TROY — What was a Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute senior administrator thinking when he forwarded an accusatory and mostly ill-received email to alumni this week?

It's a question many alumni have been asking in the days since they received the email, which was originally penned by an RPI professor, Christopher Bystroff, and suggested that declining donations were due to racist and sexist attitudes among the school's "white male majority" alumni base — animus directed toward RPI President Shirley Ann Jackson, Bystroff argued.

Forwarded to alumni Monday night by Graig Eastin, vice president of institute advancement, the email ignited a firestorm of controversy among alumni who felt it was a dishonest attempt to shield Jackson, the school's first black and female president, from criticism of her leadership.

Eastin has not responded to questions from the Times Union about who authorized him to forward the email or what his reasoning might have been, but a number of alumni have begun receiving responses from Eastin with an explanation.

"The intent of the communications was to provide alumni an opportunity to see Professor Bystroff's original email that was already being widely disseminated and discussed by both internal and external audiences," he said in one email, obtained by the Times Union.

"I thought it would be more appropriate that our alums have an opportunity to read the original email before speculation, rumor mills and social media fanned the fires," he continued. "I am looking to create a different forum for additional professional discourse going forward."

It's unclear whether the decision to forward the email was Eastin's alone.

According to Bystroff, Jackson was a fan of his original email, which he sent to faculty Jan. 22 in response to a Times Union article that ran the previous day about alumni who had stopped donating to the school. She emailed him several hours later to express thanks. Bystroff forwarded that email to the Times Union.

"That was a very brave thing you did, and I deeply appreciate it," it reads. "These things are hard, and I just wanted to thank you for being willing to speak up on my behalf."

Read the Jan. 21 Times Union story about alumni who stopped donating.

Read Bystroff's letter in full below.

rpi_edu by Bethany on Scribd

Read the Jan. 30 Times Union story about the controversy that ensued after the email was forwarded to alumni.