Bomb threat delays Jesse Jackson speech

After relocating to Dodds Auditorium because of a bomb threat at McCosh Hall on Friday, the two-day conference on Puerto Rico opened with the Rev. Jesse Jackson calling for a halt to bombing on Vieques.

"[The threatening] call was received at the telephone office in Frist [Campus Center] at 11:30 a.m. from an unidentified male caller," University Public Safety shift supervisor Lt. Jim Collins said. The call came from off-campus, Collins added, approximately 15 minutes before Jackson was scheduled to speak in McCosh 50.

"The threat did refer to Jackson," University spokeswoman Marilyn Marks said. Jackson — the founder and president of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition — was in McCosh Hall, but not in McCosh 50, when the call was received, Marks said. President Tilghman, who was in the auditorium, told the audience the threat was for McCosh 50.

Public Safety and Borough Police responded. Public Safety conducted a search, and no bomb was found, Collins said. The case is still under investigation.

"There were 250-300 people in McCosh at the time," said David Figueroa-Ortiz, associate director of the Latin American studies program, who was in the audience. "Everybody was very patient," he said.

To be safe, organizers decided to change locations, Marks said. However, Figueroa-Ortiz said Jackson was willing to go ahead with the talk in McCosh.

"[Jackson] is used to getting these kinds of threats," Figueroa-Ortiz said. "It was President Tilghman who suggested the move, out of concern for the students and the audience."

The audience followed Jackson to Dodds Auditorium, said Matt Goldberg '04, who was in the audience.

"When we moved to Dodds there were more people than seats, and people were sitting in the aisles," Figueroa-Ortiz said.

After a one-hour delay, Jackson gave his keynote address in Dodds.

"We took the land, moved the people from the land and then used the land for bombing against their will," Jackson said of American involvement in Vieques, according to a University press release. Though he discussed Vieques, Jackson also spoke about internal and external terrorism.

"He placed Vieques in his traditional model of the oppressor and the oppressed," Goldberg said. "He really didn't talk about Vieques. The focus was on the political involvement in the 1960s with Martin Luther King and Afghanistan and Israel."

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The talk opened a two-day conference initiated by students titled Puerto Ricans: Second Class Citizens in "Our" Democracy? Approximately 500 people attended the conference from both the community and elsewhere, said Carlos Soto '05, an organizer for the event.

Though the threat pushed the conference back, organizers were optimistic about the weekend's events. "For such a big event it went about flawless," Soto said. "Everything went according to schedule after [the threat]."

In addition to Jackson's speech, the conference included panels on Vieques, citizenship, migration and education.

"It was a very diverse conference, varied range of topics and a sense of community," Soto said. Underscoring many of the weekend's events was a focus on youth activism.

"Both President Tilghman and Jackson emphasized the importance of student initiatives and extracurricular and academic interests of the community," Soto said.