Bomb Threats Across Multiple US Colleges

By John Perik

ITHACA, N.Y. – On Sunday afternoon, Cornell, Columbia, and Brown evacuated parts of their campuses following bomb threats. The threats came only two days after a bomb threat prompted an evacuation at Yale University. 

Columbia said it issued a “campus wide-emergency alert” following threats to multiple on-campus buildings. In a tweet on Sunday, NYPD determined that the threats were a swatting incident. 

Ben Feldman, a Cornell University student, said the scene on campus was surreal. “It felt scary, and everyone was kind of in this supportive mentality,” Feldman said. The Cornell student told CitrusTV that he welcomed students into his home after the University instructed people to shelter in place. 

Students first received an emergency alert text around 2:00 pm on Sunday, Feldman said. The initial text instructed students to evacuate a series of buildings across campus. Around 3:00 pm, Cornell University informed students that the evacuation was due to a bomb threat, Feldman also said. 

Since the threat, students have been allowed to return to the evacuated buildings, authorities said. In each case, the threats were not deemed credible, sources said. 

Today, many Cornell students are relieved. “There’s a bit of a sigh of relief,” Ben Feldman said. “It’s not like this is going to be an incident that people remember 50 years from now.” 

At the moment, it is unclear whether the four Ivy League bomb threats are connected. Currently, no suspects have been identified.