{
  "id": "2024-01-25-connecticut-college-manwaring-evacuation",
  "slug": "connecticut-college-manwaring-evacuation-2024-01-25",
  "institution": {
    "name": "Connecticut College",
    "shortName": "Conn",
    "state": "CT",
    "type": "private-liberal-arts",
    "alertSystemName": "CCAlert",
    "enrollment": 1800
  },
  "incident": {
    "date": "2024-01-25",
    "endDate": "2024-01-30",
    "type": "evacuation",
    "cleryCategory": "emergency-notification",
    "headline": "A 214-Year-Old Steeple Falls Next Door and Fifty Students Move Into a Holiday Inn",
    "summary": "When the steeple and roof of the historic [First Church of Christ in downtown New London collapsed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Church_of_Christ_(New_London,_Connecticut)) around 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, January 25, 2024, the New London Fire Department ordered the adjacent [Manwaring Apartments, Connecticut College's off-campus student housing, evacuated as a precaution](https://thecollegevoice.org/2024/02/17/legacy-lives-on-a-new-london-staple-collapses/). Campus Safety sent a CCAlert to the entire student body and relocated roughly [50 displaced Manwaring residents to a nearby Holiday Inn](https://www.theday.com/local-news/20240130/connecticut-college-students-return-to-dorm-new-london-church-demolition-continues/) for several nights while engineers assessed the church site's stability.",
    "outcome": "No students were injured. Manwaring residents returned to their apartments on January 30, 2024, once the immediate demolition phase was complete and the site was declared safe.",
    "resolution": "confirmed-threat"
  },
  "alerts": [
    {
      "sequence": 1,
      "type": "initial",
      "timestampApprox": "The afternoon of Thursday, January 25, 2024, shortly after the church steeple and roof collapsed",
      "channel": "sms",
      "verbatimText": "CCAlert: Manwaring needs to be evacuated immediately. Please check your email for more information.",
      "isVerbatimConfirmed": false,
      "sourceDescription": "Reconstructed from The College Voice's reporting that Campus Safety sent a CCAlert to all students notifying them that Manwaring needed to be evacuated and directing residents to their email for details",
      "annotations": [
        "The push alert itself is described as terse, naming only the building and the action required, with substantive detail pushed to a follow-up email",
        "Manwaring is off-campus, upperclassman apartment housing directly adjacent to the collapsed church, so the alert addressed a hazard outside Connecticut College's own property line",
        "Sent to the entire student body rather than only Manwaring residents, consistent with Connecticut College treating this as a campus-wide emergency notification"
      ],
      "characterCount": 99
    },
    {
      "sequence": 2,
      "type": "update",
      "timestampApprox": "Later on January 25, 2024, following the initial CCAlert",
      "channel": "email",
      "verbatimText": "The New London Fire Department notified Campus Safety and they immediately evacuated Manwaring.",
      "isVerbatimConfirmed": true,
      "sourceUrl": "https://thecollegevoice.org/2024/02/17/legacy-lives-on-a-new-london-staple-collapses/",
      "sourceDescription": "The College Voice, quoting Dean of Students Victor Arcelus's email to Connecticut College students, faculty, and staff",
      "annotations": [
        "This sentence is directly quoted by The College Voice from Dean of Students Victor Arcelus's follow-up email; the surrounding text of the full email was not published, so only this confirmed portion is treated as verbatim",
        "Attributes the evacuation order to the New London Fire Department rather than Campus Safety's own judgment, clarifying the chain of authority behind the precaution",
        "The passive framing, 'they immediately evacuated,' emphasizes speed as reassurance to a wider audience beyond the displaced Manwaring residents"
      ],
      "characterCount": 95
    }
  ],
  "context": "Connecticut College leases [Manwaring, an off-campus apartment building](https://thecollegevoice.org/2025/12/19/connecticut-college-announces-end-to-manwaring-lease-off-campus-housing/) on State Street in downtown New London for upperclassman housing. On the afternoon of January 25, 2024, the steeple of the adjacent [First Church of Christ, a 214-year-old landmark, suddenly collapsed onto its own roof](https://www.constructionequipmentguide.com/demolition-of-a-214-year-old-church-in-connecticut-followed-a-sudden-steeple-collapse/63845), closing surrounding streets. The New London Fire Department, concerned about the stability of the site next to Manwaring, directed Connecticut College's Campus Safety office to evacuate the building immediately, and Campus Safety pushed a CCAlert to the entire student body while separately notifying the roughly 50 displaced residents. The college relocated those students to a [nearby Holiday Inn](https://www.theday.com/local-news/20240130/connecticut-college-students-return-to-dorm-new-london-church-demolition-continues/) for several nights. No one, including the single person inside the church at the time, the office manager, was injured, and Manwaring residents moved back in on January 30, 2024, once the initial demolition phase was finished and the building was cleared as safe.",
  "keyFindings": [
    "The evacuation was triggered by an external hazard, a collapsing historic church next door, not by any failure inside the Manwaring building itself",
    "Connecticut College distinguished between a campus-wide CCAlert and direct outreach to the roughly 50 directly displaced residents",
    "The college covered hotel relocation for displaced students for five nights while the site was assessed, rather than dispersing students to find their own housing",
    "The only verbatim-confirmed language comes from a Dean of Students follow-up email, illustrating how administrative correspondence sometimes preserves alert content better than the original push notification"
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "title": "Legacy Lives On: A New London Staple Collapses - The College Voice",
      "url": "https://thecollegevoice.org/2024/02/17/legacy-lives-on-a-new-london-staple-collapses/",
      "type": "student-newspaper"
    },
    {
      "title": "Connecticut College students return to dorm as New London church demo continues - The Day",
      "url": "https://www.theday.com/local-news/20240130/connecticut-college-students-return-to-dorm-new-london-church-demolition-continues/",
      "type": "local-media"
    },
    {
      "title": "Streets closed, dorm evacuated after roof collapse at New London church - NBC Connecticut",
      "url": "https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local/crews-responding-to-church-collapse-in-new-london/3202767/",
      "type": "local-media"
    },
    {
      "title": "First Church of Christ (New London, Connecticut) - Wikipedia",
      "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Church_of_Christ_(New_London,_Connecticut)",
      "type": "other"
    }
  ],
  "confidence": "medium",
  "tags": [
    "evacuation",
    "emergency-notification",
    "connecticut",
    "off-campus-housing",
    "structural-collapse",
    "liberal-arts",
    "2024"
  ],
  "dateAdded": "2026-07-03",
  "lastUpdated": "2026-07-03",
  "addedBy": "ingestion"
}