A deci­sion to can­cel classes at Ferris State University dur­ing the recent bomb threat would have been an inap­pro­pri­ate method of ensur­ing cam­pus security.

Shortly after being informed of the bomb threat via phone mes­sage at the Timme Center for Student Services’ Business Office, pub­lic safety offi­cials began inves­ti­gat­ing cam­pus build­ings. After a com­plete inves­ti­ga­tion of cam­pus build­ings, uni­ver­sity offi­cials did not find any evi­dence of explo­sives nor did they receive any more com­mu­ni­ca­tion regard­ing the bomb threat. FSU offi­cials regarded the threat as lack­ing cred­i­bil­ity and no events have occurred that can val­i­date the exis­tence of a bomb ever being located on campus.

The mes­sage ini­tially received regard­ing the bomb threat did not spec­ify if the bomb was planted in a class­room or res­i­dence hall. Therefore, can­cel­ing classes would not have alle­vi­ated the threat or have ensured stu­dents would be any safer in their res­i­dence halls or other cam­pus facil­i­ties. The uni­ver­sity took proper action in inform­ing stu­dents of the threat and con­tin­u­ing to update the cam­pus with new infor­ma­tion and emer­gency resources.

It’s unfor­tu­nately becom­ing a more com­mon prac­tice for stu­dents to make threats against a school in hopes of dis­rupt­ing classes and get­ting out of school­work. Allowing classes to be can­celed due to an unspec­i­fied bomb threat would have pos­si­bly cre­ated cam­pus hys­te­ria and fed into the inten­tions of the per­pe­tra­tor. This would have cre­ated a height­ened num­ber of cam­pus bomb threats from an increase in stu­dents expect­ing to have a day off classes.

An appro­pri­ate means of effi­ciently han­dling a campus-wide bomb threat would be to cre­ate cri­te­ria for fac­ulty and staff to per­form indi­vid­ual bomb searches of their offices and class­rooms. Designing a class­room check­list of ways to han­dle calls relat­ing to bomb threats and search­ing pro­ce­dures would be a more ben­e­fi­cial prac­tice than telling stu­dents to go home at the first sign of a threat.

A num­ber of col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties around the coun­try are unpre­pared for han­dling cam­pus bomb threats. This is mostly due to a lack of pro­ce­dural infor­ma­tion trick­ling down from safety offi­cials to uni­ver­sity staff. If FSU expects to ensure uni­ver­sity safety, the answer doesn’t lie in request­ing stu­dents evac­u­ate class­rooms. It should lie in cre­at­ing a bomb threat plan of action that dis­burses pro­ce­dural infor­ma­tion to the entire cam­pus and gives decision-making power to indi­vid­u­als at the university.