University President has dropped precipitously over the last 20 years. University presidents used to average 8-9 years at the helm and that is all the way down to under 6 years now. Lots of issues to navigate in a major university setting. He has some nice accomplishments here. And it has also gotten to the point of the inevitable stale state. That is not unusual, or necessarily an individual problem, but the time has come to move to a fresh approach. This will mean a different approach to athletics when the dust settles. That is not an ominous comment at all. We should embrace this opportunity. I would imagine the BOV will ask about experience with athletics when the interview process begins. And I would imagine fundraising experience will also be explored/emphasized (and Sands' tenure from an overall university perspective has been good with fundraising). VT, as an institution, is embarking on a journey to break the $300M goal of fundraising in the very short term. And longer term, we would love to hit $500M. That is beyond transformative. But to get to those numbers, athletics fundraising will be pivotal to achieving those goals. That means the new president will probably be more "in tune" with athletics fundraising moving forward, and the methodology behind the operation. As a closing comment, President Sands wasn't a "natural" with major college athletics. He does like them and has come to appreciate the significance of them at VT. And tried to help as best he knew how. He probably has learned over the last few years how quickly things can change with management of college athletics and how you can't just accept the status quo from the AD on how things are going relative to industry changes. You have to take some time and study yourself and I guess it could have been more of a "trust but verify" situation here than it was. An example is the "Invest to Win" campaign that was just announced 9 months ago. There was supposed to be a donor/alumni/supporter wide initiative (to share the messaging/strategy) that was to be rolled out within a month of James Franklin's hiring. Didn't happen. Then, it really, really was supposed to be released in February!!! And now, it is the eve of April 10. Still nothing. That is the kind of thing that just can't happen. We had loads and loads of momentum, and it isn't too late in the grand scheme of things, but it is unexplainable and something a President (who supported going to bat to the BOV) has to ask his AD, "what is going on?" Sharing that message with 30-40 donors isn't the answer. Lots and lots and lots of strong donors below the top 30-40. We can thank the President for his time and service. But a new day will soon be upon us, and hopefully we can capture a great fit for all things VT, including a thriving athletics department.