Responsibilities At OAA

I think given that it was such a young institution with very young alumni, I have seen quite amazing support from the community for SMU. Every gift, whether it is big or small, I think it is an endorsement on what we've done right. People don't have to give [to us, you know, they are not alumni; very few are parents and or have done things with the university. They just give because of the appeal of the SMU story. A lot of times they like what we are doing. They can see the difference that we're creating. And that's why they want to support us. Also, I believe that being small and nimble, we were able to kind of match the donor interest with the needs of the university. So that helps a lot in bringing people on board and helping them find what is meaningful to them and what the university needs to do that initiative, to proceed with the initiative. We were also very conscious because these people sometimes have very little to do with the university you know, no relationship whatsoever with the university we were very conscious in term of when we have them on board as a donor to protect that relationship, to grow that relationship as a long-term relationship. I highly emphasized with the team stewardship and accountability to the donor. And in that way, even in our short history, we were able to have repeat donors, donors who have given and then come back to give a bigger gift. Or donors who were kind enough to introduce people to us. So we had a lot of referral donors. I'm really quite touched by people who have supported the university.