Gifford bomb threat prompts evacuation

Author: Daniel j. Phillips

Just after midnight Sunday, an anonymous male made a call from an emergency phone within Gifford Hall and told the operator at Public Safety's telecommunications center that there was a bomb outside a particular individual's room.

According to Public Safety's system, the call came from one of the two red emergency phones on the third floor of Gifford. After hearing the recording that was made of the call, Director of Public Safety Lisa Boudah described there being a significant amount of background noise, and said the person in question did not clearly articulate what he was saying. Boudah thought that the speaker may have been trying to lower his voice so as not to attract attention.

"It's a statement, and the telecommunications operator asks him to repeat it," said Boudah. "From listening, I could tell why she asked him to repeat. It wasn't absolutely clear, and also it was not something you expect to hear," she said. The operator asked the caller three times to enunciate before he hung up the phone.

Boudah suspects that the person who called in the bomb threat was having a problem with someone else in the building when he called. She does not think this person intended for a response team to take the action that resulted. "We're not sure exactly what's going on yet, but it does feel like there's an issue with some residents," she said.

"Oftentimes late at night alcohol is involved," Boudah added, but she could not say whether the incident was intended as a serious threat or a drunken practical joke. She noted that it was particularly unusual for a student to call from one of the red phones that dial directly to the Public Safety switchboard. "Hardly any real emergency calls come that way," said Boudah.

At the time the threat was called in, the Public Safety officer on duty near Gifford gave the order to evacuate the building, and decided that sounding the fire alarm would send that message more clearly. The Middlebury Fire and Police departments were then called as part of Public Safety's "perceived bomb threat" procedure, explained Boudah.

Student Government Association President Eli Berman '07.5 - a Residential Assistant (RA) in Gifford - remembers that as soon as he left the building, a Public Safety officer told the evacuated crowd there had been a specific report of a bomb threat. When Berman inquired about the situation, the Public Safety officer allegedly told him, "You might want to find another place to sleep tonight."

Rachel Bearman '08, who lives on the fourth floor of Gifford, was told she must wait at least an hour - or until the fire trucks had dispersed - before she could go back to her room. "We were all confused and wondering whether it was a serious thing or if someone had too much to drink and made some calls," said Bearman. "I was nervous about it because it wasn't clear whether it was serious."

Before allowing people to enter the building again, the officers on duty notified students to be aware and call Public Safety if it appeared that any individuals were having problems with one another. Berman was told to "check for disruptions in relationships, or if anyone had been fighting." But he does not think the incident had anything to do with hostilities in the dorm.

Boudah said she determined it was appropriate for students to enter the building again shortly after 1 a.m., but most students report returning to Gifford closer to 1:45 a.m. Bearman also remembered that when she returned there was a woman from Public Safety inside the residence hall who was instructing students to call if they heard any more information about incident.

After she had gone inside Gifford, Bearman said, "We were filling in friends who were out elsewhere, and were wondering whether we would get an e-mail from Public Safety. We still haven't," she said.

The RAs of Gifford sent an e-mail to all Gifford residents last Sunday calling for a meeting to discuss the issue that night at 10 p.m., but abruptly cancelled the forum shortly before it took place. "The meeting was going to be about making sure the community feeling in Gifford would return, and we wanted to hear what other people thought," said Berman. "We came to the conclusion that holding the meeting would not facilitate that."

While residents were not upset the meeting was cancelled, they say that they still feel left in the dark. "Most of us were interested to see what they would say or whether they knew anything or if it was going to be about dorm integrity, but there wasn't a backlash about it," said Bearman. "It's mostly dropped from conversation, but we all wished we had gotten something else."