WWU announces plans to reopen Viking Union after investigating emailed threats
Western Washington University announced that it will begin reopening the Viking Union in time for dinner service Wednesday evening after receiving emailed threats that forced the school to close the facility parts of Tuesday and Wednesday, Feb. 22-23.
“No new activity has been reported or discovered by law enforcement that indicates an intent to perpetuate this threat,” WWU Vice President Joyce Lopez wrote in a message emailed Wednesday. “Although some have speculated that this threat was directed at the Black in Bellingham and other Black History Month events happening in the VU, we have no reason to believe that is the case and no threat was made to any other building, individuals or groups in the email message.”
The investigation into the threats determined it would be safe to reopen the Viking Union Commons to essential workers Wednesday afternoon, according Lopez’s statement, giving them time to prepare for dinner service to start at 5 p.m.
The rest of the Viking Union will open at 7 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 24, according to Lopez.
“While we are confident the responding team of law enforcement agencies has kept a watchful eye over our community and is diligently investigating the threat, we know that this incident continues to be unsettling to several of our students, faculty and staff,” Lopez wrote. “Please know that this remains an active investigation and public safety patrols will be increased as an added precaution.”
As previously reported, the school first announced the closure of the Viking Union in an alert delivered shortly after 12:30 p.m. Tuesday. The closure was due to a threatening email involving a firearm that was sent to at least two WWU email addresses.
The school later announced that it would keep the Viking Union closed Wednesday as the investigation continued and asked anyone with a WWU email account to check their inboxes and forward any threatening messages to university.police@wwu.edu.
