No arrests yet on LSU bomb threat; FBI looking at possible connections at other campuses

Is there a pattern? That question has occurred to many in higher education with regard to a series of recent bomb threats that have forced campuswide evacuations, Inside Higher Ed reports. On Monday, LSU received just the latest threat and evacuated its campus. As of today, no arrests have been made, and an LSU spokesman provided few new details. “The investigation related to the origin of the call is still ongoing by the LSU Police Department and supported by multiple law enforcement agencies. No other details have been released at this time,” says Ernie Ballard. On Friday, three other institutions—Hiram College, North Dakota State University, and the University of Texas at Austin—also received bomb threats deemed serious enough to force evacuations. To date, there has been no connection established between the four threats. And the three institutions that were evacuated on Friday were—as LSU was Monday evening—eventually declared safe after extensive searches. Further, there are not obvious connections among the geographically diverse institutions that have received threats; one is a private liberal arts college, and three are public universities with research facilities. But officials involved with campus security are not viewing these incidents as necessarily a coincidence either. Bomb threats are not common at most campuses, and threats evaluated as serious enough to merit campuswide evacuation are rare. On Friday, an FBI official told The Los Angeles Times that the threats appeared to be “largely local matters.” But on Monday, an FBI spokesman told The New York Times that the agency was investigating whether there was a link between the four threats. Read the full story here.