At least nine colleges across the country received threats to their campuses Thursday, multiple news outlets reported, triggering campus lockdowns and heightened security.
USC received a threat of its own. The FBI later confirmed it was a hoax with no credible threat. The university had notified students of a “direct” threat against an employee who works inside the Bovard Administration Building Thursday afternoon, and said there would be a “heightened security presence” on campus.
Campus police said the threat originated from outside of the United States and contained threatening and racially charged messages.
Threats were sent to colleges across New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, Georgia, Mississippi and California.
Several targeted academic buildings at Villanova University, Fordham University and New York University. At least four historically Black colleges and universities also received threats, including Savannah State University, Morris Brown College, Wiley College and Alcorn State University.
Dallas Baptist University received threats that the college later said were not credible. Still, the campus was evacuated ahead of a scheduled visit by U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner.
There are no official findings suggesting that the threats were coordinated. Fordham’s Associate Vice President Robert Fitzer said, however, that the emails it received contained language similar to those sent to other nationwide colleges, condemning a “long list of racial and religious groups.”
In its statement to Annenberg Media, the FBI Los Angeles office confirmed that hoax threats had been made to additional schools in Los Angeles but did not disclose which were targeted.
Campus police at UCLA and Cal State University, Northridge confirmed that no threats had been made to their schools. The Claremont Colleges, Loyola Marymount University, Pepperdine University and California State University, Los Angeles did not return requests for comment.