The SFCC campus was evacuated Friday morning after a faculty member found a bomb threat written on a campus wall.
By 3 p.m. police had searched all buildings on the Northwest Campus, and classes and scheduled activities resumed at 5 p.m.
Around 10 a.m., when the message was discovered in a bathroom in Lecture Hall E, the school's crisis management team met and decided to alert students and staff, said SFCC spokesman Larry Keen.
A message instructing everyone to leave all classroom buildings blared over the loud speakers, a message was posted on the school's Web site, and messages were sent out via text messages, e-mails and voicemails, Keen said.
Students and staff were told to go to the softball field on the south side of campus away from classroom buildings. The school's president, Jackson Sasser, met them there and announced periodic updates. Most students, however, decided to leave campus.
Keen said he thought most people would rather know about potential threats, even if they are unlikely to materialize.
"In this day and age we just had to act on the side of caution," he said.
As early as Friday afternoon, Keen said, he had received positive feedback and appreciation for the school's decision to evacuate.
SFCC students said the evacuation went smoother than a similar evacuation conducted in February, when a student brought a gun on campus.
"This is way less chaotic than that," said 19-year-old Carly Veilleux. "This is much more organized."
Donny Hummel, 34, agreed, saying, "Within minutes I actually knew what was going on, whereas before I heard vague rumors."
Still, Hummel said, not everything was perfect.
He said the loudspeaker message was unintelligible.
"It sounded like Charlie Brown's teacher," he said.
But because he heard a booming voice, he figured something important was going on and began following crowds.
Keen said while he thought the Friday evacuation went well, he agreed that there is still room to improve.
He said the administration wants to focus on the traffic jam that resulted in the dash to leave campus both Friday and after the gun incident.
In addition, addressing Hummel's point, Keen said the volume on the speakers would be lowered next time to make messages more understandable.
All in all, though, Keen said he considered the threat management a success.
"Today I can say, with candor and truth, it went very well," he said.
