On Wednesday morning, Jan. 14, 2015, Calvin College President Michael Le Roy received notification from our campus safety director that a threatening letter had been received in the Mail & Print Services building, which contained a powdery substance. The writer of the letter indicated that substance was anthrax (it was later determined that it was NOT anthrax).

The college’s mail center employees immediately conferred with campus safety personnel, who contained the letter and the four employees who were considered to be exposed to the powdery substance (none of whom were students), and then initiated contact with the president’s office, local law enforcement and the FBI.

President Michael Le Roy then initiated the college’s emergency response protocol and gathered together the leadership team that coordinates response and communication.

After law enforcement had reviewed the letter, they advised the college that the most appropriate response was to close the Mail & Print Services building.  They also advised that at that time there was no need to take other steps such as a wider evacuation of campus.

By 11:51 a.m., the college sent out its first of a series of notifications via the college’s emergency notification system, which sends e-mails and text messages campus-wide. The college continued regular, consistent communication via the college’s emergency notification system, Facebook page and Twitter account from that time until the all clear was issued at 2:35 p.m.

By 2:35 p.m. it was determined that the substance in the letter was NOT anthrax and the all clear was given to campus. The FBI has now taken over the investigation.

At 3:20 p.m. Calvin College President Michael Le Roy and Captain Curt VanderKooi of the Grand Rapids Police Department held a joint press conference on Calvin’s campus in which Le Roy talked about the college’s response to the incident and VanderKooi addressed the incident and the collaboration between college, local and federal authorities.

Watch the press conference

From the press conference

“What I've been very pleased with is across all divisions of the college, the leadership and those who were on the first response coordinated and collaborated very effectively, which is exactly what you want internally as well as with external law enforcement. Nurturing those good relationships and then drilling and practicing emergency response for college campuses like ours is essential and we need to keep doing that. So we feel very fortunate that no one was harmed today by this threat (and) that our emergency response protocols worked and worked really well. I think the biggest reassurance you can give to parents in a very dangerous world these days is that Calvin College responded in an appropriate way, and the safety and wellbeing of the whole community is a primary thought, and we're thankful also that we have great partners in terms of the FBI and local law enforcement helping us to know how to do that."

~Michael Le Roy, Calvin College president

"We had very well established communication with the administrators at Calvin College, so they knew what we were discovering. We were giving them advice on what to do as far as other security precautions throughout the campus. And because we've worked so well together, we've had very good prior relationships, the whole thing ran smoothly as far as making the right decisions about what safety steps to follow."

~Curt VanderKooi, GRPD Captain