Classes were again interrupted yesterday after someone called right before 3:30 p.m. to tell the campus operator a bomb was set to go off in Cherry Hall.

Campus police cleared the building, and signs were placed on each of the doors saying the building would be closed until 4:45 p.m. But because the operator couldn’t clearly understand if the caller said the bomb was to go off at 4 or 5 p.m., students weren’t allowed back into the building until 5:30 p.m., said Bob Skipper, director of Media Relations.

Officers then spent the next two hours patrolling the perimeter of the building. They also made two sweeps through the building looking for bombs right before 4 and 5 p.m. Officers could also be spotted peaking into cars parked near the building looking for anything suspicious.

Students waiting to get into their night classes in the building were hanging out around Garrett Center, and some were playing frisbee in the lawn in front of Gordon Wilson Hall.

The crowd began to thin soon after 5 p.m., and by the time students were allowed into the building at 5:30 p.m., the number of students staying outside was nearly cut in half.

Skipper said students who missed class because they were under the impression that it was canceled will have to deal with their instructors on an individual basis.

“I’m not gonna stick around until they get this … figured out,” one student said.

Skipper said there is no way to tell whether Tuesday’s bomb threat was related to a Feb. 20 bomb threat in Cherry.

Reach Abbey Brown at [email protected].