An anonymous bomb threat called in to the Business Administration building Friday morning resulted in the evacuation of all 23 classrooms, and may have been an attempt to disrupt exams that were scheduled that morning.

Around 10 a.m., a male’s voice called the College of Business office, saying that everyone should “get out in five minutes or the building would blow up,” according to Nancy Merritt, interim dean of the College of Business.

There were a lot of exams scheduled at 10:30 a.m. Friday, and the assumption is that “someone just wanted to get out of it [an exam],” said Tim Chambers, director of Undergraduate Studies in the College of Business.

Students and faculty were evacuated in roughly seven minutes, and waited outside the building for around a half-hour, Chambers said.

He added that campus police responded quickly, beginning their search of the building before all 32 classrooms had even been evacuated.

Administrators kept students and faculty on the grass outside the BA building during the search process.

When Nicole White, junior, saw students right outside the building, she figured the threat wasn’t worth taking seriously.

“When I saw the people standing around outside, I knew it wasn’t serious because they wouldn’t let them just stand around and watch,” White said.

In the 10 years Merritt’s been an administrator at BGSU, this is the first called-in bomb threat she knows of being made to the BA building.

“A call like this is not taken lightly, and is not received often,” Merritt said.

Though the anonymous caller may have disrupted classes and exams in the short term Friday morning, he could be charged with “inducing panic” if found, which ranges from a fourth-degree misdemeanor to a second-degree felony.

According to Ohio’s Revised Code, “inducing panic” is causing the evacuation of a public place, through serious means or alarm.

The penalty can range from a maximum 180 days in jail and $1,000 fine, to eight years in jail and $15,000 fine.

Dan Myers contributed to this report.