CEP officers immediately made their way to the building to investigate and called the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary (RNC). RNC officers were on the scene within minutes.

For the next 30 minutes or so, CEP and the RNC surrounded the building, which was placed on lockdown, while they gathered more information about the situation. In the end, there was no threat and the building was reopened for business.

“The person who made the call and our CEP officers did what they were supposed to do in that situation," said Kris Parsons, chief risk officer at Memorial University. "We’re very proud of the way everyone reacted. Thankfully, there was no threat but it’s good to know that people on campus know what they should do if they see something questionable and that our CEP officers have such a great working relationship with the RNC to work together to diffuse a potential situation.”

Memorial has an emergency management plan (www.mun.ca/emergency/) which includes a section on personal preparedness for everyone on campus.