Scary pranks shut down schools!
On Thursday, Jan. 22, the University of Dallas’ second day of the Spring 2026 semester, UD students, faculty and parents received a Rave alert message warning that “UD and several other universities in the DFW area received threats via email.” Recipients were informed that the police and the FBI were investigating the situation, but that the threats were not believed to be credible. Many students noticed an increased police presence during that week, since Irving officers were stationed on campus as backup to their UD Police Department counterparts.
On the same day, several other universities in the DFW area, including Dallas Baptist University, received similar threats. DBU specifically received a bomb threat, which prompted the administration to cancel classes and evacuate campus to ensure the safety of their community. They resumed classes the following day.
Contrary to what many UD students assume, the threats sent to UD did not include any mention of bombs. Chief Russell Greene, head of UDPD, said that UD “received emails to random staff threatening violence on our campus.” He continued: “Those that received the emails immediately contacted UDPD.” As soon as they were aware of the threats, UDPD contacted the Irving Police Department, which provided additional officers on campus.
Said Greene: “UDPD personnel are always in contact with…all of the College/University police departments in the area. We quickly realized a lot of Texas Universities received the same emails with their respective names.”
Greene explained that all the emails were essentially the same, only with the names of the various recipients and universities copied and pasted in. He explained that federal law requires that students be notified in this kind of a situation, but UDPD was careful to phrase the Rave alert students received in a way that would encourage appropriate caution, but not cause wide-spread and disproportional panic. He continued: “The intelligence units of the FBI, Dallas Police Department and the Irving Police Department quickly determined the emails were a hoax. The FBI assigned an agent to investigate and as far as we know they are still investigating.”
UD has received threats in the past, but never ones that were specific to the university or that seemed credible.
While the threats have thankfully proved to be unfounded, the incident did show that UDPD has the resources and ability to take action should it prove necessary to protect the UD community. Thank you to Chief Greene, UDPD, and Irving Police Department for taking care of all of us!