The University received two anonymous bomb threats on Aug. 27 and Sept. 1, and both were determined to be hoaxes.
Princeton was one of a slew of schools across the country to receive e-mailed bomb threats in recent weeks, prompting security concerns, especially in light of the sixth anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001, and the recent tragedy at Virginia Tech.
"We conferred with the FBI and the New Jersey State Police Bomb Squad Unit," Deputy Director of Public Safety Charles Davall said, "and between the three agencies we determined the threats were a hoax."
The e-mails were discovered in general inquiry inboxes. The first bomb threat was directed at the engineering school, and the second e-mail was directed at the Lawrence Apartments housing complex.
In both instances, officials conducted searches in the buildings mentioned. No explosive devices were found.
Davall said several factors led Public Safety to conclude the e-mails were not credible, but "the big piece of the puzzle was that numerous universities received similar threats the same weekend."
There have been reports of bomb threats at least 13 colleges and universities in recent weeks, including MIT, Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, University of Illinois at Chicago, Clemson and American.
Aside from the spam-like nature of the e-mails, some of the bomb threats did not specify names of schools or buildings. University spokeswoman Cass Cliatt '96 told insidehighered.com that the first threat did not use the word "Princeton."
Bomb threats directed at the University are rare, Director of Communications Lauren Robinson-Brown '85 said in an e-mail.
Davall said that the two e-mails were the first bomb threats at the University since he began working as director of Public Safety two-and-a-half years ago. The threats "are still under investigation and the investigation is being done by the FBI," he added, explaining that the FBI "wouldn't reveal to us if they had any idea who is behind it."
The e-mails sent to the University were routed through a remailer, which is a service that conceals the identifying information of the sender, therefore making them "difficult to track," Davall added.
Though the recent e-mails were deemed hoaxes, the University takes all threats seriously, and they are fully investigated, Robinson-Brown said. She added that the University has a "zero-tolerance" policy regarding malicious pranks and hoaxes.
The University has had a bomb policy in place since soon after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Davall said.
Robinson-Brown explained that "what changed after Sept. 11 was the level of coordination for emergency matters. Since 2001, the University has had an Emergency Preparedness Task Force that meets regularly to better prepare the campus to avoid and handle crises."
"Coincidently," she added, "the task force was in session when Public Safety was notified of the first bomb threat."
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