Locked down

University institutes emergency procedures, opens criminal investigation

By DAN SCHNEIDER, DMG Writer
HOUGHTON — Michigan Technological University’s ROTC building was locked down for four hours Wednesday night after a threatening message was found in the building’s first floor bathroom, police said.

Tech President Glenn Mroz said an ROTC cadet found the note, written on a piece of paper, at about 4 p.m. Mroz did not comment on what the note said.

“It was a threatening message,” Mroz said, declining to release specifics about the note. The university locked the building down immediately after the note was found.

“We’re taking this very seriously,” Mroz said. “Last night, we increased our patrols and all of the state and local authorities in the area were notified following the discovery of the note. Public Safety secured the area and processed it for evidence and that evidence is now on its way to the state police crime lab and it’s in their hands at this point.”

The lock-down lasted until about 8 p.m. Wednesday while each room was searched, Mroz said, after which time only ROTC cadets, instructors and administrators were allowed into the building. This morning, entry into the building remained restricted to ROTC personnel.

“It will probably remain that way for the rest of the semester and we’ll keep extra patrols on duty for the rest of the semester, as well,” Mroz said.

Students and staff were notified of the situation by e-mail.

“We came together relatively quickly after the note was found and made decisions and sent out an e-mail using our emergency e-mail system,” Tech Vice President for Student Affairs Les Cook said.

A copy of the e-mail sent to students and staff obtained by The Daily Mining Gazette indicates the e-mail was sent at 4:24 p.m. Cook said an e-mail update was sent to students and staff this morning and the message was also posted on the university’s Web site.

“Everybody with an e-mail address on campus was notified that the note was found and it was of a threatening nature,” Mroz said.

He said Wednesday night, following the lock-down, students on campus did not seem distressed about the incident.

“I walked around campus for a while last night just to see how students were doing an talked to a few who had seen the (e-mail) message and were aware of the situation but seemed to be carrying on life as usual,” Mroz said.

Rob Piaget, a senior Mechanical Engineering Technology major from Gladstone, was not alarmed by the discovery of the message.

“At this school, I’m not too concerned,” he said. “This school’s pretty safe.”

Piaget said he felt the university responded promptly to the incident. Cook said Tech has committed to purchasing a system which would allow administrators to contact students by cell phone text messaging. He said the university will also test its new carillon system, which has sirens and emergency public address capabilities, Tuesday, but the test is not in response to Wednesday’s incident.

“This is something that’s been in the planning for a while,” Cook said.

Mroz said he did not have knowledge of any previous threats made at Tech.

In 2001, Tech Public Safety discovered bombs outside the the U.J. Noblet Forestry Building.

Mroz said the university may re-assess its long-term response to the incident following the Michigan State Police’s investigation.

“In the mean-time, we’ll keep our increased patrols going,” he said.

Anyone with information regarding the incident is asked to contact Tech Public Safety at 487-2216.



Dan Schneider can be reached at dschneider@mininggazette.com'>dschneider@mininggazette.com