12 bomb threats in one day rattle nerves at Pitt

The University of Pittsburgh has received 57 bomb threats since February -- including 12 on Monday -- and the experience is rattling nerves and prompting school officials to cope with poor attendance and students who want to go home for the semester, The Pitt News reports.

The first threat came on Feb. 13, written on a bathroom wall in a women's room in the Chevron Science Center.

The threats are sometimes scrawled on walls, and sometimes sent by e-mail, but no explosives have ever been found, The Wall Street Journal reports.

VIEW: A campus map of the bomb threats

The investigation now involves the Department of Justice, FBI and Joint Terrorism Task Force.

New security measures went into effect this week banning backpacks, book bags and packages from buildings. In addition, non-Pitt residents are not allowed in residence halls.

In the latest round of threats, four dormitories were alerted starting at 4 a.m. Monday in what has become a routine process of evacuations and then reopenings of buildings, the student newspaper reports.

Kathy Humphrey, vice provost and dean of students, said in a letter to students this weekend that for those who wish to stay away from the campus, "faculty have been advised to be as flexible as possible in helping you to complete your coursework," including through online work and "make-up sessions," The Wall Street Journal reports.

N. John Cooper, the dean of the School of Arts & Sciences, sent out an e-mail Monday, The News reports, asking faculty for "flexibility" to deal with what he called an "attack on everything we stand for as teachers, academics and members of this community."

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