CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Fayetteville State University authorities, police and the FBI were sweeping campus buildings Wednesday after an unverified bomb threat.
The historically Black university suspended campus operations until further notice, including canceling classes, evacuating employees and commuter students and instructing students who live on campus to shelter in place. The FSU men’s basketball game will now be played at Methodist University.
“I am deeply disturbed by the recent reports of senseless bomb threats directed at HBCUs across our nation and particularly at Fayetteville State University on today,” Chancellor Darrell Allison said in a statement, speaking about historically Black colleges and universities. “Considering this threat, we acted quickly to ensure the health and safety of our university community. This university remains committed to our mission and vision of educating bright leaders all while making safety our first priority.”
This follows a wave of other bomb threats targeting HBCUs across the country over the past few weeks, including at North Carolina Central University in Durham and Winston-Salem State University. More than a dozen schools received threats at the start of Black History Month, which the FBI has characterized as “racially or ethnically motivated violent extremism and hate crimes,” The New York Times reported.
“Add Fayetteville State to the long list of over 60 HBCUs that have received bomb threats this semester. I’m home safe, but still a bit shaken,” FSU professor Chuck Tryon said on Twitter.
“It’s really difficult to understand how disruptive this kind of threat can be to the daily effort for faculty to educate and students to learn. There is a lot of confusion and often not enough time to pivot to Zoom or other virtual platforms,” Tryon wrote in a another tweet.
“That said, we’re not going to let these cowards intimidate us. We’ll adjust, move on, and continue to move forward,” he tweeted.
The Fayetteville Police Department, Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office, FBI, North Carolina State Bureau of Investigations and North Carolina Highway Patrol are working with the FSU Police Department to clear buildings for students and employees to safely return to. They are searching for hidden devices in suspicious packages, trash cans, foliage and other obscure places on campus, according to the university.
The university instructed the people to remain diligent about their surroundings and activity or materials that may be out of place on campus, even after the all-clear is given. This is an ongoing investigation; FSU urged anyone with information about a threat to call campus police at (910) 672-1775.
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