UNC bomb threat discredited

At about 5 a.m. Monday morning, Chapel Hill's Department of Public Safety announced that they were unable to verify the bomb threat to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Pit area, The Daily Tar Heel reported. All buildings in and surrounding the Pit were searched.

Alert Carolina, UNC's alert system, states that the University is once again operating under normal conditions. In response to several students' complaints about the lack of notification, Alert Carolina sent UNC students an e-mail Monday morning clarifying its protocol. An armed person on or near campus, a major chemical spill or hazard and a tornado are contexts for which UNC's alert system would be used. UNC students who had signed up for the opt-in text message alert system began receiving text alerts around 11:40 p.m., more than two and a half hours after the threat was first reported.

DukeALERT's outdoor siren system would be used in the same three instances, according to its Web site. Duke's opt-in text messaging system also sends notifications during situations of "imminent danger." DukeALERT e-mails have been sent in a few cases of campus crimes, such as armed robberies.