Robert Fitzpatrick serves as the Dean of the Academic Experience at Plymouth State University. His responsibilities focus on the academic adjustment and success of first-year students. He is also the director of PSU's College of University Studies, a program designed to assist deciding students find an appropriate major and plot the most efficient route to graduation.

Using the Policy Center on the First Year of College aspirational model (Brevard ,North Carolina), Fitzpatrick spearheaded PSU's Foundations of Excellence® assessment initiative.      

In 2001, Professor Fitzpatrick became the only member of PSU's library faculty to have received Plymouth State University's Distinguished Teaching Award. As former director of Plymouth's Robert Frost Faculty Center for Learning and Teaching Excellence, Fitzpatrick promoted activities fostering engaging teaching pedagogies.  

Associated with PSU for more than twenty-two years, he serves as Plymouth 's liaison to the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC), and was chair and editor of Plymouth's 2003 decennial Self-Study.

Recently, his assessment efforts have included site visits to institutions in Missouri, Greece, and Romania, sponsored by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU), The New Hampshire Postsecondary Education Commission, and PSU respectively. His association with AASCU resulted in significant contributions to the AASCU Graduate Rate Outcomes Study. He has spoken frequently at regional and national conferences.     

Fitzpatrick is a member of the review board for the journal, Innovative Higher Education.