South Dakota State University Police Department sent out an email on Tuesday morning to inform students of an anonymous phone call threatening to attack the campus.
The SDSU Campus Alert System sent out the email as an issuance of a timely warning. No information was provided about the specific location, although additional phone calls were made about nonspecific threats around the same time.
The University Police Department asked students to be aware of their surroundings and to take personal precautions. They were asked to contact university police if they found any suspicious activity.
Not long after the email had been sent out, social media platforms such as Yik Yak were flooded with comments about the threat and students sent out emails to professors requesting for excused absences.
University Chief of Police Tim Heaton provided a statement about the safety and security of the campus being foremost and that everyone throughout the university and University Police Department take it seriously.
“Dealing with situations like today are unfortunate, but it is certainly important to keep our students, faculty and staff aware of any potential threat,” Heaton said. “I would like to thank my officers and staff at UPD for their work today and the increased presence they provided on campus while we investigated the matter. They responded quickly to the threat and helped ensure our campus remained safe throughout.”
Later on Tuesday afternoon, the University Police Department sent out an email to update students about the timely warning. The email stated that further investigation and with aassistance of additional state law enforcement resources, the evidence of the threat originated outside the state of South Dakota.
“After a thorough investigation by the University Police Department, the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation and other law enforcement agencies, it was determined that the threat was not substantiated,” Heaton said. “The call was generated from outside the state of South Dakota and directed to published phone numbers at SDSU.”
The email states that a large number of false threats have been made recently against various schools and public institutions in the United States. The University Police Department assured students of their increased presence on campus and will continue to monitor any and all active threats against the university community.
“We no longer consider this a threat to the university,” Heaton concluded.
University operations continued normal throughout the day and no classes were canceled.