Bulldog! Bulldog! Bow-wow-wow!

September 15, 2014

With the academic year now underway, Marta and I are looking forward to attending Yale athletic events and supporting our student-athletes. On Saturday, I enjoyed field hockey against Quinnipiac. The game was part of the team’s alumnae weekend, and I was thrilled to see so many Yale alumnae who played field hockey at Johnson Field return to share in a great overtime Yale victory.

Next Saturday, Marta and I will be in the bleachers for the football season opener against Lehigh—and we are truly excited for the following week’s matchup against Army on September 27, a major landmark in this fall’s celebration of the Yale Bowl centennial. I’m an optimist: I am hoping for a Yale win and a full Yale Bowl that day.

I know you have heard me reflect that attending our student-athletes’ contests are one way that we can BIRG as a community—a term from my field of social psychology that stands for “basking in reflected glory.” Attending a Yale game, match, or race—whether we win or lose—always lifts my spirits and makes me proud.

Although our university is large, and spread over a broad geographic area, it is also a village: a community where we work, live, and enjoy a sense of shared identity and togetherness. We do this not only through sports, of course, but also in attending theater, dance, and music performances, lectures, symposia, and special events throughout the campus. (Please check out Slow Dancing on Cross Campus, the Windham-Campbell Prize Festival or the “Sculpture Victorious” exhibit at the YCBA.)

I hope you will visit the Yale Athletics website and find events—most of which are free—that you (and your family) can attend together. In particular, I hope you will consider joining Marta and me at the Yale-Army game on September 27. And, I hope you will sign up for weekly emails from Yale Athletics, which will inform you of upcoming events. These emails are among those I most anticipate each week.

We will see you around campus—and at our fields, gyms, and courses—this fall!  Our Havanese dog, Portia, also looks forward to seeing you and, especially, to reacquainting herself with her buddy, Handsome Dan!