Yale athletics under scrutiny over hiring

SPECIAL: Two of Yale’s top athletic officials bought a house together a year before one of them was hired by the university; This was a deed shown by Fox News Digital. Former colleagues alleged that the two officials were in a romantic relationship, and a former executive alleged that he was forced to retire to vacate the position of one of the partners.

The deed shows that in June 2018, Yale’s Executive Vice President/Executive Director of Athletics Ann-Marie Guglieri, who holds the second and third highest positions in the athletics department under the direction of Athletic Director Victoria Chun, and Associate Director of Athletics Mary Berdo purchased a home together in Milford, Connecticut, according to the deed. Berdo was later hired by the university in April 2019.

Chun, Guglieri and Berdo previously worked together in Colgate University’s athletics department. Yale’s then-president appointed Chun as athletics director in February 2018, and Chun joined Yale in July 2018. Guglieri started the same month.

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Two former employees of the Yale athletic department claimed that Guglieri and Berdo were in a romantic relationship. Other former employees alleged that a former manager was pressured to accept a voluntary retirement package, which then created an opportunity for Berdo.

Guglieri and Berdo’s relationship does not appear to violate Yale’s workplace policies: “Staff are expected to refrain from romantic or sexual relationships with employees and interns for whom they have, or may reasonably expect to have, supervisory or reporting responsibilities.”

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

Although the relationship did not violate Yale policy, a former Yale coach stated that it was “completely unprofessional” for two people in leadership roles in the Athletic Department to be involved with each other.

The former coach told Fox News Digital on condition of anonymity that it was “well known” in the department that Guglieri and Berdo were “a couple,” even though they “didn’t explicitly state it.” He said they “come as a packaged deal.”

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

Two former employees said the athletics department could not increase the staff to hire Berdo at the same time it hired Guglieri. But Fox News Digital has learned that a former athletics department administrator reluctantly accepted the voluntary retirement package and Berdo was hired shortly thereafter.

The former senior assistant athletic director was allegedly given “no choice” but to accept a voluntary retirement package in the fall of 2018, creating a vacancy in the department’s front office before Berdo was hired, according to testimony from a former Yale Athletics employee with firsthand knowledge of the situation.

“In October 2018, a senior assistant athletic director was called in and pressured to accept a retirement package, and this person had no choice but to take that retirement package and give 90 days notice, and immediately after the 90 days notice, Mary Berdo was hired,” the former employee said.

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

Yale fans watch their side’s defeat during Harvard Vs Yale, College Football, Ivy League deciding match, Harvard Stadium, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. November 22, 2014. Photo by Tim Clayton (Tim Clayton/Corbis via Getty Images)

Sources interviewed by Fox News Digital did not claim that Guglieri participated in Berdo’s selection process. But one of them said there was “a big question mark over whether Mary Berdo was properly hired from Colgate again” and whether the process was entirely objective.

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

Before joining Yale, Berdo was senior assistant athletic director at Colgate University and a member of the department’s senior executive staff. He previously worked as assistant director of events and championships at the NCAA national headquarters and the University of Michigan. He played basketball at the University of Iowa.

“Vicky was only able to bring one director, Ann-Marie, with her at the beginning of her tenure at Yale,” another former Yale Athletics employee told Fox News Digital on condition of anonymity.

The employee said he left Yale when Berdo was hired, but questioned whether the process involved “preferential treatment” because “Mary’s hiring appeared to have been determined a year in advance.”

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Fox News Digital reached out to Guglieri and Berdo through their university email addresses and an email address thought to belong to Chun, but did not receive a response.

Fox News Digital confirmed the identities of the former employees, who spoke on condition of anonymity, and that they worked at Yale at the time periods indicated. Other sources contacted by Fox News Digital did not dispute or contradict any of the above claims.

Former Yale coaches had issues with current leadership

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

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

Fox News Digital published the letter last Monday after confirming with Allain that he sent the letter via email to McInnis in October, shortly after his retirement.

The letter began: “I am writing to you at the urging of several head coaches in our Athletic Department. They tell me that you have requested feedback from several coaches regarding extending our athletic director’s contract and are concerned that you may not receive candid feedback due to the culture of fear that permeates the athletic department.” The letter began.

“Vicky’s unique talent is to assert herself, and she has created a toxic environment within the department, where she is isolated by a cadre of managers whose primary mission seems to be to silence any dissent,” the letter later read.

Newman’s attorney did not claim that Chun or Guglieri were responsible for making the recording.

The letter, sent nearly four years after Newsman left the university in 2021, requested “a reconciliation dialogue that includes both financial and non-financial terms.” Newman has not taken legal action against Yale or any of Yale’s representatives, and Fox News Digital does not know whether the parties have resolved their dispute.

As part of the letter exchange, a former deputy general counsel at Yale confirmed to Granovsky: “A former employee recorded part of a meeting with your client without the university’s knowledge.” The Yale attorney denied various other allegations made by Granovsky.

A subsequent letter indicates that Yale later provided Granovsky with a copy of the audio file on October 28, 2025. Granovsky responded to questions about the recording on November 17, noting that Yale’s policy prohibits “confidential” recordings.

current version Yale’s admissions policyThe law, which takes effect in 2024, says: “Unless authorized by university staff, participants in meetings within the scope of employment or co-curricular or extracurricular activities may not record such meetings without the consent of all participants.”

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Fox News Digital cannot confirm whether any additional letters were exchanged between Newman’s attorneys and Yale representatives.

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

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