Vance Hall evacuated in bomb scare

Third in three days The third campus bomb scare in as many days occurred at Vance Hall yesterday, University Police commissioner John Kuprevich said. "We just know that a call was placed into Vance threatening a bomb, and we took appropriate action," Kuprevich said. Kuprevich said the building was shut down for about an hour yesterday. University Police and Philadelphia Police searched the building after the call was received at 1:22 p.m., and found nothing suspicious. Stiteler Hall was evacuated Tuesday morning after a caller threatened the Political Science Department, saying a bomb would explode. And Meyerson Hall was evacuated Monday evening after another caller threatened that there was a bomb in the building. No explosive devices were found in either case. Kuprevich said police have not yet identified a motive, or determined whether the incidents are linked. "We're trying to identify a motive," he said. "We haven't identified any distinct motive at this time." "I can't say [if they're connected] right now. I don't have enough of the facts. We would certainly be looking into that," he said. Although the University hasn't experienced bomb threats in recent years, Kuprevich said such threats were a common campus phenomenon in the 1960s and 1970s. "In universities in the '60s and '70s that was not unusual," he said. "In the late '60s and '70s, you had students using real bombs as a form of protest. I think what happened is we saw a change through most of the '80s of students acting much more maturely about interrupting things such as exams." Kuprevich added that the bomb scares tie up police, and are safety hazards. "It takes [the police] out of commission, and it places every one of those officers lives in danger," he said. "And God knows they do that enough. It ties up resources for hours." "We have not seen that kind of activity in the last 12 years," he added. And Kuprevich said these incidents may multiply as they gain media attention. "It's just another idea that somebody picks up and decides to do," he said.