Yale Athletics is under recruiting scrutiny

INTERMEDIATE: Two of Yale’s top athletic officials bought a house together a year before one of them was hired by the university, according to a document obtained by Fox News Digital. Former colleagues and colleagues suspect that these officials have a romantic relationship, and they suspect that the former director was forced to resign in order to leave the position of one of the partners.

Yale’s Executive Vice President/Chief Athletics Officer Ann-Marie Guglieri and Deputy Athletics Director Mary Berdo, the second and third highest ranking officials in the athletics department under Athletic Director Victoria Chun, bought a house together in Milford, Connecticut, in June 2018, the deed shows. Berdo was then hired by the university in April of 2019.

Chun, Guglieri and Berdo previously worked together in the athletic department at Colgate University. Yale’s president at the time appointed Chun as athletics director in February 2018, and he joined Yale in July 2018. Guglieri started that month.

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Two former Yale athletic department employees alleged that Guglieri and Berdo were in a romantic relationship. Additional former employees said the former director was pressured to accept a voluntary retirement package, which then opened the way for Berdo.

Guglieri’s relationship with Berdo does not appear to conflict with Yale’s workplace policies, which state: “Employees are expected to avoid romantic or sexual relationships with employees and interns who have or may reasonably expect to have supervisory or reporting responsibilities.”

A chart of the Yale athletics organization obtained by Fox News Digital, created sometime after 2019, shows that Berdo and Guglieri have no reporting or supervisory relationship to each other. Instead, they both report directly to Chun.

Although the relationship does not violate Yale policy, one former Yale coach stated that it “absolutely makes no sense” that two people in leadership roles in the Athletic Department “are in a relationship.”

The former coach told Fox News Digital, on condition of anonymity, that it was “known” in the department that Guglieri and Berdo “were a couple,” although they “didn’t make it clear.” He said they “came as a consolidated agreement.”

A former Yale athletic director told Fox News Digital on condition of anonymity that the relationship was “widely known” in the athletic department.

Two former employees said the athletic department could not expand its staff to hire Berdo at the same time it hired Guglieri. But Fox News Digital has learned that the former athletic department director reluctantly accepted the retirement package, and was hired by Berdo not long after.

The former executive athletic director was reportedly given “no choice” but to accept a voluntary retirement package in the fall of 2018, creating a vacancy in the front office before Berdo was hired, according to a former Yale Athletics employee with first-hand experience of the situation.

“The executive director of athletics was called in October of 2018 and pressured to accept a retirement package, and this person had no choice but to take this retirement package and give 90 days notice, and right after the 90 days notice, Mary Berdo was hired,” said the former employee.

Former Yale men’s hockey head coach Keith Allain told Fox News Digital that the former employee’s recollection of the pressured retirement and eventual hiring of Berdo is consistent with what he was told by people in the athletic department. Allain declined to comment further.

Yale fans watch their side lose during the Harvard Vs Yale decider, College Football, Ivy League, Harvard Stadium, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. 22 November 2014. Photo Tim Clayton (Tim Clayton/Corbis via Getty Images)

Sources Fox News Digital spoke to did not say Guglieri was involved in the selection of Berdo. But one said there was “a big question mark about the easy hiring of Mary Berdo, also from Colgate,” and whether the plan was entirely intentional.

While Yale declined to comment on “individual personnel matters,” a spokesperson for the university’s president’s office told Fox News Digital: “We can confirm that Yale has a strong human resources and disclosure policies that it follows.”

Prior to joining Yale, Berdo was the associate director of athletics at Colgate University and a member of the department’s executive committee. He previously worked at NCAA national headquarters and as assistant director of events and athletics at the University of Michigan. He played basketball for the University of Iowa.

“Vicky was only able to bring in one director, Ann-Marie, with her at the beginning of her tenure at Yale,” one Yale Athletics official told Fox News Digital about the disclosure.

The employee said she had left her at Yale when Berdo was hired but questioned whether the plan involved “preferential treatment,” since “Mary’s employment appears to have been decided a year in advance.”

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Fox News Digital contacted Guglieri and Berdo through their university email addresses, and an email address believed to be Chun’s, but did not receive a response.

Fox News Digital confirmed the identities of the former employees who spoke on the condition of anonymity and that they worked at Yale at the times provided. Other sources contacted by Fox News Digital did not deny or deny any of the above allegations.

Former Yale coaches have issues with the current leadership

Head coach Keith Allain of the USA during practice before the 2011 IIHF World U20 Championship Group A match between the USA and Finland on December 26, 2010 at HSBC Arena in Buffalo, New York. (Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images)

A letter signed by Allain to Yale President Maurie McInnis alleges that Chun has created a “toxic environment” for the university’s sports teams.

Fox News Digital published the letter last Monday after confirming with Allain that he emailed the letter to McInnis in October, shortly after he retired.

“I am writing to you at the request of several coaches in our athletic department. They told me that you have been asking several coaches for an answer regarding extending the contract of our athletic director, and they are concerned, that since the culture of fear pervades the athletic department, you will not get a clear answer,” the letter began.

The letter later wrote that, “Vicky’s single-minded ability to promote herself has created a toxic environment in the department where she is thwarted by a management team whose work seems to shut down any disagreement,” the letter continued.

Newman’s attorney did not say whether Chun or Guglieri were responsible for the recording.

The letter — sent nearly four years after Newsman’s departure from the university in 2021 — called for “discussion of a settlement, including both financial and non-financial terms.” Newman has not taken legal action against Yale or any Yale representatives, and Fox News Digital does not know if the parties have resolved their dispute.

As part of an exchange of letters, the former deputy counsel of Yale assured Granovsky: “The former employee recorded part of the meeting with your client, without the knowledge of the university.” A Yale attorney denied some of the allegations made by Granovsky.

A subsequent letter shows that Yale later provided a copy of the audio file to Granovsky on October 28, 2025. Granovsky responded on November 17 to questions about the recording and noted that Yale policy prohibits “covert” recording.

The current version of Yale’s recording policy, which went into effect in 2024, states: “Unless authorized by University staff, participants in meetings during employment or academic or extracurricular activities may not record those meetings without the consent of all participants.”

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Fox News Digital cannot confirm whether any other correspondence was exchanged between Newman’s attorneys and Yale representatives.

A source provided copies of the letter and email exchange between Granovsky and Yale to Fox News Digital, and Newman confirmed their authenticity.

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