At around 1 p.m. on Monday afternoon, the Office of Safety and Security began evacuating campus buildings containing libraries. Shortly after, Associate Vice President of the Office of Safety and Security Bill Harwood emailed the campus community with a security advisory, announcing that the evacuation was due to a hoax threat from an anonymous sender.

Harwood explained in an email to the Orient that the nature of the threat was “that of a bomb at a library at Bowdoin College.”

“Officers quickly responded to the report of a threat and began the evacuation process shortly after 1 p.m. Once the assessment determined that the threat was a hoax, we begun reopening libraries at approximately 1:40 p.m.,” Harwood wrote.

Students in library buildings were asked to leave and take their belongings with them during the evacuation. Lily Janas ’26, who was in Hawthorne-Longfellow Library for a Spanish cinema class, described how her class was not immediately told the reason for evacuation but learned it was a threat through a classmate who was not allowed to enter the library.

“One of our classmates was notably absent, which was unusual for her. Another classmate told us she’d texted that they wouldn’t let her into the library because of a threat. Almost immediately after, a woman knocked on the door and asked to speak with our professor outside,” Janas wrote in an email to the Orient.

The Brunswick Police Department (BPD) is investigating the source of the threat. In an email to the Orient, BPD Chief of Police Scott Stewart emphasized that the threat did not materialize.

“Security made us aware of the event. Nothing came of the incident,” Stewart wrote.

Reports of similar threats occurred at Colby College, where two buildings were also evacuated on Monday following a bomb threat that police deemed “not credible.”

Harwood reiterated the importance of staying alert in his email to the Orient.

“Please continue to be vigilant around campus and contact Safety and Security with any concerns. The safety and security of the campus community is our top priority,” he wrote.