The Department of Public Safety received two bomb threats against Gerstenzang and Rosenstiel on Tuesday, May 6. According to Sgt. Dana Kelley of Public Safety, each time - at 12:53 p.m. and then at 1:07 p.m., respectively - a male called from an on-campus telephone, warned of a bomb and then hung up promptly. The buildings were to house final exams for Genetics and Molecular Biology (BIOL 22a) and Fundamentals of Artificial Intelligence (COSI 35a) less than an hour after the threats were made. Also, in what police report to be an unrelated incident, a trash can in the BIOL 22a exam room was found burning from either a possible cigarette fire or a deliberate act at roughly the same time as the first threat.

Immediately after receiving the first call, Public Safety initiated its emergency procedure for bomb threats: The Waltham police were called and quickly responded with a police car and a fire truck. Kelley said that according to protocol, Public Safety engaged the help of "facilities coordinators and staff that were assigned to these areas" to conduct a thorough search for a bomb. The second call complicated matters, as it caught the officers "in the midst of doing the Gerstenzang sweep," forcing them to "divide our resources and go over to Rosenstiel."

Kelley described the search process: "You go to each office, starting with the sixth floor and talk to each professor to ask them if they've seen anything suspicious." On request, each professor examined his own office since, as Kelley said, the professors "know better than I do what belongs and what does not belong in that area."

Neither of the searches yielded any results. This outcome mirrors that of the two bomb threats earlier this semester against Rabb Quad and Gerstenzang. This did not halt the efforts of the police force. "In light of the recent tragedies, this is a huge felony - a 20-year felony," Kelley said. "This is a very serious matter; this is not something we take lightly. The prosecution will be to the fullest extent of the law."

Though the times of the calls coinciding with the timing of the exams may be a coincidence, Kelley mentioned the possible connection: "I don't know if the guy didn't study for his biology test or what. You draw your own conclusions," he said.

The two finals scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m. in the Science Quad proceeded as planned. Several students taking the COSI 35 exam told the Justice that they were unaware there was a threat made.

Kelley said that both callers last week "appear to be the same individual." He added that this caller "had very similar voice characteristics" to the perpetrator of the two calls received earlier this semester. Thus, he said, "We are going on the assumption that the individual is the same caller for all the incidents."

He said that there are not yet any leads and "nothing to develop enough probable cause to initiate an arrest." The investigation is ongoing, involving not only Public Safety, but also Waltham police and fire departments.

Since the investigation is not complete, Kelley was limited in the details he could reveal. He could not disclose the location of the on-campus phones used for any of the threats, nor could he confirm or deny the installation of new surveillance cameras that have been rumored to recently have been installed around campus. He said, though, that the Public Safety force is taking "appropriate measures for evidence preservation," which could include tracing calls, lifting fingerprints and examining video footage.

Kelley said that no specific precautions have been added in response to these threats, but he said that he senses "a heightened state of alert, a heightened state of readiness." He added, though: "that's in the job description anyway.