On November 1, the following notice was posted in a privately operated law school: The faculty, seeking to encourage legal research, offers to any student at this school who wins the current National Obscenity Law Competition the additional prize of $500. All competing papers must be submitted to the Dean's office before May 1. (The National Competition was conducted by an outside agency unconnected with any law school.) Student read this notice on November 2, and thereupon intensified his effort to make his paper on obscenity law, which he had started in October, a winner. Student also left on a counter in the Dean's office a signed note saying, "I accept the faculty's $500 Obscenity Competition offer." This note was inadvertently placed in Student's file and never reached the Dean or any faculty member personally. On the following April 1, the above notice was removed and the following substituted therefor: The faculty regrets that our offer regarding the National Obscenity Law Competition must be withdrawn. Student's paper was submitted through the Dean's office on April 15. On May 1, it was announced that Student had won the National Obscenity Law Competition and the prize of $1,000. The law faculty refused to pay anything."The promise of the faculty on November 1 was
enforceable on principles of promissory estoppel. enforceable by Student's personal representative even if Student had been killed in an accident on April 16. not enforceable on policy grounds because it produced a noncommercial agreement 73 between a student and his teachers, analogous to intramural family agreements and informal social commitments.  not enforceable, because Student, after entering the National Competition in October, was already under a duty to perform to the best of his ability.