The FBI arrested seven men on July 27 for supporting terrorism and conspiracy to commit murder abroad. Two N.C. State students, Dylan Boyd, 22, and Mohammad Omar Aly Hassan, a 22-year-old sophomore in sociology were among the indicted.  

In light of the proximity of such a potential threat the Campus Police Chief Tom Younce stated that the department has made an effort to protect the University, including the updated Wolf Alert system that expanded the area of immediate contact to members of the University.  

“We are prepared for an attack,” Younce said. “We have an officer assigned to the ISC, Information Sharing Council, who participated in the investigation. His function is to coordinate intelligence information that might help the university prepare itself.”

Lindsey Thomas, a sophomore in elementary education said that she feels the University is well prepared for potential threats.

“I definitely feel safe on campus,” said Thomas. “I think that this past issue with the students who were arrested shows that the city of Raleigh is prepared as a community.”

Younce also stated that the officers have undergone a lot of training for potential threats and have partnered with the Department of Homeland Security for exercises.  

“We have done some exercises. There was one about a month ago that modeled a possible terrorist attack on campus conducted by the Department of Homeland Security and involved quite a few state agencies,” Younce said. “It was a participant exercise where they actually ended up doing some disarming of a potential bomb held inside a car parked outside Carter Finley Stadium.”

According to Younce the most important information that came from this very detailed exercise was the teams response and the gathering of intelligence so that the University could continue to push forward.  

Younce said that campus police emphasized at freshman orientation that whether it is a terrorism threat or a hurricane everyone needs to have a plan and be prepared for the unexpected.  

“This is a good example of people paying attention and passing along information to law enforcement,” Younce said. “It is key that information is passed along. Also, everybody should have a plan on how to respond to a threat, how they will contact their parents to let them know they are safe, etc.”  

Amanda Migliaccio, a sophomore in social work agreed with Younce that attention to detail is vital.  

“The scary thing about terrorism threats like this past one is that it is so easy to overlook,” Migliaccio said. “There is not a stereotype for a terrorist. They can be yellow, black, white, Christian, Muslim, your best friend, whatever. We just need to pay more attention to behavioral patterns and be there to ask questions when something seems out of place.”

Kelsey Cook, a sophomore in mathematics said that the campus seemed prepared for most threats.  

“I feel reasonably safe on campus,” Cook said. “It is off campus that I feel like I really needed to worry about.”

Former Student Centers President Peter Barnes, a junior in Natural Resources Policy and Administration said that he feels the University is prepared even if students may not realize it.  

“There are adequate systems to alert students but I do not feel that students have an exact grasp as to what to do yet until the event actually occurs,” Barnes said. “There is not a lot of information given out in pamphlets that says ‘This is what you need to do in case of a bomb threat.’ It is available online, but your average student is not going to go looking for it. The University has plans on how to alert students and protect them, but students may not be aware of all these plans.”

Kevin Bauer, president of the Muslim Student Association, said that he believes these threats have been an ongoing issue since September 11 and that the profiling of Muslims has increased since then.

“We do not expect any backlash in regards to the recent terrorism controversy,” Bauer said. “Our experience at N.C. State has been very respectful on campus. There is nothing on the record of anything out of the normal, no protests or that kind of thing.”

Bauer stated that the Muslim Student Association’s support follows U.S. Constitutional law.  

“I hope that it is also clear with the most recent address that we do support them until they are proven with any form of guilt,” Bauer said. “Just as the U.S. Government believes that they are innocent until proven guilty, Muslims feel the same way. As for the Muslims, we stand by the same sort of system. There is no real evidence yet but if they are proven guilty then it will be a completely different story. We do not support what they were allegedly doing but we stand by their innocence until proven differently.”

Bauer said that the court has not reached a decision yet.