Team Suspensions

Dear DU community members,

The University of Denver is deeply committed to protecting the health and safety of this community, and Denver broadly. With this commitment in mind, this week, we suspended 38 of our men’s and women’s swimming and diving athletes from all team activities for violations of state and local public health orders, and University policies designed to address the spread of COVID-19. All of the 38 student-athletes are required to retest for COVID-19 and we imposed location restrictions until negative test results are received, and possibly longer.

The student-athletes attended a large, off-campus party knowing such a gathering violated restrictions. As a result, these student-athletes will not participate in team activities for the rest of the fall quarter and will be referred to the Student Rights and Responsibilities (SRR) process for disciplinary action, which may include interim academic suspension for the fall quarter pending the outcome of the SRR process. Possible outcomes for these violations may include suspension from the University for one or more academic terms.

We will continue to swiftly pursue disciplinary action if members of our community disregard the protocols and public health orders designed to prevent the spread of COVID-19. We can’t have anyone in our community believe they don’t need to abide by DU’s, the city’s or the state’s COVID-19 restrictions while the rest of the community is working so hard to have protocols in place intended to keep everyone safe and healthy.

We understand that what we are asking all of our students to do—to change how they socialize and connect with their peers—is difficult. The realities of the COVID-19 pandemic are putting significant pressure on all of us. We also believe our students can rise to this challenge the way generations of young people have risen in the past to the unique challenges of their own time. Indeed, we are proud that the vast majority of our students are meeting this challenge by following the protocols and still having a meaningful social experience in a face-to-face manner.

There can be no large gatherings until COVID-19 is no longer a threat to our community. We must all limit informal social gatherings to a maximum of 10 people. We must all wear our face coverings and maintain appropriate social distancing. This is how we take care of ourselves and one another. #DUYourPart

Sincerely,

Jeremy Haefner
Chancellor

Karlton Creech
Vice Chancellor for Athletics, Recreation and Ritchie Center Operations