By noon, state and federal authorities had arrived on the scene, and President Obama had been briefed on the situation, according to a White House spokesperson. Almost from the start, officials called the evacuation a result of “an abundance of caution,” and many students speculated that the threat was an exam-period hoax. Harris awakened to read not just a university emergency alert message but also a text from his parents in Connecticut, hoping he was safe. Early in the afternoon, HUPD sent out alerts announcing that Emerson and Thayer, and then Sever and Harvard Yard, were safe for return, but officers continued to search the Science Center, forcing the cancellation of afternoon exams set to be held there. After the evacuation, officials closed Harvard Yard to the public, restricting access to those with university IDs. In an email to undergraduates just minutes before 2 p.m. exams were scheduled to start, Administrative Board Secretary John “Jay” L. Ellison wrote that any students who felt unprepared to take their still-scheduled afternoon exams could be excused from the sitting.
– Harvard University has reopened four buildings on campus after evacuating them this morning due to a bomb scare, the Harvard Crimson reports. Sever Hall, Thayer Hall, and Emerson Hall were all cleared in time for afternoon exams, and Harvard Yard was reopened before 2pm. An email tip prompted the threat, reports the Boston Globe, but a Harvard police spokesman refused to confirm. No explosives have yet been found. The school posted alerts on its emergency page and its Twitter account, clarifying that there were no reports of actual explosions, and that the evacuations were ordered out of an "abundance of caution."