Students and faculty who evacuated Princeton University’s campus on Tuesday morning due to bomb threats spent the day at shops along Nassau Street, at the public library and at the Nassau Inn.
By Payal Marathe, Special to the Packet
Students and faculty who evacuated Princeton University’s campus on Tuesday morning due to bomb threats spent the day at shops along Nassau Street, at the public library and at the Nassau Inn.
Princeton students who are staying at the university for the summer said they first received news of danger via text message around 10 a.m. E-mail asking everyone to evacuate campus was also sent out as a part of the university’s official emergency notification system.
Some headed toward Nassau Inn, one of the designated locations recommended to students. A projected screen was set up so that people could watch television, while others spent time talking or using their laptops.
One student, who is doing research at a lab, called the experience of evacuating “a little bizarre,” since in her years at the university so far she has never experienced an emergency of this caliber. Students still had not received any follow-up information about the bomb threats by 2 p.m., which was worrisome, she added.
Another student who is interning at the administrative offices in Nassau Hall said she was asked to leave before 10 a.m. by her supervisor, and was off campus before she received any emergency notification on her cell phone.
But others said they were remaining calm.
According to student Mike Kosk, there was no sense of panic surrounding the evacuation.
”Our supervisor said there was a bomb threat, and we kind of didn’t believe him at first, but then we got texts telling us to leave,” said Ryan Fauber, another summer student at the university. “We’re just going to drink some tea and chill for the day.”
Mr. Fauber, Mr. Kosk and some of their peers spent the day on Hinds Plaza just outside the public library, another designated location for students.
While many adults who had to evacuate their office buildings returned to their homes, some spent the morning waiting at benches along Nassau Street.
One man who has been working at the university for many years said he trusted there was cause for concern because he and his coworkers would not have been forced to leave their building on Alexander Road if there was no reason to take the bomb threat seriously.