Harvard orders evacuation of four buildings in response to ‘unconfirmed reports of explosives’ - Metro - The Boston Globe

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Bomb scare rattles Harvard

campusNo devices found; some students suspect a hoax

By Eric Moskowitz | GL OBE STAFF DECEMBER 16, 2013

CAMBRIDGE Joe Palana had just sat down for the last exam of his first semester at

Harvard Monday when alarm bells piercedthe silence at Emerson Hall. Like others

around him, the freshman from Rockland thought it was just a fire drill, so he left his

bag. But he grabbed his coat.

That made him luckier than some of the hundreds of Harvard students and faculty who

were displaced at 9 a.m. by a bomb scare and walked out in their shirtsleeves or

without their university ID cards, only to be locked out for hours as law enforcement

swept the campus over what officials called unconfirmed reports of explosives.

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Police ultimately found no suspicious devices, but the threat, which officials said came

via e-mail, drew an array of emergency responders and a throng of reporters to

Harvard, eight months after the attack on the Boston Marathon. In Washington,

President Obama was briefed.

But the mood on campus seemed to shift quickly from fear toward curiosity,

annoyance, or indifference, long before the last of the four evacuated buildings was

deemed bomb-free around 3 p.m. Almost from the start, officials called the evacuation

a result of an abundance of caution, and many students speculated that the threat

was an exam-period hoax.

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My guess is someone is trying to cause

mischief during finals week, said Nathan

Pflueger, a graduate student who had just

arrived at his office at the Science Center when

the alarm went off, prompting a mass exodus.

Ten-to-one its an obnoxious effort to stop an

exam today, said sophomore Connor Harris,

standing outside the center five hours later,

yellow caution tape and a cluster of emergencyvehicles still blocking the entrance.

Harris said the atmosphere was nothing like

that of last April, when the university and

surrounding area was on lockdown during the

manhunt in Watertown for the Marathon bombing suspects. People were quite

frightened then, he said.

But possibly because it took place at Harvard, the threat Monday made news

worldwide. Harris awakened to read not just a university emergency alert message but

also a text from his parents in Connecticut, hoping he was safe. Standing on the

blocked-off end of Kirkland Street, he read a news story on his phone about the threat,

in German, on the website of Der Spiegel.

The threat targeted Emerson, Thayer, and Sever halls in Harvard Yard and the Science

Center, just beyond the yard.

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PHOTOS

Police investigate reports ofexplosives at Harvard

Map: Evacuated buildings
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Thayer and Emerson reopened after four hours, Sever after five, and the Science

Center after six hours, though a heightened police and security presence remained well

into the afternoon.

After the evacuation, officials closed Harvard Yard to the public, restricting access to

those with university IDs.

By 11, a few dozen students were waiting along Massachusetts Avenue to return

through one of the limited-access gates. Despite the helicopters overhead and the

power cords for satellite trucks running down the sidewalk, the mood was the usual

end-of-semester mix of jubilation and anxiety, with little evident fear.

Michael Casciotti, shivering in shorts and flip-flops, was just trying to stay warm.

Im very cold, said the freshman from Pennsylvania, who had ventured barefoot and

bleary-eyed from his Thayer dorm room into the hall at the sound of the alarm.

I left all my stuff in there, didnt have any clothes on, so my friend gave me a sweater

and flip-flops, he said.

As the three-hour mark approached, Palana, the freshman from Rockland, remained

displaced from his bag and his dorm room, in Thayer. He had decamped for an

upperclass dorm far from the yard I wasnt too concerned, [but] I had some friends

that were pretty scared but wandered back toward Harvard Yard for lunch,

spotting a friend waving from the third floor of a dorm just inside the gate. A federal

Homeland Security sport utility vehicle had just raced past, sirens blaring. But the

friend, shirtless, appeared unconcerned.

Hey, Adam! Palana called. You look notvery cold. Its not so warm out here.

Palana glanced at his phone and saw an update: His exam had been rescheduled for a

choice of 6:30 p.m. Monday night or the third week of next semester.

His classmate Emma Woo cringed; Mondays new timing coincided with her chorus

concert, so she would have to study again over break. Dude, thats the worst, Palana

said.

A Harvard e-mail advised students that afternoon exams would be held as scheduled,

with exams in affected buildings moved but not canceled.


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The Faculty of Arts and Sciences message advised students that if they felt unable to

take their exams for any reason, including anxiety, loss of study time, lack of access to

material and belongings left in one of the affected buildings, or travel schedule, they

could skip the exam and take a grade based on coursework to date.

That prompted a group of graduate students to begin drafting a reply cautioning that

the approach would set up a new and dangerous precedent on campus, that bomb

threats will get students out of final exam responsibilities.

We see the note as analogous to negotiating with terrorists, doctoral student Alek

Chakroff said in an e-mail to the Globe. We sympathize with students who are

distressed by the threats, especially in the wake of the Marathon bombings. But in

responding to these threats, we think excusing students from exams should be the

exception, not the rule.

A subsequent Harvard e-mail reiterated the policy for students who skipped Monday

afternoon exams but clarified that anyone who felt unable to take another exam this

week as a result of the bomb threat would need evaluation and documentation from

student mental health services.

Peter Schworm and Matt Viser of the Globe staff contributed to this report.

Documents

Harvard orders evacuation of four buildings in response to ‘unconfirmed reports of explosives’ - Metro - The Boston Globe