University Bomb Threats: Full List of Every College Targeted Across America

Colleges across the U.S. have been targeted by a slew of bomb threats in the past week, prompting mass evacuations of students and staff from campuses.

Although it isn't clear at this stage whether the bomb threats are connected, colleges across the country have been hit by scares in the span of several days. All threats so far were found to be not credible.

Multiple Ivy League universities—including Columbia, Cornell, and Brown—issued emergency alerts over the weekend after receiving bomb threats. The pattern appeared to begin at Yale on Friday, prompting the evacuation of several campus buildings.

The following day, two Ohio universities—Ohio University and Miami University—also said they had been targeted by bomb threats.

Meanwhile, this week, New York University (NYU) evacuated three of its Greenwich Village buildings after receiving multiple bomb threats Thursday evening. Students and staff in the college's Stern School of Business, Center for Neural Science, and Hebrew Union College, an independent institution, were instructed to evacuate to two separate locations on campus.

"The NYPD concluded their investigation of the bomb threat received earlier this evening and issued an all clear. NYU community members can return to any of the evacuated buildings in line with their regular hours," NYU said in an update on Twitter hours later.

NYU noted in its latest update that all classes, activities, and operations will resume as scheduled on Friday, November 12.

"Members of the NYU community are reminded of resources to support them in times of distress," it said in an alert.

Separately, the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles notified students and staff that it had received a bomb threat on Thursday afternoon. It issued a statement on Twitter saying that evacuations were underway at three of its campus buildings due to the threat.

"Grace Ford Salvatori Hall, Sample Hall and Wallis Annenberg Hall are being evacuated due to a bomb threat. LAPD and DPS are conducting a search. Stay away from the area," USC wrote.

Shortly later, it said in an update that the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) determined the evacuated buildings were safe, and that they had been reopened.

"Normal business has resumed," USC said.

Earlier on Thursday, the Cambridge Police found reports of a bomb threat at a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) building were unsubstantiated, adding that the department is working to probe the scare.

"Investigators have cleared Building 54 (Green Building) to reopen following a thorough search of every floor," MIT said in an alert on Thursday evening.

And in a separate incident on Thursday, Ohio's Cleveland State University said it received a bomb threat.

It is unclear at this stage if the bomb threats are connected, however, following the bomb threat reports at Columbia, the New York Police Department (NYPD) said those specific threats would be treated as "a swatting incident"—a criminal harassment tactic which involves an individual prank-calling emergency services with false reports, hoping to direct SWAT officials toward a particular location.

"Since Friday, there have been multiple other calls to other universities around the nation of a very similar nature," New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker said in a statement to several media outlets of the widespread threats. "Our police department is working closely with the FBI to identify what appears to be a pattern and potentially the same individual, but at this point, it's hard to tell."

"We'll be working hard in collaboration with other universities and Yale University and the FBI to identify this person," Elicker added.

The FBI told Newsweek in an emailed statement that it is aware of the recent threats and is coordinating with its partners "as appropriate."

"The FBI takes all threats seriously and we encourage the public to remain vigilant and report suspicious activity to their local police department or FBI field office," it said.

Brown University senior statistics student Samuel Rhee told Newsweek that he was in his dorm room when he received an alert via text message on Sunday afternoon. He said he initially brushed it off as "some kind of prank that the University has to investigate."

"As the situation kept developing, though, we heard reports of mysterious packages and buildings being evacuated, and within an hour, I decided to go to my friend's place off-campus to ride it out," Rhee added.

Julie Carr, whose daughter is a first-year student at Cornell University, told Newsweek that although her daughter wasn't on campus at the time of the bomb threat on Sunday, she has been left shaken by the ordeal, particularly, as two days later, the campus went into lockdown again following reports of an active shooter on the ground.

"When she called Tuesday night she was emotionally distraught—high anxiety, crying, talking about leaving school," said Carr, adding that as a parent, she is "constantly terrified" of potential attacks.

Update 11/13/21, 4:50 a.m. ET: This article was updated with comment from the FBI, Samuel Rhee and Julie Carr.