Update: Mercer police reported at 1:24 PM that the "active threat" on campus was lifted. No information about class cancellations has been announced.
At 12:15 PM today, a threat on Macon's campus was called into campus. Orders to shelter in place were included in the email sent out to students and faculty, but no details were given concerning the threat.
Mercer spokesperson Jennifer Fairfield-Williams told The Cluster at 12:42 PM that a threat was phoned into the university and that "officers are currently sweeping the campus to confirm there is no threat." A new alert will be sent to students and faculty when an update is available, Fairfield-Williams added.
The threat comes just a day after a local community college, Central Georgia Technical College, was placed under lockdown for a reported active shooter, but the called-in threat was deemed a "hoax".
In an email to The Cluster, the Bibb County Sheriff's Office said that the university has asked that all questions about the incident be referred back to Mercer. In an email to the Mercer community, Chief of Police Haley Beckham said that federal, state and local authorities "assisted" the university during the incident.
Gabriel Kopp '26 is double majoring in Journalism and Law and Public Policy at Mercer University. He has written for The Cluster since he started at Mercer, and currently works as Editor-in-Chief. When he isn't working on a Washington Post crossword, he enjoys going for runs around Macon and reading The New York Times or the AJC while sipping coffee.
