PHILADELPHIA, PA – JULY 17: A general view of the Penn Shield University of Pennsylvania logo on July 17, 2025, at the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, PA. (Photo by Erica Denhoff/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania‘s email system appears to have been hacked, after offensive emails seemingly originating from the school were sent on Friday.
What we know:
The email sent Friday addresses the “Penn community,” under what appears to be the letterhead of the university’s Graduate School of Education.
The message referred to the university in part as a “dogs— elitist institution,” and called university employees “woke.”
“We love breaking federal laws like FERPA (all your data will be leaked) and Supreme Court Rulings like SFFA,” the email read. “Please stop giving us money.”
FERPA refers to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, a federal law aimed at protecting students’ school records, while SFFA refers to “Students for Fair Admissions,” a 2022 Supreme Court ruling that determined universities’ racially-based admissions policies were unconstitutional.
What they’re saying:
In a Facebook post Friday, the university said it’s investigating multiple allegedly fake emails.
“Over and above the inconvenience of getting your inboxes spammed, these emails are hurtful and upsetting,” the post read. “Thank you for your understanding as we work to address this issue.”
In a statement to FOX 29, a Penn spokesperson called the email “highly offensive [and] hurtful,” and said that nothing in the email “reflects the mission or actions of Penn or of Penn GSE.”
“The University’s Office of Information Security is aware of the situation and our Incident Response team is actively addressing it,” the spokesperson said.
The Source: Information in this story is from screenshots of one of the allegedly hacked emails circulating on social media, a Facebook post from the University of Pennsylvania, and a UPenn spokesperson statement issued to FOX 29.
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