UA staff overreacted to bomb scare, police say
A bomb scare forced more than 200 students and staff out of the Harvill Building yesterday morning, but the mass evacuation was caused by miscommunication and shouldn't have happened, university police said.
An economics class was preparing to take a scheduled exam when the Harvill Copy Center, 1103 E. Second St., received an anonymous phone call claiming there was a bomb in the auditorium where the class meets.
According to police, hall monitor Michelle Schneible contacted the University of Arizona Police Department at 10:57 a.m.
UA police Sgt. Gene Taitano said the building monitor decided to evacuate Harvill without consulting police.
Sgt. Mike Smith said bomb threats tend to be called in when exams are taking place and such cases are not considered "of a serious nature."
"Normally we do not evacuate right off the bat," he said.
When there is little suspicion of an actual bomb, police team up with building monitors to check whether conditions seem normal at the site. It's a quiet process and usually tenants of the building remain unaware of the threat, Smith said.
Taitano said "nothing was found to indicate that there was any kind of bomb" in Harvill yesterday. At about 11:25 a.m., police declared the building safe, and the handful of people remaining outside returned to classrooms and offices.
Despite the apparent connection between the exam and the scare, police said they did not know who placed the warning phone call.
"It could be anyone," Taitano said. The call was not traced, Smith added.
The UA has no policy on tests canceled because of bomb scares, since they are so rare at the university, said UA Assistant Dean of Students Veda Hunn.
"A bomb scare is really out of the professor's and students' control," Hunn said. "It is incumbent upon the professor and students - primarily on the professor - to make up that class time."
Professor Mark Zupan's Economics 200 students got a break yesterday and their exam was postponed.
Students standing on the street during the scare seemed unfazed. Accounting senior Jean Baker had just entered her Finance 421 class when everyone was evacuated.
"I saw a lot of these in high school," she said.
Sociology senior Lauri Brown was worried about the possibility of a bomb and was disconcerted by the apparent calm of her classmates.
"I was surprised because everyone was walking calmly," she said of students exiting her Psychology 375 class. "I was definitely (scared), but I didn't want to be the only one running. I don't think anyone is taking it seriously, but they should be."
Sarah Spivack can be reached via e-mail at Sarah.Spivack@wildcat.arizona.edu.
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