Undergraduates waiting for the first seminar of  Political Science 291: Citizenship and Democratic Development at U. Pennsylvania last week received some unexpected news as they waited for class to begin: Their professor, Henry Teune, had passed away five months previously, and the University had forgotten to cancel the class, according to the email students recieved in the middle of the uncancelled class.

“PSCI 291-301 is canceled.We are so sorry for this last minute cancellation. With Dr. Henry Teune’s passing, this course should have been cancelled over the summer and was an oversight,” the brief email, sent by Penn during the class, read in its entirety.

Teune, a political science professor at Penn, passed away on April 12. He was 75. After joining the university’s political science department in 1961, he had also served as chair of the department from 1975 to 1979 as well as vice dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences from 1967 to 1969. Teune’s research interests included democracy, technology and comparative urban studies.

Despite the oversight and delay in announcing the tragic news, Penn plans to hold a memorial service for the professor sometime this fall, according to The Daily Pennsylvanian.