In “Challah Back: Trustees to blame for Silber’s long reign” By Elliot Levy, Mr. Levy encourages BU Alumni to withhold donations in the hope of getting Dr. John Silber removed from Boston University. While that is a noble goal and one that I support and encourage myself, One only needs to looks at the major statistics of Annual Alumni/Corporate/Foundation Giving to BU to realize why this strategy is flawed:

1.) BU already has one of the lowest Alumni giving participation rates among Major Universites in the USA. The rate is currently around 10-11%. It was around 16-17% before football was dropped. 2.) The amount of money that the General Alumni contribute to BU on an annnual basis is only around $10 million. This has stayed fairly consistant for a number of years. The rest of what BU considers Annual Giving comes from Corporations and Foundations of which BU has become very good at soliciting.

As you can see, most if not all of the substantial increase in Annual Giving over the past years is not due to donations from alumni, it is due almost entirely to donations Corporations/Foundations.

Alumni have been witholding donations from BU for years for many reasons relating to dislike of John Silber himself or his policies (football cancellation, Seragen, School of Nursing closing, Gender/Sexuality issues, etc.), but it not done any good as Dr. John Silber is still there.

Howard Sigman, BU 1982