Bomb threats disrupted Brandeis classes and research on two separate occasions last week. Tuesday, the Rabb Humanities Quad and Brown were evacuated after Public Safety received a phoned threat. Wednesday, the majority of the Science Quad, including the Rosensteil and Kosow buildings, was evacuated. In both cases, no evidence of bombs or any other explosive materials was found following police and fire department searches. Neither Public Safety nor Waltham Police have yet identified any suspects, although an investigation is ongoing.

At approximately 5 p.m. Tuesday, a male caller using a campus phone in a booth on the second floor of the Goldfarb Library called Public Safety and reported he had placed a bomb on campus, according to Mark Collins, associate vice president for university services. Public Safety then called the Waltham police and fire department for assistance.

Wednesday morning, President Jehuda Reinharz sent an e-mail to the community, informing them of the bomb threat. Rabb Quad and Brown were reopened at 10:30 p.m. Tuesday, following a fire department walk-through and a search by bomb-sniffing dogs.

Only a few hours after Reinharz's e-mail was sent out, another bomb threat was called in. At approximately 2 p.m. Wednesday, a call was made from a campus phone on the first floor of the Goldfarb Library, in the elevator corridor.

Public Safety recorded both bomb threat calls. According to Waltham Police Detective Sgt. Tim King, the two telephones to which the calls were traced have been removed from the library for fingerprinting. Director of Public Safety Ed Callahan said surveillance cameras are in place in the library and the footage is being reviewed for any leads in the investigation.

The Waltham Daily News-Tribune reported hearing over police scanner reports last week that the caller was "an Arab male." The Brandeis police log also reported that the caller had "a Middle Eastern accent." Callahan, however, said he is skeptical that the caller was actually of Middle Eastern descent. "I think that's what the caller tried to make himself sound as," he said. "I think the voice was disguised. That was my stance."

The consequences for the caller will be severe, Callahan said, even if the suspect is found to be a Brandeis student. "A student would obviously be prosecuted criminally and obviously through Rights and Responsibilities we would initiate any type of action against that person to remove them from the community."

King said that the Waltham police would "proceed with criminal charges" against the suspect once he is apprehended. Recently, he said, the Department of Homeland Security has passed relevant legislation dealing with terrorist threats that will be reviewed to see if it is applicable in this case.

Originally, only Rabb Quad was evacuated on Tuesday, as "Rabb" -- a term Brandeis police believed could refer either to the building or the entire quad --was mentioned on the tape. But approximately an hour later, after police re-listened to the tape, Brown was also evacuated.

"When the call came in, it was a very difficult call to listen to," Callahan said. "It was a very muffled voice and it was not discernable at first, so after a couple of people listening and reviewing the tape, which had a lot of background noises ... we went back to that other location (Brown)."

Professor Wellington Nyangoni (AAAS) was in the middle of a lecture for his course, Theories of Development (AAAS 158a) when his class was disrupted. "I saw my students leaving and I left too," he said. "I was in the middle of the class and some strange men walked in and were telling us to get out." After he and his students had remained across the street from Rabb Quad for approximately 30 minutes without being allowed back into the building, he decided to cancel class for the day.

Wednesday's bomb threat targeted the Science Quad, causing the closure of several buildings and a portion of the peripheral road for over three hours. Traffic was redirected, classes were canceled or rescheduled and research labs were inaccessible during this period.

Public Safety Officer Chris Manning took Wednesday's bomb threat call. "It was only a three-second call," he said. Manning was unable to release details of the call, but said Rosensteil and Kosow were threatened. "It sounds like a prank," he said, "but you can't be sure because you've got to safeguard everything."

Students, faculty and staff in the affected Science Quad buildings were evacuated to the Gosman Sports and Convocation Center. They waited outside the gym until John Hose, executive assistant to the president, told them it was unlikely that the buildings would be reopened before 5 p.m. At that point, many chose to go home for the day. The affected areas were made accessible at approximately 5:30 p.m.

Some students and faculty expressed concern for their ongoing science experiments. According to Josh Chappie '03, the bomb threat was a disruption to his research. "I'm in the middle of a protein purification right now, which for my stuff is a three-day process, so it is about half-way through today -- I'm in day two of it -- if something gets messed up, then you're screwed," he said. "It's like a day and a half of work is down the drain."

Callahan expressed sympathy for the inconvenienced science researchers. "Certain (experiments) have to have close monitoring, so obviously this is an unfortunate situation that we're faced with, but it's a priority to evacuate the buildings," Callahan said.

Callahan said he could not recall any bomb threats occurring on campus within the last five to seven years. He also said that the timing of these threats is particularly disconcerting. "It's very upsetting to the University to deal with this type of situation, especially when we're faced with the conflict in Iraq. As a community, it's a major atrocity and obviously a crime to call in a bomb scare, and especially when a situation like this can be very injurious to people's life and welfare," he said.

"People evacuating buildings are obviously concerned about escalating conflicts, war and obviously their own safety and could have heart attacks and numerous medical concerns," Callahan said. "That is coupled with the fact that if some explosive device did exist, tragedies and obvious death could result from this callous act."

Callahan said he encourages anyone with information that may assist the ongoing investigation to contact Public Safety at x65000.