Updates
Members of the Brown Community,
Yesterday, the Ivy League announced guidelines that will allow for limited intercollegiate athletics competition to take place late in the Spring 2021 term if and only if public health conditions improve and allow for it to happen safely. I write today to share that announcement from the Ivy League (available via the link that follows) and a letter sent by the Brown University Department of Athletics to all student-athletes, coaches and athletics staff (included in the second half of this message).
While both the University and the Ivy League are hopeful that there will be an opportunity for regional athletics competition late in the Spring 2021 term, the ability to proceed with this supervised activity would be predicated on a range of public health metrics including — most importantly — the ability for the entire campus community to move to Campus Activity Status Level 3, which would allow for more academic and co-curricular in-person activity. Campus Activity Status Level 3 would provide all members of the Brown community with greater latitude in terms of travel opportunities and in-person socially distanced and masked activities. We continue to hope that public health conditions will permit a transition to Level 3, enabling the entire community greater flexibility to participate in a range of in-person activities.
Please note that currently, Brown remains in Campus Activity Status Level 2. And for our student-athletes, permitted training activity continues to be guided by the Ivy League’s Phase 1 guidelines.
To our student-athletes and every other member of the Brown community, I thank you for your continued dedication to following public health guidelines and helping to protect the health and safety of our community.
Sincerely,
Eric Estes
Vice President for Campus Life
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LETTER TO BROWN ATHLETICS COMMUNITY
THURSDAY, FEB. 18, 2021
Dear Student-athletes, Coaches and Staff,
I am writing to share an advance copy of an Ivy League announcement that outlines guidelines for intercollegiate competition in the Spring 2021 semester, which may be able to take place if public health conditions improve and allow for more in-person activities within the Brown community. Please see the announcement appended to this message [available via the link that follows] and the important information contained in this email about the alignment of Brown’s health protocols with the Ivy League guidance.
While Brown and the Ivy League are hopeful that there will be the opportunity for local outdoor regional athletics competition late in the Spring 2021 term, the ability to proceed with this supervised activity would be predicated on the ability for the entire campus community to move to Brown’s Campus Activity Status Level 3, allowing for more in-person academic and co-curricular activity. Campus Activity Status Level 3 would enable everyone on campus greater travel opportunities, as well as more in-person socially distanced and masked activities. We continue to hope that the entire community will be able to have these opportunities later in the term.
As a department and a university, we will continue to work through the process of planning for additional training opportunities, which we hope will allow for local competition for our spring intercollegiate student-athletes and teams. We know this announcement about limited spring athletic competition will come as a disappointment to many in our athletics community, especially our spring sport student-athletes. However, we remain committed to working within the public health guidelines that are in place to protect the health and safety of our community, with the hope that some local outdoor intercollegiate competition may be permitted during the Spring 2021 semester.
In the coming days, we plan to meet with coaches and teams to answer any questions that will come as a result of this announcement.
Sincerely,
Colin Sullivan
Deputy Director of Athletics