To the Senior Spring Athletes in our Athletic Family -
 
I write to add some further detail to the decision we issued last week denying requests for increased eligibility for athletes who have missed their senior season, as the NCAA has permitted.
 
I know this decision was painful for you – and it was painful for us to make it. We deeply regretted disappointing students who so passionately wanted to play one more season –and we deeply regretted not having the pleasure, as their fans, of watching them do that. Although Yale's regulations prevent student-athletes from withdrawing and returning for an eighth semester without two semesters' leave, it was not bureaucracy that prevented us from lifting this rule. There was an important principle guiding us.

That principle comes from the Ivy league presidents who unanimously have agreed that, "Ivy League athletes are students first and foremost. No student-athlete should withdraw from the spring 2020 term for the sole purpose of preserving athletics eligibility."  

In moments of crisis, this must be our first priority. Many seniors end this year without reaching goals in their curricular, co-curricular, and extracurricular life and would like to return next year to carry out what they originally had planned. But what we offer one student we must offer all, and in challenging times our primary consideration must be the progress of all of our students toward their degrees.
 
To those who are understandably disappointed, we hear that disappointment. We think our heavyweight rowing coach Steve Gladstone, whose team was looking forward to competing for another national championship, put it best when he said, "There is a profound sense of loss for our senior athletes. Their commitments to their teams are difficult for people outside the athletic community to fully fathom. The reality is that even the most knowledgeable people are unable to comprehend the full impact of this virus. . . . However, at this time the only productive action is to move forward with a sense of optimism and trust."
 
Yale has always been able to count on its students to carry on with resolve and a sense of obligation. In that spirit, we know we can count on you now. We are grateful to you, our student-athletes, for your understanding at a moment that is testing us all. And when we can gather on campus again, we look forward to celebrating your accomplishments over the last four years and thanking you in person for all you have contributed and all the joy you have given us.
 
Sincerely,
 
Marvin Chun
Dean of Yale College
Richard M. Colgate Professor of Psychology; Neuroscience; Cognitive Science