CBU is safe, President tells students after bomb hoax
RIVERSIDE -- California Baptist University President Ronald L Ellis provided assurances of safety and called for increased vigilance by all members of the university community at a meeting with students hours after a bomb scare prompted a search Sunday, April 22, 2007.
CBU public safety officers received the anonymous threat in a brief telephone call Sunday morning. A thorough search of campus housing, administration buildings and other structures turned up no suspicious devices.
Hundreds of campus housing residents attended the late-night meeting in the Van Dyne Gym where Dr. Ellis, along with members of his administration and a local law enforcement representative, discussed the incident and answered questions from students.
"These days there seems to be more activity of this type around our country," President Ellis said. He noted that there had been numerous threats and disruptions at college campuses in the days immediately following the April 16 shooting deaths of 33 persons at Virginia Tech.
Ellis said CBU is "taking steps to enhance our security" and called on students to "be vigilant and report things" that seem out of the ordinary.
"We don't want to turn the campus into a fortress, but we do want to be prudent," Ellis explained.
Riverside Police Lt. Mike Cook told the gathering that law enforcement and university personnel "work as partners" and enjoy a very cooperative relationship.
"I assure you, you are safe. You are not in danger," Cook told the students. He said police "immediately and appropriately responded" to the telephoned threat, noting that officers arrived at the CBU campus within four minutes of being contacted by a CBU Public Safety officer.
"A two-hour search determined there was no explosive device," Cook told the gathering. "The call was false. There never was any device."
Kent Dacus, CBU vice president for enrollment and student services, noted that CBU has an emergency response manual developed for such situations. And he said the university also is exploring new technology to help contact students more quickly when a threat occurs.
In response to questions about how CBU officials and Riverside police responded to the incident, Dacus said administrators would carefully review the events to learn how it might be possible to improve the response.
Audience members applauded enthusiastically when one student thanked university officials for holding the meeting to explain what had happened and for continually focusing on safety.