WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Williams College Thursday briefly closed its campus and sent all non-essential employees home for the day after a reported bomb threat that later was deemed to be "not credible."
Late Thursday morning, the college sent an alert to its employees that the school was investigating a threat to several college buildings and ordering the evacuation of Faculty House, the Paresky Center, Mission dorm and "athletics and all libraries."
By about 11:45 a.m., the college released the same information in a post on social media, and shortly before noon, it announced on "X" (formerly Twitter), "Please evacuate and avoid area until further notice."
Just after 2 p.m., the school announced to its personnel that, "The bomb threat was determined to be not credible."
The school said that dining services would be available for the small number of students on campus for the summer term from 2 to 7 p.m. at Faculty House and that faculty and staff who needed to access their offices on Thursday could do so after 3 p.m.
All buildings and offices were slated to be open for business as usual on Friday morning.
This was the
second apparent false alarm on campus in the last couple of months. In May, a suspicious package reported in the college's science center led to the evacuation of some buildings and a visit from the State Police bomb squad.
This time around, the college did not indicate finding any objects related to the threat.
A college spokesperson said in an email correspondence: "After a thorough investigation, and in collaboration with the Williamstown Police Department, the Williamstown Fire Department, the Commonwealth Fusion Center, the Massachusetts State Police Bomb Squad and Northern Berkshire EMS, the college identified the threat as not credible. The college is aware that at least two other colleges received similar bomb threats."
During the last evacuation, town first responders closed a road near the science center. This time, as traffic proceeded normally throughout the incident on Park Street, which is flanked by two of the buildings mentioned in a college Tweet, Paresky and Faculty House.
The first indication of a return to normalcy on Thursday came at about 1:25 p.m., when college Dining Services personnel began returning to Faculty House. One employee said they had received the "all clear" about 20 minutes prior to their return.
