Students, staff and university officials should be commended for responding quickly and efficiently to a bomb threat last Friday that closed the North Dakota State University campus in Fargo.
The evacuation order was given after a call including a "threat of an explosive device" was received about 9:45 a.m. Thousands of people left the campus within 30 minutes, after an alert was sent through a variety of automated messaging systems, including e-mail, phone messages and social media networks. The campus reopened at 1 p.m., and classes resumed shortly after that. Campus officials said the campus was deemed safe, but did not say Friday if anything was found during the campus-wide search.
Bomb threats must be taken seriously, whether officials believe the caller was serious or not. Students and faculty must be evacuated, and police must be brought in to conduct a thorough search of the premises being threatened. When it happens at such a large and spread out location as NDSU, it causes a great deal of concern simply making sure everyone was notified and everyone is safely evacuated.
We certainly hope whoever made the threat is found, prosecuted, and punished to the furthest extent possible.