That’s an email from the Penn State School of Law’s dean of admissions offering students a waived admissions fee. 

“No doubt you have seen recent headlines regarding Penn State University,” she writes prospective students. “Penn State’s new president is dedicated to restoring the trust of all people Penn State serves and to a renewed focus on Penn State’s status as one of the world’s preeminent research universities.”

And then: “To make it easier for you to apply, we have waived your application fee.” The dean denies the email’s timing had anything to do with, y’know, all that ugly stuff.

Our solicitation and fee waiver reflect our standard practice in attempting to recruit applicants within a certain range of LSAT scores. The solicitation is timed to arrive shortly after potential applicants receive the results of the October administration of the LSAT. Because this standard timing practice occurred this year in such close proximity to the recent allegations regarding some Penn State personnel, we thought it best to include reference to the publicity and a statement reflecting our law school’s reaction.

And what do the students think? “Hahahaha Penn State just sent me a fee waiver to apply to their law school,” one recipient wrote of the letter, adding a thinly veiled hashtag for the school as her answer: “#nothappening.”

More here.