Jessup Hall evacuated on first day of fall semester, suspicious package found

Safety officials were called to Jessup Hall on the University of Iowa Pentacrest this morning after a suspicious package was found. This is the second suspicious package-related evacuation and warning in one week. The situation has since been resolved, and the public is not in danger.

UI officials released a Hawk Alert to students on their first day back for fall classes at 11:25 a.m. noting that safety officials were assessing the situation.Police were called to the scene after a male student was seen acting “erratically” in Phillips Hall and then in Jessup, where he was taken into custody, according to a University of Iowa statement.

The backpack he left behind prompted UI police to call the bomb squad to investigate the bag’s contents.

Groups of students and faculty crowded around the police-taped lawn waiting to return to the first classes of the semester.

This is the second suspicious package of late on the UI campus. On Aug. 17, a suspicious package was reported south of the UI Main Library. It was later resolved and was found not to be dangerous to the public.

The student was transported to the hospital for evaluation. Officials issued an all-clear Hawk Alert message at 2:29 p.m. Police on the scene declined to speak to The Daily Iowan.

Students and faculty who evacuated the building were left waiting to find out what happened.

UI graduate student Emily Seiple, who was inside Jessup at the time of the evacuation, said she had no idea what was going on after being evacuated besides the information sent in the Hawk Alert.

Bystanders watched as emergency vehicles raced to the scene and police taped off the area around the building.

Junior Allison Solak, who watched the scene unfold, said, “A cop car flew down the street, and officers started running to put tape up.”

“It was a really a crazy experience,” freshman Myles Glandorf said. “You obviously don’t expect something like this happening, so seeing police cars and police tape everywhere was a surprise. It really is an unsettling and nerve-racking thing, especially considering my first experience with college classes.”

However, some students didn’t seem to take the threat too seriously.

“I didn’t think much of it,” said UI freshman Haley Cox-Benson. “I still feel safe on campus.”