By Christian Bell

News Editor

In four hours, Calvin's campus went from a bustling college landscape to a deserted ghost town. Following a threatening phone call received last Thursday, the campus was evacuated, classes were cancelled, and thousands of students were sent home with family and friends.

The phone call was placed at 6:05 p.m. last Wednesday, but it was not picked up until 8:00 a.m. the following morning. It came into a voicemail system in the Alumni and Public Relations office on a number that is listed in the phone book as a general information number for Calvin's campus.

Campus Safety was notified of the call and the contents of the voicemail was then transmitted to the Campus Safety office for further analysis.

The exact nature of the threat was not specific, contrary to early reports that claimed it was a bomb or shooting threat. The call described a threat to the campus that would occur ``in 42 hours,'' and mentioned ``fire and other threatening'' words.

``The final phrase was actually the most worrisome phrase. It talked about the college, so you couldn't just clear a building, you had to think about the whole institution,'' said Vice President for External Affairs Tom McWhertor.

``It was a very deliberate message,'' said Vice President for Student Life Shirley Hoogstra.

The message was over 20 seconds in duration, compared to the extremely short duration of most prank calls. It was made from a stolen cell phone. And the tone of the message was described as ``calm; almost scripted.''

Although the vast majority of threatening phone calls are hoaxes, due to the close proximity of the events with the tragedies of September 11th, as well as the specificity of the message, it was decided that caution should be exercised.

At 8:30 a.m. Jerry Steele, Director of Campus Safety, alerted the Student Life office that ``there had been an unusual phone call,'' according to Hoogstra.

``We listened to the tape and talked what were possible responses,'' she said. ``Jerry had ideas for further investigation with Grand Rapids Police. We were trying to gauge the degree of risk, but we needed to have more information.''

Hoogstra praised Steele's contribution to the process. ``Jerry's connections to the GRPD assisted in raising this to them. They were very, very concerned with this kind of threat so close to September 11.''

Area high schools and colleges frequently receive threats, so the administration's first goal was to determine the severity of the problem.

``What we were trying to do is ascertain how serious this was, how much could we get the police to do, and how quickly,'' said McWhertor. ``This is not an uncommon thing, the difference was we just couldn't write this one off the way you sometimes can.''

By 10:00 a.m., a meeting with the President's cabinet and Campus Safety took place to bring administrators up to date on the situation and to discuss what actions, if any, might be appropriate.

Several responses were weighed, including a heavy increase in campus security on Friday or a partial closure of campus during the day.

``Within a short period of time, the consensus was that we wanted to make sure everyone was as safe as possible given the information we had,'' said Hoogstra.

Further meetings took place at lunchtime, mid-afternoon, and again at 5:00 p.m. At the 5:00 p.m. meeting the decision was made to close the campus.

``We assumed it was a hoax, not to the degree of putting your lives in jeopardy, but we felt that we had to close the campus,'' said McWhertor.

The Student Life division, headed by Hoogstra, had already devised an evacuation plan and had drafted a letter to give to students briefing them on the situation and advising them how the campus would be closed, where to go, and what to do.

The flyer read in part, ``In light of recent terrorist activities in the United States and yet also the large number of hoax incidents which have occurred since, the decision to close the campus was difficult...all students are asked to contact their family members...all special events and all classes will be cancelled...[and] all residence halls and apartments will close temporarily.''

The decision to close the campus on Thursday evening instead of Friday was done largely for logistical reasons.

``By in large, a Thursday night is somewhere where we can get messages and information to people [easily],'' said Hoogstra.

The administration began setting into motion a crisis management plan.

``That all worked pretty well,'' McWhertor said. ``I couldn't imagine that we could empty this place out in 3 hours.''

Students, faculty, and staff were largely unaware of the events going on behind closed doors that day. However, the first visible signs that something was amiss soon began to unfold.

At 6:30 p.m., the library was closed early, and library staff walked around telling students that they needed to return to their residence halls or apartments. Some students were told there was a threat against the library building, and others were told there had been a bomb threat.

``Technically no one knew until 7:00 p.m.,'' said McWhertor. However, by 6:30, Calvin's media spokesman Phil de Haan had already received a call from the media. By 7:15, the first TV news vans started appearing in front of the Spoelhof Center.

Several Thursday classes were in session. The classes were interrupted so the professors could be alerted to the situations and end the classes prematurely.

Meanwhile, back in the dorms and apartments, students were called to mandatory meetings. In the dorms, the Resident Directors and Residence Assistants calmly explained what was happening and instructed students on where to go. Two members of the Student Life division were also there to support them.

``Our RDs and RAs did a wonderful job of conveying in a very calm but clear way that we need to take care of this,'' said Hoogstra.

Meanwhile, phone chains were busy contacting faculty and staff to alert them to the closure and to ask them to show up at the Spoelhof Center at 9:00 p.m. to bring home students who had nowhere to go.

Although the residence halls were emptied and most staff and faculty were gone by 11:00 p.m. Thursday, the campus entrances weren't closed until 7:30 a.m. Friday. Barricades were put up in front of all campus entrances, and Campus Safety and Grand Rapids Police Department patrol cars blocked the roads, turning away all traffic from campus. The entrances remained staffed until late afternoon.

Finally, at 9:00 p.m., the barricades were taken down and students were allowed back on campus. By Saturday morning, the college had returned to a state of relative normalcy.

But even in light of the threat and recent events in the nation, there is no expectation of a tightening of security or discussion on how to tighten campus down.

``It may heighten people's awareness but my sense is nothing much has changed,'' President Gaylen Byker said. ``There's more discussion about communication and we did treat this situation as sort of a drill to see how people would respond and how we would get the word out. We may increase the number of people involved in response. But we're very cautious and we have a very good Campus Safety staff, none of that has changed.''

When it was all over, administrators expressed their pride in the degree to which campus came together and how well the community responded.

``The value of this is related to things like [improving] crisis management and campus-wide communications,'' Vice President for Administration, Finance, and Information Services Henry DeVries said.

``There was no panic,'' McWhertor said. ``I've had nobody tell me we did the wrong thing. Students really took it serious. I think it all came together better than we could have expected.''

``It was very moving,'' said Hoogstra. ``Any college that has an hour to prepare to evacuate all the resident students in that kind of quick, orderly, and calm manner is exceptional. When you come to a Christian college, there is always an underlying sense of a safety net which is, `God is in control.'''

``I thought things went extremely well,'' said Byker. ``Everybody cooperated. It was a good indication of community spirit and willingness to help out anybody who needed a place to stay.''

``It was a really fine example of working together,'' Hoogstra added. ``You really know what people are made of when there is a crisis. It's the kind of thing where everybody just pulls together.''