Brigham Young University has rejected an appeal from a student who had completed all the requirements for a degree but saw his diploma withheld last year after he published Men on a Mission, a calendar of buff Mormon missionaries without shirts, the Associated Press reported.

The student, Chad Henry, was excommunicated from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which owns the university, over the calendar last July. In September he was told that, to receive his degree, he would need to be reinstated as a member of the Mormon church.

At the time, Mr. Hardy vowed to appeal the decision and, failing that, to pursue legal action to get his degree. He found out this week that his appeal had been denied, the AP reported. In a letter, BYU’s dean of students, Vernon L. Heperi, wrote that the calendars depicted missionaries in an “inappropriate light,” according to the AP.

“Your continued involvement with these calendars as well as apparent plans for future calendars of similar content,” Dean Heperi wrote, “only demonstrate to me your ongoing disregard for those principles of the honor code.” —Andrew Mytelka