@HydeSnark , you ask why the adviser would be concerned that SIC students would share the email with their friends unless the funding was not open to everyone. That’s not the conclusion I draw from her concern. Wasn’t the problem in her mind the outreach itself, which she thought improper (as do I)? If you think that, you will be concerned about it becoming public, especially if the email is to go out in your name.
I do agree that the effect of the heads-up to this particular group would give members of the group a greater likelihood of getting that funding, even if not to any great extent or to the exclusion of others. Be that as it may, in my book it was wrong in principle and lends itself to the wider construction OP puts on it.
I am not sorry this whistleblower blew her whistle nor that the Maroon made a story of it. That will put the brakes on future such occurrences. I can hold that thought in my mind at the same time as I hold as very doubtful the more lurid interpretations being put on it, including by the whistleblower herself. It may be more than a “nothingburger” but is hardly a “Whataburger” (pardon my Texan).