3 colleges get bomb threats

The threats on the much-larger campuses in Texas and North Dakota ended as false alarms after tens of thousands of people followed urgently worded evacuation orders.

Both of those campuses emptied at quick but orderly paces Friday morning, though students acknowledged an air of confusion about what was going on. The threats coming as violent protests outside U.S. embassies in the Middle East also stirred nervous tension among some students, and Texas officials acknowledged that global events were taken into account.

The first threat came about 8:35 a.m. to the University of Texas from a man claiming to belong to al-Qaeda, officials said. The caller said bombs placed throughout campus would go off in 90 minutes, but administrators waited more than an hour before blaring sirens on the campus of 50,000 students and telling them in emergency text messages to immediately "get as far away as possible."

North Dakota State University President Dean Bresciani said about 20,000 people left the Fargo school's campuses as part of an evacuation "that largely took place in a matter of minutes." FBI spokesman Kyle Loven said NDSU received a call about 9:45 a.m. that included a "threat of an explosive device."

Police and school officials said the evacuation was as organized as could be expected, with one campus employee describing people as "being North Dakota nice."

Also Friday, Valparaiso University in Indiana increased security and posted a warning to students on its website after a vague threat was discovered scrawled in graffiti.

The FBI and local authorities searched the campus but found nothing suspicious. A university spokeswoman said classes and activities would go on.