Bomb threats cause some students to leave campus

As she walks through her floor in Litchfield Tower A, Lauren Ungar has noticed a population… As she walks through her floor in Litchfield Tower A, Lauren Ungar has noticed a population decrease.

Ungar, a freshman, said at least 10 of the girls on her floor couldn’t handle the sleep loss, which began to affect some of their grades. So they chose to finish their work at home or at a nearby relative’s home.

Most floors in Tower A house 38 students and one Resident Assistant.

Unlike some of her peers, Ungar decided to stick it out for the semester because she is in the process of joining an honors fraternity and also wanted to be here for final exam review sessions. But it hasn’t been easy.

“It’s just becoming really difficult to get all of my work done because I’m so tired, and there aren’t many places to go because you have to have your bags checked,” Ungar said. “It’s just really a nuisance.”

Like the residents on Ungar’s floor, many Pitt students have decided, because of the more than 70 dormitory evacuations due to bomb threats, to leave campus.

Pitt could not provide a figure on the number of students who have left campus.

Pitt spokesman Robert Hill said “data has not been compiled on withdrawals.”

Pitt spokesman John Fedele also said the Office of Admissions and Financial Aid didn’t have figures for the number of withdrawals since the bomb threats began. He added that numbers were still being compiled, and OAFA will have the statistics after the semester is over.

In light of the departures, Pitt administrators have mandated that professors provide accommodations for students who chose to go home so that they do not have to withdraw from classes.

Ungar said that many of the missing residents on her floor felt that the online accommodations — like lectures and online finals — allowed for a sense of security and a better learning environment.

“I think mostly it’s because more of the dorms are being targeted, and people aren’t getting sleep, and they can’t do their work,” Ungar said. “It’s just easier to go home now that the teachers have to have a plan for them to take their finals online. It’s just an easier alternative.”

Despite the mandated accommodations for outgoing students, some professors find it difficult to emulate the in-class experience and have continued making attendance mandatory.

Freshman Bethany Murray, a resident of Tower A, said she moved home but was forced to return to Pitt after the professor told the class that attendance still factored into their grade.

“My lab TA said they wouldn’t excuse [absences] and that we had to be there for them,” Murray said.

While Murray said the string of bomb threats frustrated her and other students, she also said most students plan to return to Pitt next year.

“I haven’t heard anyone say they’re not coming back,” Murray said. “They’re just more frustrated that they haven’t caught anyone.”