Fisk closes campus after possible threat

Fisk University students received an alert about a possible bomb threat Monday morning, campus police staff confirmed.

The alert first went out around 9 a.m., according to Kemani Iwu, who said he is a senior at Fisk.

The university announced it would be closed for the rest of the day in an Instagram post around 11:30 a.m. The post said faculty, staff and students who do not live on campus should leave. Residential students were asked to remain in their residence halls, with the exception of leaving to get food.

Dining facilities will stay open, the post said.

“In addition, campus security will increase the number of uniformed officers in and around campus residential and dining facilities,” the post read. “Stay safe Fiskites.”

No other information was immediately available Monday.

Iwu shared a screenshot of the text message alert he received at 9:10 a.m. The message instructed students to shelter in place due to “a call threatening an explosive or suspicious device.”

Iwu said he had just begun class when he started to get text messages from friends and classmates about what was happening.

“I started to panic and made sure I had everything before I left the building to go to the library for shelter,” he said in a direct message on Twitter. “Obviously, it’s always quiet in the library, but it was a different type of silence. A silence of uncertainty and fearful wonder.”

The threat comes as an increasing number of historically Black colleges and universities across the nation have received similar threats in recent weeks, largely in the South.