Campus Alert Archive
CCRI

A Summer-Morning Bomb Threat Emptied CCRI's Providence Campus in an Hour

RIbomb threatemergency notificationmedium confidence
Confirmed HoaxDetermined to be a hoax. The institutional response is documented because it reveals how the alert system performed under a perceived real threat.

CCRI's Liston Campus in Providence was evacuated on the morning of July 7, 2022, after a bomb threat was phoned in to Providence police. The college was notified at about 10:30 a.m. and cleared the building, and the threat was quickly deemed not credible. The campus reopened just before 11:30 a.m., with no device found.

Alerts
2
Response
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Killed
—
Injured
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Institution
Community College of Rhode Island
Community College · RI
CCRI Alert
Confirmed Timeline

Alert Sequence

2 messages in sequence

Some alert texts below are approximate reconstructions from news coverage, not confirmed verbatim transcripts. Reconstructed texts are shown in italic with a dashed border. Verified verbatim texts have a solid border and are marked accordingly.

INITIAL ALERTSMS
Approximate reconstruction163 chars
CCRI Alert: Evacuate the Providence (Liston) Campus immediately due to a reported threat. Leave the building now and do not return until directed by Campus Police.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

Reconstructed wording: the verbatim CCRI alert text is not published, so isVerbatimConfirmed is false and confidence is medium.
CCRI was notified at about 10:30 AM EDT on July 7, 2022 of a threat that had been called in to Providence police, per ABC6.
ALL CLEARSMS
Approximate reconstruction131 chars
CCRI Alert: All clear. Police found no threat at the Providence Campus. The building is reopening and normal operations may resume.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

Reconstructed wording; the reopening just before 11:30 AM EDT on July 7, 2022 is confirmed by ABC6, but the exact text is not published.
The roughly one-hour evacuation-to-reopen window reflects how quickly the threat was assessed as not credible.
Context

Background

CCRI's Providence campus, the Liston Campus, sits in downtown Providence. On July 7, 2022, a bomb threat was phoned in to Providence police; CCRI was notified at about 10:30 a.m. and evacuated the campus, with the threat found not credible and the building reopening just before 11:30 a.m. The episode came amid a nationwide wave of bomb threats disrupting college campuses in July 2022, many traced to spoofed numbers and treated by authorities as a coordinated hoax campaign. CCRI maintains a published timely-warning policy under the Clery Act and uses an emergency alerting system to push evacuation and all-clear messages to students and staff.
Analysis

Key Findings

CCRI's Providence (Liston) Campus was evacuated and reopened within about an hour on July 7, 2022
The threat was phoned in to Providence police and quickly deemed not credible; no device was found
The incident was part of a nationwide summer-2022 wave of college bomb threats, many using spoofed numbers
Outcome
Providence police investigated the phoned-in threat and found it not credible. No explosive device was located. The Liston Campus in downtown Providence was evacuated around 10:30 a.m. EDT and reopened just before 11:30 a.m. EDT on July 7, 2022. The incident occurred during a nationwide wave of college bomb threats that summer.
Provenance

Sources

  1. News
    CCRI's Providence campus cleared after bomb threat
    abc6.com
  2. Source
    Bomb threats disrupt campuses across the country
    insidehighered.com
  3. Official
    Timely Warning Policy – CCRI
    ccri.edu
Tags
bomb-threatevacuationhoaxrhode-islandcommunity-college2022-bomb-threat-waveHoax
Added May 2026Updated May 2026Via ingestion