the number of Basilians teaching at the college has declined pretty noticeably.

I think the presence of the Basilian Fathers provides a very strong, effective, and lasting influence and representation on the campus and in campus life.

How does Fisher fit into the broader landscape of higher education in Rochester?

I think that we have retained a very strong commitment to the arts and sciences at the undergraduate level as the intellectual and academic foundation for all higher education for our students that follow. I think we have looked at programs such as nursing and pharmacy that are consistent with our mission, but at the same time allow our students to build lives, create careers, get jobs.

What is Fisher about? Nazareth is identified heavily with the arts, for example, and RIT with engineering. Fisher doesn't seem to have that strong identification.

I think it depends who you talk to.

We've made very notable progress in the professional programs that we've developed. I'll give you a couple of examples: the pharmacy school and the nursing school.

We've had a nursing program since the early 1980's. We've had -especially in our science programs: biology, chemistry, physics - a very substantial record of placing men and women in the health-related professions.

You'd be hard-pressed to find any of the major accounting firms in the Rochester area that don't have a substantial representation of Fisher grads: accountants, CPA's, business management majors, marketing, and finance. We have a very, very strong, proud, and well-deserved reputation in the business area.

We have an affinity group to the college that's known as the Justinian Order. It's a professional group made up entirely of St. John Fisher College graduates who are either attorneys or judges. We have over 400 members of the Justinian Order in the legal community and upstate New York. That is a very, very substantial presence.

In addition to all of those, you'd be hard-pressed to find any media here in the city, without substantial representations of St. John Fisher College graduates.

So, the richness of our programs and the broad range of opportunities it offers our students really speak for itself. We're very blessed, very fortunate to be identified not with one or two, but with several professional groups, organizations, businesses, and industries in the Rochester area.

What are your enrollment trends? And where do your students come from?

About 85 percent of our full-time undergraduate traditional students come from within a 100-mile radius of the college. We, of course, recruit in both graduate and undergraduate well beyond that 100-mile radius.

Our graduate programs are more geographically spread out. The doctoral programs in particular - I'll use pharmacy as a good example - this year, I'm going to guess, from over 15 to 20 different states we had over 1,500 applicants for 75 seats.

This year, academic '09-10, we have the highest enrollment in the history of the college. We are just over 3,900 total students.

Another metric that you might find interesting: When I came to the college in 1975, we had approximately 3,500 alumni of the college in total. We also have now, I think, over 21,000 alumni throughout the world.

Which colleges does Fisher compete with? When students apply to Fisher, what are the other two or three colleges on their lists?

Hobart and William Smith, St. Lawrence, Syracuse, some of the SUNY colleges. This is anecdotal.

But once students come here, our retention rates are very strong. They're very happy and pleased that they made the decision. I think it's 83 to 85 percent retention, which is very good.

On balance, I'd say our students are characterized by a kind of wholesome goodness. These are men and women who, in a bizarre way, haven't changed much, it seems to me, over the course of my 35 years. They're just filled with energy and hope and promise.

How are the Bills tied into the broader college community? Or are they two distinct entities?

The Bills have cooperated and actually partnered with us on a number of what I think are wonderful activities, projects, and events. We have, in our sports management program, internship possibilities with them. We have people from the management-business side of the organization, but also the players themselves, interacting with our students in a variety of forums. Mr. Wilson himself was very generous in his support for our Ralph C. Wilson School of Education.

The Bills have contributed by providing inspiration, discipline, and competition and our athletic programs have been influenced considerably as a result.

I'm very pleased that the partnership has worked out as well as it has.