Bomb Threats Closed Three College Campuses Today
Campuses at the University of Texas at Austin, North Dakota State in Fargo, and Hiram College were all evacuated today after separate bomb threats were issued at each school. The campuses of UT and NDS were cleared this afternoon, and students were allowed to return; police are still searching the campus at Hiram.
The threat at the University of Texas came in the form of a phone call from someone claiming to be in al Qaeda. The university didn't immediately evacuate, instead choosing to investigate a few buildings first. Naturally, some students were upset
"What took so long?" student Ricardo Nunez said. "It should have been more immediate."
North Dakota State officials reacted a bit faster. According to the school's president, 20,000 people left the campus in "a matter of minutes." The FBI said the school had received a "threat of an explosive device."
People were even in decent moods as they evacuated – an employee described the fleeing people as "being North Dakota nice."
Of course, there was some concern that this was somehow related to the current turmoil in the Middle East, but that doesn't seem to be the case, unless, say, someone was trying to get out of their Middle Eastern Politics class or something.
Everything checked out fine at both campuses, though, and it seems as though the case is clear at Hiram.
And, if you were looking for top notch coverage of the bomb threats, please note Fox News' expert grasp of geography in the following screenshot:
[Image via AP]