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Campus Alert Archive
UT Austin

Campus alert, April 27, 2022

AI-generated · every claim is source-linked
TXotheradvisoryhigh confidence
Confirmed Threat

On April 27, 2022, UT Austin's Office of Campus Safety warned students to stay away from raccoons after three students were bitten and required rabies vaccinations. The animal was believed to be living outside the McCombs School of Business and Perry-Castaneda Library (PCL) area on the main campus, known as the Forty Acres.

Alerts
1
Response
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Killed
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Injured
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Institution
University of Texas at Austin
Public R1 · TX
All UT Austin cases →
~51,000 studentsUT Campus Safety
Official alert policy
Read when and how UT Austin says it will use Longhorn Alert: summarized, quoted, and analyzed.
Documented Timeline

Alert Sequence

1 message 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.

INITIAL ALERTTwitter/X
Verified verbatim284 chars
Recently, we have seen an increase of incidents involving raccoons and the UT student population. Unfortunately, these interactions have resulted in three students being bitten by a raccoon and receiving rabies vaccinations as a precautionary measure. (Thread) https://t.co/AiNPHJw9wh
Lane B PRE-2024 flip 2026-10-14: the cited Spectrum News article embeds the official UT Austin Office of Campus Safety post as a twitter-tweet (embed attributes it to @UTAustinSafety; the same account, author id 1012036197559029763, is now @UTAustinOEM; status 1519403071633305600, 2022-04-27 19:48:16 UTC = 2:48 p.m. CDT). Two independent X API reads and CDN syndication agree on the 284-char text (the thread's head post, including the '(Thread)' marker and trailing t.co). Replaced the 312-char text whose closing do-not-feed/pet/photograph sentence was reconstructed with the official product. SPN not attempted (Lane A CLOSED); archiveUrl null.
CBS Austin quotes the first two sentences of the @utaustinsafety post word for word; the final do-not-feed/pet/photograph instruction is reconstructed from how outlets described the rest of the warning, so the message stays unconfirmed.
The warning was posted on the Office of Campus Safety's Twitter account (@utaustinsafety) rather than sent as an emergency text, consistent with its advisory (non-Clery) status.
PCL refers to the Perry-Castaneda Library, the campus's main library, named in source coverage as near the raccoon's location.
Issued as a discretionary safety notice rather than a Clery timely warning, since an animal bite is not a Clery-reportable crime.
Message elements

How the first alert is built

To check this alert, an AI model read it in full 25 separate times, independently. Each read decided whether the message answers each of the six questions and gave a short reason. A final reviewer then weighed all 25 and wrote the plain-English verdict you see when you open a row. The score (for example 22/25) is how many reads agreed; the 25 individual reads are tucked underneath if you want to check them.

Recently, we have seen an increase of incidents involving raccoons and the UT student population. Unfortunately, these interactions have resulted in three students being bitten by a raccoon and receiving rabies vaccinations as a precautionary measure. (Thread) https://t.co/AiNPHJw9wh

  • Sourceabsent0/0

    Who is sending the alert and who is responding. People act faster on a message from a clearly identifiable, credible sender, such as a named department, the police, or a branded alert system, than on an anonymous notice. A branded signature counts.

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  • Hazardabsent0/0

    What the threat actually is. A complete warning names the specific danger, such as a shooter, a fire, a tornado, or a gas leak, rather than a vague emergency, because people decide what to do based on what they are facing.

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  • Locationabsent0/0

    Where the threat is. Saying whether danger is in a specific building, a part of campus, or area-wide lets people judge their own proximity and choose a safe direction. Without a where, a warning is hard to act on precisely.

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  • Guidanceabsent0/0

    The protective action to take. A clear, specific instruction, such as shelter in place, evacuate, avoid the area, or run-hide-fight, drives faster and more correct protective behavior than describing the threat alone.

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  • Timeabsent0/0

    When the message applies. A timestamp, the word now or immediately, or a phrase like until further notice tells the reader whether the danger is current and how quickly to act.

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  • Impactabsent0/0

    What the hazard could do to the people in its path. Beyond naming the threat, a complete warning conveys its potential consequences or severity, such as that a tornado can level buildings or that a leak could be explosive, so recipients grasp how much danger they are in. Research on warning message content finds that a concrete impact statement helps people personalize their risk and act sooner.

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Systematic AI judgments with visible reasoning, not human-validated codings.

About this analysis
Context

Background

In late April 2022, UT Austin's Office of Campus Safety told students to beware of raccoons after a surge of biting incidents on the main campus, the Forty Acres. The warning, posted on April 27, 2022, said three students were bitten and received rabies vaccinations as a precaution, and that a raccoon was believed to be living near the McCombs School of Business and the Perry-Castaneda Library (PCL). Officials suggested the raccoon may have felt threatened by close contact, particularly if it had young, and urged students not to approach, feed, or pet wildlife and to seek medical care promptly if bitten. The case illustrates how persistent urban wildlife on a dense campus can generate a discretionary safety advisory rather than a Clery timely warning.
Analysis

Key Findings

Three UT Austin students were bitten by a raccoon and received precautionary rabies vaccinations, prompting an April 27, 2022 Office of Campus Safety warning
The raccoon was believed to be living near the McCombs School of Business and the Perry-Castaneda Library on the Forty Acres
The notice was a discretionary safety advisory, outside the Clery Act's crime-based timely-warning framework
Outcome
Three students received precautionary rabies vaccinations. UT advised the community not to approach, feed, or pet the raccoon and to seek medical care immediately if bitten or scratched.
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. News
  2. News
  3. News
  4. News
  5. Social
Cite this case

Campus Alert Archive. "University of Texas at Austin: Campus alert, April 27, 2022." Incident of April 27, 2022. Added May 2026; last updated October 2026. https://campusalertarchive.com/case/university-of-texas-austin-raccoon-bites-2022-04-27/

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

Tags
wildliferaccoonrabiesadvisorytexashealth-advisoryut-austin
Added May 2026Updated October 2026Via ingestion