Clayton Fair, a sergeant in the St. Louis County Police Department, led the Interviews and Interrogations event as part of his role as president of UMSL’s Beta Alpha Psi organization. (Photo by Derik Holtmann)

Clayton Fair stood in front of the students and faculty members in Room 103 of Anheuser-Busch Hall on May 1 and, essentially, re-introduced himself.

“A lot of you just know me as Clayton,” he said, “but in the real world I’m Sergeant Fair and I work for the St. Louis County Police Department.”

This wasn’t a dramatic reveal of a secret identity – Fair’s life away from the Accounting Department at the University of Missouri–St. Louis is well-known – but it was a reminder of how non-traditional students continually enrich the educational ecosystem at UMSL.

Fair, the president of UMSL’s Beta Alpha Psi chapter, was leading an event called Interviews and Interrogations, along with his SLCPD colleague Detective Rob Bates, that was designed to give students a look at the law enforcement planning and tactics that go into executing forensic interviews. The skills passed along translate to other types of interviews, too.

“Working with the department, I’ve had the opportunity to do a lot of criminal interviews, and there’s a lot of fine details that I thought would be good for the younger students to hear from someone that’s been doing it for a while,” Fair said. “I wanted to try to pass on some of the knowledge that I have, so that they get a leg up when they start doing those.”

Fair has held many roles as he’s been promoted regularly during his two decades with the police department – from officer to detective to sergeant – but he said his best experiences involved working on financial fraud investigations. To improve his skills in that area, Fair earned his Certified Fraud Examiner certificate but wasn’t satisfied with just that. He wanted to better understand the accounting side, too, and he set a goal of passing the CPA exam.

To even sit for that exam, though, requires at least 30 hours of accounting credits. Fair, who earned his master’s in criminal justice/law enforcement administration from Lindenwood University in 2009, found the perfect fit in UMSL’s Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Accounting. His initial plan was to take his night classes while working for the department, earn the accounting certificate – which he completed this spring – then study for and pass the CPA.

Safe to say, signing up to be president of the Beta Alpha Psi honor society or leading a session like Interviews and Interrogations – his final event as president – was not exactly on his radar.

“That was pretty much Dr. Johnna Murray’s doing,” Fair said with a laugh. “I kind of figured, I’m in my 40s and I’m not a college kid like I was 20-something years ago. Dr. Murray thought that I would be a good fit for the Beta Alpha Psi organization, and I think it has been a good fit. I’ve been able to bring some of my law enforcement context to the campus. It’s been fun seeing the younger students get that idea of what you could do with an accounting degree beyond just accounting, to see how it could be used for fraud.”

Showing students as many career options as possible has long been a priority for Murray, who is an associate teaching professor in the accounting department and the faculty advisor for Beta Alpha Psi. In Fair, she saw someone with a wealth of real-world experience – including serving tours in both Afghanistan and Iraq as a United States Army Ranger – who could help in that area.

“Clayton has been a tremendous asset to Beta Alpha Psi,” she said. “It has been inspiring to see him give his talent and expertise to our students while he gets his hours to sit for the CPA exam.”

Murray points out that Fair has regularly offered his insights to his fellow students, such as when he listened to practices and gave feedback to two students who were preparing to present at the Beta Alpha Psi Midyear Meeting. He also helped bring UMSL alum and former St. Louis Mayor and current University of Missouri Curator Lyda Krewson to the annual Beta Alpha Psi gala this semester.

Fair was instrumental in bringing former St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson, an UMSL alum, to the Beta Alpha Psi gala this spring. (Photo courtesy of Johnna Murray)

This spring, Fair volunteered his time helping community members through the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program.

“I wanted to get more experience doing taxes and that kind of work,” Fair said. “It’s been great. Helping out the low-income people that need that tax assistance has been helpful to me, too. You see a lot of different and unique aspects of the tax code when you’re doing that.

“At our site, you had to schedule an appointment with our site manager, and we would intake everyone that came in. They would sit with us, and we would get all their information, all their tax forms, and then scan them in and we would prepare their taxes during the week. Then the following weekend, they would come back, and we would have their taxes prepared and ready to file.”

Fair has made the most of his time at UMSL, and he’s helped others make the most of their time at the university, too. He’s excited to use the knowledge he gained earning the graduate certificate in his career going forward.

“I’m going to try to study for the CPA and take that in a couple years, but I still love working for the department, and I intend to stay until I retire,” Fair said. “Then after that, I want to use the knowledge for doing more fraud investigation work.”