Both campuses eventually were deemed safe and reopened by early afternoon, as authorities worked to determine whether the threats were related.
The University of Texas received a call about 8:35 a.m. local time from a man claiming to be with al-Qaida who said he had placed bombs all over the 50,000-student Austin campus, according to University of Texas spokeswoman Rhonda Weldon. He claimed the bombs would go off in 90 minutes and all buildings were evacuated at 9:50 a.m. as a precaution, Weldon said.
The deadline passed without incident, and the university reopened all buildings by noon. Classes were canceled for the rest of the day, but other university activities were to resume by 5 p.m.
"We are extremely confident that the campus is safe," UT President William Powers told a news conference.
North Dakota State University President Dean Bresciani said 20,000 people also were evacuated from his school's main and downtown campuses in Fargo after the school received its threat. FBI spokesman Kyle Loven said a call that included a "threat of an explosive device" came in about 9:45 a.m., but he declined to give further details. He said the agency was trying to determine if the two campus threats were related.
NDSU buildings reopened about 1 p.m. and classes were set to resume an hour later, said Bresciani, adding that the campus had been "deemed safe."
Graduate student Lee Kiedrowski of Dickinson, North Dakota, said he was walking on campus just before 10 a.m. when he got a text message telling him students had been ordered to evacuate within 15 minutes.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2012/9/252925