Saturday night, students enjoyed the Rave to celebrate Gustavus Homecoming.

While the rave was taking place, rumors about a gun spread like wildfire.

Junior Lilly Soderberg shared her rave experience saying, “We didn’t hear about there being a gun until after the rave was over, and we heard the news from a mutual friend of my roommates.  He said that three separate people, who were not connected, had texted him saying someone brought a gun to the rave.”

Soderberg continued: “This news didn’t make me as scared as I thought I would be or as shocked, because this day in age, this kind of information isn’t as shocking because it is so prevalent.”

She concluded that if it were a legitimate threat on campus she would have expected campus safety to inform her.  As many students expected, it has been confirmed that there was no real harm to the campus.

Carol Brewer, Director of Campus Safety, shared the full report with the Collegiate Fellows in order to better support students at Gustavus.

“At the Rave dance, there were four Campus Safety officers and two St. Peter Police officers working.  At one point during the evening, there was a student attendee who was engaging in conduct that was disruptive to another person.  One of the police officers approached the student and instructed him to cease his disruptive behavior. 

During the interaction, the officer did NOT remove his firearm from its holsterm,” Brewer said. She continued, saying, “In fact, there was no physical interaction at all, only verbal.  Somehow, this led to the rumor that there was a gun at the event,” Brewer said. 

“We can use this as an opportunity to recognize that although we infrequently see police on campus, they are a part of our community, and they do carry standard equipment (which includes a firearm).  While both police officers hired to assist at the event did carry their firearms, they were not upholstered from their belts at any point.  Again, there was not an incident involving a gun,” Brewer said.

In the event of a threat on campus, the Gustavus warning system would alert students.

The Gustavus emergency procedure plan states that, “The Gustavus Adolphus College warning system consists of telephone, radio, pager, email, text message, and voice communication systems and has the ability to receive and disseminate warning messages to all campus locations and designated off-campus locations via radio, television, internet, etc.”

More information can be found on the campus safety website.

We can rest better at night knowing that the rumors have been put to rest, and the campus was never under a legitimate threat.