Students and alumni on campus faced the threat of a bomb in the Hopkins Center during commencement period, but the building was not closed as a result of the threat.
A search began in the Hop following an anonymous call made to the College's switchboard in which a caller warned of a bomb in the building. No specific details about the location of the bomb or the time the device might be detonated were given.
"We weren't given any idea where to look," said Hanover Police Captain Christopher O'Connor. He added that the building was searched and no bomb was found, so the decision of whether to close the Hop was left up to the College.
Dean of the College James Larimore said Dartmouth followed standard protocol in dealing with the incident and did not close the building because there was no evidence to indicate the threat was legitimate.
"The sense initially from the nature of the phonecall was non-specific," he said. "We looked around and felt that it was safe."
The College did, however, post signs on all entrances to the building warning pedestrians to enter at their own risk.
O'Connor described the threat as "really strange," citing the fact that no events were planned at the Hop that day.
He said that most bomb threats are called in with the intent to disrupt events at the location they are called in to, or to force an evacuation of the building.
O'Connor said many of the threats his department investigates are called in by high school and college students attempting to avoid a test or get school cancelled for the day. There was a bomb threat at Hanover High School during the spring, but no bomb was found.
Despite the Hanover High School scare, O'Connor said the number of bomb threats in Hanover has declined. "This hasn't happened a lot recently; we used to get bomb threats a lot more five to 10 years ago," he said.
