University president Julie Sullivan speaks at a press conference Wednesday. “I’m really proud of our students, our faculty and our staff who calmly responded to the instructions that were given by our university officials and quickly took action as they were asked,” she said. (Emily Haugen/TommieMedia)
In response to Wednesday’s bomb threat, St. Thomas held a press conference at 5:30 p.m. in the Murray-Herrick Campus Center admissions office fireplace room. University President Julie Sullivan and Public Safety Director Dan Meuwissen spoke.
“The foremost concern every day, and most certainly today, has been the safety of our students, faculty and staff,” Sullivan said. “We took this threat very seriously and I am extremely relieved that no suspicious objects were found.”
A public safety alert was issued after the second bomb threat call. A public safety alert was not issued after the first call, which Meuwissen described as “generic and nonspecific.”
The alert instructed students, faculty and staff to go to the John Roach Center and the Anderson Student Center.
According to Meuwissen, the Anderson Student Center was not searched before students evacuated there.
Meuwissen said Public Safety believed their alerts were being monitored.
“We felt some of the terminology being used by the caller indicated that they were probably monitoring our statements,” Meuwissen said. 
Director of Public Safety Dan Meuwissen speaks at Wednesday’s press conference. (Emily Haugen/TommieMedia)
Public Safety’s alerts can be found on its Facebook and Twitter in addition to email and text alerts sent directly to the St. Thomas community.
“Anyone that might have a relationship to the campus community could follow it,” he said.
Meuwissen said that he was satisfied with the university’s emergency plan.
“Our students were fantastic, our faculty, staff. St. Thomas is a very tight community and we take care of each other,” Meuwissen said. “Nothing but pride and confidence in our community and in our University Action Response Team and our senior administration.“
After campus closed, Public Safety searched all buildings, including residence halls.
Despite issuing an all-clear message Wednesday afternoon, investigation is still underway and campus will remain closed until tomorrow.
As far as the individual behind the threat, Public Safety would not reveal any specifics. Meuwissen did confirm Tuesday’s gun-related incident had no relationship with Wednesday’s threat.
“I look forward to the day tomorrow morning when we will reunite as a community and resume our normal operations,” Sullivan said.
Zekriah Chaudhry can be reached at chau6735@stthomas.edu.
Emily Haugen can be reached at haug7231@stthomas.edu.