"It went a long way toward calming people's fears," he says.

Suspicious Packages

Within a span of two hours last Sunday, two unattended packages were reported and checked as possible explosives at Harvard.

At about 2:45 p.m. on Sunday, state and local authorities evacuated half of John F. Kennedy Park to examine a knapsack that witnesses said had been dropped off by a man who then ran out of the park.

Members of the bomb squad arrived and found the bag to be harmless.

About 45 minutes later, a security guard in Holyoke center picked up a bag he found unattended in Au Bon Pain.

The bag turned out to contain the belongings of a patron who was inside buying a sandwich.

The quick reactions to these incidents by local authorities are no surprise. According to Cambridge Detective Chuck Mottola, local authorities are being especially cautious after the bombing in Centennial Olympic Park and the suspected terrorist involvement in the crash of TWA Flight 800.

Harvard is, however, no stranger to bomb scares and suspicious packages. According to Harvard Police Lt. Lawrence J. Murphy, there have been 58 suspicious packages reported and four bomb threats phoned in over the past year. Several of the packages turned out to be potentially dangerous and had to be checked out by Cambridge or Boston police, he says.

Perrotti reports that Yale Police investigated 35 suspicious packages and received four bomb threats during that same period, none of which turned out to merit concern.

Professors say they take the possibility of mail bombs, like those employed by the Unabomer, very seriously.

Emery Professor of Organic Chemistry Elias J. Corey says he has taken seriously the possibility of mail bombs for some time and makes sure both he and his secretary are careful with his mail.

"It certainly seems like Harvard's prominence would be a factor to make it more at risk, just like I would imagine MIT is at risk or the White House is at risk. The more important some institution is, the juicier it is as a target," Corey says.

While he says he is not terribly concerned with the type of random violence that has seemed prevalent in the U.S. recently, Pfeiffer Professor of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology Robert R. Rando says the possibility of more focused groups taking action is enough to make him cautious with his mail.

"The type [of terrorism] you'd see if you see anything here is the sort of terroristic activity these animal rights groups are using," Rando says. "That sort of focused activity is more of a concern than the random events that are going on world-wide."