Following more than five hours of shelter-in-place orders for North Campus, Cayuga Heights and other areas within Tompkins County, Cornell has lifted the notice for the Ithaca campus.
“Local law enforcement’s search for a man involved in an incident that occurred in downtown Ithaca earlier today has been concluded,” the alert reads. “The suspect is still at large and is not believed to be on or near campus.”
The CornellALERT — the fourth on Tuesday — comes after Cornell police first sent an alert to shelter in place for everyone on North Campus, due to local police pursuit of a man with a gun in Cayuga Heights, north of Cornell’s campus.
The alert also said that there will be “heightened Cornell Police presence” on campus in response to the ongoing situation.
The first alert came at 2:10 p.m., advising those on North Campus to shelter in place. Later, residents within a one-mile radius of Cayuga Heights were told to shelter in place, with this area then expanded to include much of Cornell’s campus, Ithaca and parts of Lansing at 5:30 p.m.
After the shelter in place was lifted, President Martha Pollack wrote to the Cornell community Tuesday night, sharing campus resources and asking Cornellians to take care of themselves and each other.
“For all of us here on campus, it’s been a difficult, frightening few days,” Pollack wrote. “Sunday’s bomb scare, followed, just two days later, by today’s shelter-in-place while a gunman was being pursued near North Campus, would have been stressful enough in ordinary times. As it is, they add still further to the disruption and strain of the last 20 months that we are all feeling already.”
Community support meetings will be held tonight at 8 p.m. in Suite 100 in Barnes Hall, the One World Room in Anabel Taylor Hall and on Zoom. Wednesday’s meeting will be held in the Great Room in Akwe:kon at 7 p.m.
“I hope, with all of you, that the weeks remaining before our much-needed Thanksgiving break will be peaceful ones,” Pollack wrote in the email.
The Mental Health at Cornell website provides a range of campus, local, and national resources to support student mental health and community well-being. Students in need of professional mental health support can call Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) at 607-255-5155 and employees can call the Faculty and Staff Assistance Program (FSAP) at 607-255-2673. The Ithaca-based Crisisline is also available at 607-272-1616.