<p>Whistle, Admissions already touched on it, but Cooper’s tenure was a rather rough one for most alums. Additionally, UR has always had very generous ultra wealthy alumni (the Robins Gift was the largest gift to any university at that point), and as such, UR has never really had to solicit donations from the $100 donors and quite frankly, the advancement office wasn’t geared towards that. Over the last few years, this mindset has really changed and an emphasis has been placed on just giving, rather than the size of the gift. Additionally, the senior gift program has really taken off in the last few years, with roughly 70% of all seniors donating to this program. The class of '06 was really the measuring mark for the program, and in looking at this year’s honor roll, their class continued a very high donation level this year, and had an impressive dollar amount for being young alums. </p>
<p>Also, I think it’s important to note that the two large gifts that Ayers has secured since he joined the university were donated in a time in which we don’t have a capital campaign in place and that the $9 million gift is larger than any single gift we received during the last campaign lead by Cooper. Also, UR currently doesn’t have a VP for advancement to work full time to solicit the big donations. UR is scheduled to begin a new capital campaign in 5 years +/-. If Ayers is still around, I think you’ll see a dramatically higher rate of donation, especially if the senior gift continues to result in high donation levels, as it seems to be carrying on once students become alumni.</p>