Yik Yak post raises campus safety concerns

A post on social media sparked a Department of Public Safety investigation Tuesday morning. 

The post, published anonymously on Yik Yak around 1:30 a.m., said, "Tomorrow at 949 am is a time you don't want to be on campus." 

DPS spokesperson Randy Young said no arrest has been made by Tuesday afternoon and the investigation is ongoing. 

Alert Carolina sent out a campus-wide email at 9:14 a.m. announcing the presence of a threat and that they were monitoring the situation. The email said classes would continue as normal but asked teachers to be flexible if students had concerns about coming onto campus. 

"We issued the information to assuage concerns however there was not an imminent threat to the campus community," Young said. 

He said DPS investigated further and verified there was no imminent threat as the morning continued. 

A situation similar to this occurred in fall 2014, when a student made a bomb threat on Yik Yak saying "things will be getting a big explosive." The student who made posted the threat was arrested and charged with a felony count of making a false bomb report at a public building. 

Some students said they were scared of going to class while others didn't hear about it until later in the afternoon. 

"I was like kind of concerned, but I don't have any classes until after 12:30, so I don't usually go to north campus until then. I assumed it was a joke when I saw it on Yik Yak," first-year Perri Todora said. 

Sophomore Emily Hagstrom said her class was canceled because some students in the class felt uncomfortable staying on campus. 

"She reluctantly canceled class, saying she didn't want anyone who felt uncomfortable leaving and missing the material," Hagstrom said. 

Hagstrom and first-year Heather Fowler both said the situation was unnerving at first but didn't seem to be much of a threat. 

"It doesn't seem to be a big deal as far as ya know, none of my friends have been concerned about it," Fowler said. "Obviously that's not something ok to joke around about, so I was a little taken aback."

First-year Asia Chance stayed away from a 9:30 class, even though it was not canceled, because of safety concerns. 

"This isn't something to take lightly, this is something that scared a lot of people very badly and some people literally still haven't gone to class today because they're afraid the perpetrator might come back out since he couldn't do it at 9:49," Chance said. 

Chance said the Alert Carolina email — which said the situation was under control — wasn't comforting.

The situation in the morning poses no more threat, according to the Alert Carolina email, but the investigation is ongoing. 

"We just wanted folks to heighten their vigilance," Young said.

Assistant University Editor Hannah Smoot contributed reporting.

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