Glitch causes early 'admission'

By Elliot Njus

Published Oct. 16, 2007

Due to a computer glitch, 233 applicants to the MU Graduate School received an e-mail congratulating them on their admission to the school. But unfortunately for the students, they had not yet been admitted.

According to Graduate Admissions and Records Director Terrence Grus, the erroneous e-mails were sent out on Sept. 27.

He said the e-mails weren't admission letters but rather automated e-mails sent to give the students their new PawPrint user names and passwords so they could sign into the myZou class registration and student finances system.

The space that normally would have contained the user name and password was blank in the e-mails that were sent out, Grus said.

"We sent out a follow up e-mail immediately," he said.

He said the second batch of e-mails was sent out by 9 a.m. the next day.

The school is taking steps to ensure a similar mistake is not made again. Grus said the data would be checked four times and references to admission would be removed from e-mail templates.

In an e-mail, Grus stated that many of the graduate programs are still reviewing the affected spring semester 2008 applications. He stated that the school would notify applicants about admission within the next few weeks.