From a YDN report on decreased alumni giving: While Yale President Richard Levin and the development office may affect alumni giving from year to year through campaign efforts, fluctuations in donations are primarily market-based, according a Yale economics professor who wished to remain anonymous. Except for cataclysmic university public relations mistakes, the main factor in determining the amount a donor gives to a college is the economy, the same professor added. The article breezes past, of course, without a hint of irony.