The University of South Florida St. Petersburg recently made a big mistake. It inadvertently welcomed 430 rejected applicants. The e-mail said, “Once again congratulations on your admission to USFSP! We are excited to welcome you to the university and are very proud of all that you have accomplished so far! I also wanted to provide you with your next steps.” The message then provided instructions for students to obtain their university IDs, pay a tuition deposit, apply for housing, and more.

That message was intended to be sent to the 250 students who had been accepted. Instead, it went to a subset of students whose applications were still under review or denied. Chancellor Martin Tadlock blamed human error in the admissions office for the mistake. “We regret it,” Tadlock said in an interview. “We pride ourselves on our relationship with the community, and this doesn’t represent that. It was an error and a mistake.”

One applicant who had received the acceptance e-mail in error, Alexandria Rizzotto, was very disappointed: “I was very, very let down because I’ve been waiting for a final decision from them since November now.” What could the university do to correct this massive slip-up?

Your Task. 

For Chancellor Martin Tadlock, write an appropriate bad-news message to the students who received the message in error. Many applicants will be wondering what their real admission status is.