The bomb threat that cleared out Gym 2 and the locker rooms of the Student Recreation and Wellness Center at 12:30 p.m. today was officially lifted about an hour later.
Authorities allowed students to return to all of the evacuated areas and reopened the women's locker room, where the threat had originated.
An emergency notification was sent via text and email to students at 12:30 p.m. that said the rec center received a bomb threat and to avoid the area.
An additional notification that was sent nine minutes later said everyone who wasn't in Gym 2 or the lockers rooms should stay in place.
"We were walking around the track and saw everyone evacuate from the main floor," Tyler Clements, a junior sales major, said. "We peered our heads over, and then they came and told us we had to leave."
A graduate student who works at the rec center said a worker had reported a message written in something like Chapstick in the women's locker room in the basement.
The graduate student said she was scared when she saw it.
"You never know if it's real," she said. "I was running around trying to figure out if we should evacuate."
University police officers blocked anyone from leaving the lobby of the rec center and going down to the basement or down the hallway toward Quiznos.
Economics professor Norman Van Cott said he was on an exercise bicycle in the workout room when he saw the TV screens turn to orange with a message that there had been a bomb theat.
"I finished working out and came out here [to the lobby] to wait," said the professor.
Before Monday, the most recent reported bomb threat at Ball State occurred in September 2011, said Bob Fey, associate director of Public Safety.
Burton said there will be an ongoing investigation to the bomb threat at the rec center. University Police and the Muncie Fire Department were the only services that responded.
Alex Andorfer, a senior accounting major, said he was evacuated before he could grab any of his personal belongings from the locker room.
"All I know is I was in the gym playing basketball and they made everyone evacuate," Andorfer said. "They said it was a bomb threat…They weren't like, ‘You need to run.' They were calm. If it was the real thing, I'd say almost a little too calm."
Senior English major Katie Phillips said not everyone handled the situation so calmly.
"I was just down in a back empty hallway and a cop lady yelled and told everyone to get out," she said. "She made it seem a lot worse than it seems now."
People waiting in the lobby were able to return equipment and get their student ID cards around 1:05 p.m.
Clements said he doesn't feel any less safe at Ball State after the bomb threat.
"It could happen anywhere," he said.
Sarah Boswell contributed to this story.
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