As midterms began at UTC, someone phoned in a bomb threat to the school Friday morning, sending hundreds of students, faculty and staff members from four buildings out into the cold.
Authorities did not find any explosives, but Holt Hall; the University Center; the Engineering, Math and Science building; and Brock Hall were evacuated, university spokesman Chuck Cantrell said.
The evacuations took place about 11 a.m., and all four buildings were reopened and holding classes by 1:15 p.m.
Alumna Jessica Ashah was inside Brock Hall getting a letter of recommendation when that building was evacuated.
"It's not even close to exam time. I don't understand," she said.
Some midterm exams began this week and will continue next week, Mr. Cantrell said. Bomb threats seem to come more often around exam times, he said.
Chattanooga Fire Department Capt. Phil Hyman said the threat was called in about 11 a.m. The caller gave no reason for the threat, Capt. Hyman said, and he could not specify whether it was a male or female or whether the call came from on or off campus.
The investigation is continuing, Mr. Cantrell said Friday evening. Making a bomb threat is a felony.
At noon, the Chattanooga police bomb squad and other authorities were searching the buildings while students sat outside across the street.
"Hopefully, this is just a little bit of standing around in the cold," Mr. Cantrell said while waiting around with police and firefighters at the police command post, set up at the intersection of Palmetto and Fifth streets.
While the bomb search was taking place in the evacuated buildings, classes continued in other UTC buildings, Mr. Cantrell said.
Students in other buildings barely were affected, according to senior anthropology major Jared Chambers, who was in class at Fletcher Hall, located about two blocks away, when the other buildings were cleared.
"We went through class, no problem," he said.
Bomb threats have been called in to UTC in the past, Mr. Cantrell said, but no device ever has been found.
University buildings were evacuated Oct. 21, 2009, and March 20, 2008, after bomb threats, newspaper archives show.
Andy began working at the Times Free Press in July 2008 as a general assignment reporter before focusing on Northwest Georgia and Georgia politics in May of 2009. Before coming to the Times Free Press, Andy worked for the Anniston Star, the Rome News Tribune and the Campus Carrier at Berry College, where he graduated with a communications degree in 2006. He is pursuing a master’s degree in business administration at the University of Tennessee ...
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