University of Missouri officials are planning to meet Wednesday afternoon to discuss the circumstances surrounding an anonymous bomb threat that caused the university to evacuate the MU Student Center and Memorial Union for more than two hours Tuesday night.

MU spokesman Christian Basi said the meeting would involve discussion of the incidents Tuesday as well as how the university handled the evacuation and alerts.

MU police escorted about 200 people from the student center shortly after 7:15 p.m. after a threat was made via an anonymous phone call to staff in the building, Basi said. Officials evacuated Memorial Union at about 7:50 p.m.

�The threat was called in directly to the student center,� Basi said. �That information was immediately given to the MUPD, who responded right away.�

The threat was made specifically to the �student union,� Basi said, which is why university officials also opted to evacuate Memorial Union as a precautionary measure. University officials did not evacuate any other campus buildings.

Basi said the university has received bomb threats in the past, but he could not remember any targeted at the MU Student Center.

A K-9 unit with the Missouri Capitol Police traveled from Jefferson City to help police search for the alleged bomb. Neither MUPD nor Columbia police has a bomb-sniffing dog, Basi said. The MUPD had a K-9 unit until about eight months ago, he said, when the handler left the department. Police found no bomb.

Police reopened the student center at about 9:30 p.m. Tuesday after searching for more than an hour. University officials cleared Memorial Union at about 9:44 p.m., but the building remained closed until normal hours Wednesday.

MU Alert did not send out a text or phone alert to students and staff about the bomb threat because it was �localized� and contained to the two student centers, Basi said. The MU Alert Twitter account posted about the MU Student Center evacuation at about 7:26 p.m. and about the Memorial Union evacuation at about 7:50 p.m. The university also sent email alerts to parents of students at about 8 p.m., and the MU Alert website provided details as the situation progressed.

MU junior Sarah Ruwe said an announcement went out over the student center�s intercom and then officers walked through the building and started gathering people and telling them to leave.

�They didn�t tell us what was going on,� Ruwe said.

Ruwe said the center usually hosts a large number of students who are working on homework during the evenings.

Officers in neon vests blocked entrances to both campus buildings at about 8 p.m., and police cars filled the area. Missouri State Highway Patrol troopers directed traffic away from the buildings, and only buses were able to drive on Rollins and Hitt streets near the student center.

A group of about 30 students and university employees sat on the grass across the street from the student center, waiting while police searched the building.

Jimmy Kraus, assistant manager of campus dining services at the student center, said the evacuation initially was confusing because nobody knew about the bomb threat.

�They didn�t tell anybody anything that was going on until they got us outside,� Kraus said. �They were just trying to keep everyone calm.�

After police resolved the bomb threat, an MU Alert went out over text at around 10:11 p.m. notifying students of a Columbia Police Department investigation into a potential shots fired incident near Tenth and Walnut streets. The report was erroneous, and the alert system sent out an additional text at 10:30 p.m. saying the incident was resolved.

This story was first published online on Tuesday, April 21, 2015 at 7:52 p.m.