Whitman College, in conjunction with the Walla Walla Police Department, is investigating the origins of an apparent prank bomb threat for Hunter Conservatory on Wednesday, April 1.

In the late evening of Tuesday, March 31 a select group of Whitman community members received an e-mail warning them that a bomb would go off at Hunter at 6:30 p.m. on April 1. The e-mail also made reference to April Fool’s Day.

“Issuing such a threat, whether a hoax or not, is a felony offense,” said Dean of Student Chuck Cleveland in an campus-wide e-mail alert.

The e-mail was sent from a hacked student G-mail account and the identity of the sender is currently unknown.

The Whitman administration was made aware of the threat early Wednesday morning and subsequently notified the Walla Walla Police Department.

The Whitman community was alerted of the threat at 11:40 a.m. and Hunter was immediately evacuated and locked and the surrounding area was cordoned off. Campus security and the Police Department conducted a sweep of both the interior and exterior of the building during the afternoon hours.

According to Chief Financial Officer Peter Harvey, no signs of a threat were found.

Nonetheless, the Police Department barricaded the perimeter of Hunter in the lead up to the 6:30 p.m. target. Students and local traffic were redirected through other parts of campus.

According to one police officer on duty, all available department personnel were assigned to the Whitman campus.

Once the 6:30 p.m. target had sufficiently passed without an incident, the police determined that the threat had subsided and Hunter was re-opened for regular use at 8:00 p.m.

“We now assume this was an April Fool’s joke; a terribly inappropriate one. However… we had to respond as if it was a credible, serious threat,” said Cleveland in an e-mail to the Whitman community.

The administration, with the help of the Police Department, is attempting to obtain a subpoena to Google Inc. in order to obtain information about the sender of the e-mail.

Harvey confirmed that progress is being made in obtaining the subpoena, however he could not disclose further information for fear of compromising the police department’s investigation.

The Police Department is examining the computer of the student whose Gmail account was hacked into, with the hope that traces of the hacker can be found. Whitman College Technology Services is assisting the police with these efforts.

College officials urge anyone who has information about the bomb threat to come forward.

“Campus staff and the Walla Walla Police have spent many hours working on this situation, and we would hope that anyone who can shed light on this incident will notify me,” Cleveland wrote in a campus-wide email.

Any information should be directed to Cleveland either by e-mail or phone (office: 509.527.5158 or cell: 509.520.0564) or Whitman College Security by phone (509.527.5777) or e-mail at [email protected].