Campus Alert Archive
Barnard

Bomb threat during a library sit-in forced an evacuation; nine protesters arrested

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NYbomb threatemergency notificationmedium confidence
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UnfoundedNo evidence of an actual threat was found. The institutional response is documented because the alert communication is identical to what would occur during a real incident.

On March 5, 2025, approximately 50 students began a sit-in at Barnard's Milstein Center around 1:00 PM EST to protest the expulsion of three Columbia/Barnard students. At 4:15 PM EST, Barnard Vice President Robin Levine announced a bomb threat targeting Milstein and ordered the building evacuated. Barnard CARES then issued a shelter-in-place alert at 4:43 PM EST. Nine protesters who refused to leave were arrested by NYPD. The bomb threat was determined to be unfounded.

Alerts
4
Response
—
Killed
0
Injured
0
Institution
Barnard College
Private Liberal Arts · NY
All Barnard cases →
~2,700 studentsBarnard CARES
Documented Timeline

Alert Sequence

4 messages in sequence · 1 verified verbatim

Confirmed wording is transcribed character-for-character from a primary source. Use Verify this quote under each message to open that source in a new tab and compare the text yourself.

Some messages in this sequence are documented (their existence, timing, and channel are sourced) but their exact wording is not preserved in the public record. Those entries appear as placeholders; only confirmed text is displayed.

INITIAL ALERTIn person
Wording not yet recovered

A message was sent at this point in the sequence; its exact wording has not yet been recovered from the official record, so no text is shown. This site never paraphrases or reconstructs alert wording. Markers like this one keep the emergency's true shape and become word-for-word messages as recovery reaches the source.

UPDATEEmail+26 min
Wording not yet recovered

A message was sent at this point in the sequence; its exact wording has not yet been recovered from the official record, so no text is shown. This site never paraphrases or reconstructs alert wording. Markers like this one keep the emergency's true shape and become word-for-word messages as recovery reaches the source.

FOLLOW-UPOfficial social+35 min
Verified verbatim208 chars
The NYPD is responding to a bomb threat at the Milstein Center at Barnard College and is evacuating the building. Anyone who refuses to leave the location is subject to arrest. Please stay away from the area.
Verify this quote
Barnard Bulletin transcribes the full NYPD X postthebarnardbulletin.comfind archived copies
Dual HTML + second-blind. Barnard Bulletin quotes the full NYPD post (status 1897407181009641726). Byte-identical to the committed 208-char reconstruction. sha256 cd8cd965a9e67683a512815af3abc324d01188d95c1fe68849296dca366a8f86.
Prior 2026-07-20 demote was for national/TV news without a complete reproduction; this student-newspaper transcription is the complete official-social product.
ALL CLEAREmail
Wording not yet recovered

A message was sent at this point in the sequence; its exact wording has not yet been recovered from the official record, so no text is shown. This site never paraphrases or reconstructs alert wording. Markers like this one keep the emergency's true shape and become word-for-word messages as recovery reaches the source.

Context

Background

On the afternoon of March 5, 2025, approximately 50 pro-Palestine demonstrators filed into Barnard's Milstein Center through a side door at 1:00 PM EST, beginning a sit-in to protest the expulsion of three Columbia/Barnard students disciplined for participation in the April 2024 Hamilton Hall occupation and a separate incident involving antisemitic flyers. At 4:17 PM EST (more than three hours after the sit-in began) Kelli Murray, Barnard's Executive Vice President, made an in-person announcement inside Milstein that the college had received a bomb threat and was evacuating the building. At 4:43 PM EST, Interim Executive Director of CARES Gary Maroni issued a campus-wide shelter-in-place alert via the Barnard CARES Response Team email system. At 4:52 PM EST, NYPD officers entered the campus through the 117th Street main gate. Approximately 50 officers, including Strategic Response Group members, cleared the building. Nine protesters who refused to evacuate were arrested. NYPD confirmed the bomb threat was not credible by evening. Subsequent reporting by The Intercept established that the bomb threat appears to have been called in by someone targeting the protesters rather than by the protesters themselves. Barnard President Laura Rosenbury subsequently restricted campus access to ID holders, banned masks in the library, and announced possible bag checks. The Barnard Student Government Association issued an open letter protesting that the College had been 'explicitly told by President Rosenbury, in the presence of other senior staff, that the College would never invite the NYPD onto campus.'
Analysis

Key Findings

First documented instance in 2024-25 of a campus bomb threat being used to clear an ongoing sit-in, collapsing two distinct alert categories (civil-disturbance advisory + bomb-threat emergency-notification) into a single afternoon
Three-tier alert architecture: in-person verbal announcement at 4:17 PM EST, Barnard CARES email at 4:43 PM EST, NYPD social-media warning at 4:52 PM EST, each escalating in formality and consequence
Reporting that the bomb threat targeted the protesters rather than originating from them complicates standard Clery threat-attribution frameworks and highlights the weaponization of swatting against student activists
Outcome
Nine protesters were arrested by NYPD for refusing to evacuate the Milstein Center. The bomb threat was determined to be unfounded by police later that evening. Reporting later established the bomb threat was likely targeting the protesters themselves rather than originating from them. Barnard subsequently restricted campus access to ID holders, banned masks in the library, and announced possible bag checks.
Provenance

Sources

Every claim on this page is meant to be checkable. Open the links below (and the Verify this quote control under each confirmed alert) to read the original university, news, or archive page yourself. Hostnames are shown so you can see where you are going; archived copies survive when live pages move or disappear. See also our methodology.

  1. Student Paper
    Barnard administrators announce bomb threat in Milstein, order shelter in place (Columbia Spectator)
    columbiaspectator.com
    archived copy
  2. Student Paper
    NYPD arrests students on Barnard campus amid 'active bomb threat' (Barnard Bulletin)
    thebarnardbulletin.com
    archived copy
  3. National News
    'No threat to the public,' NYPD says after responding to Barnard College bomb scare (ABC News)
    abcnews.go.com
    archived copy
  4. News
    Bomb Threat on Barnard Campus Ends Sit-In as Police Make 9 Arrests (West Side Rag)
    westsiderag.com
    archived copy
  5. Student Paper
    Pro-Palestine Student Demonstrators Hold Sit-In In Barnard's Milstein Center, Nine Individuals Arrested (Bwog)
    bwog.com
    archived copy
  6. National News
    Police detain protesters after bomb threat at Barnard College (Washington Post)
    washingtonpost.com
    archived copy
  7. National News
    A Bomb Threat Targeted Student Protesters. So Why Did They Get Blamed for It? (The Intercept)
    theintercept.com
    archived copy
  8. National News
    Barnard clamps down after bomb threat clears pro-Palestinian protest in library (Forward/JTA)
    forward.com
    archived copy
Cite this case

Campus Alert Archive. "Barnard College: Bomb threat during a library sit-in forced an evacuation; nine protesters arrested." Incident of March 5, 2025. Added May 2026; last updated September 2026. https://campusalertarchive.com/case/barnard-college-milstein-library-bomb-threat-2025-03-05/

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Alert text quoted on this page remains the work of the issuing institution; the archive is a secondary source.

Tags
bomb-threatunfoundedcivil-disturbanceshelter-in-placegaza-protestwomens-collegeprivate-liberal-artsnew-yorknypdswatting-suspectedmilstein-centerUnfounded
Added May 2026Updated September 2026Via ingestion