‘Ghost Town’: UNCW students and faculty reflect after campus lockdown

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY-TV) — Walking around UNCW on Friday, the campus was quiet, despite being home to more than 18,000 students.  With classes canceled following Thursday night’s false claim of a gunman on campus, many students left for the weekend.

Freshmen Lincoln Everingam and Mason Noble remained on campus Friday and shared what they experienced when the shelter in place was announced.

“It was like a complete ghost town everywhere, like the weirdest thing ever because this is like the most active campus ever,” Everingam said.

During the lockdown, there was a large police presence searching the campus, including helicopters and drones.

“And then there was a cop like by the woods, searching the woods and was like ‘you guys can’t be here, you guys can’t be here, you need to get inside a building,’” Everingam said.

Many students, faculty and staff sheltered inside classrooms, dorms and even their cars.

Rick Olsen, department chair of communication studies at UNCW was inside the Burney Center at the time. He said the room was somber after a week of heightened emotions on campus following the vigil for political influencer Charlie Kirk.

“It was as much, frustration, disappointment, as it was fear. Just man, we really hoped that it wouldn’t come to this,” Olsen said.
Students described hours of fear and confusion as they tried to understand what was happening.

“A lot of students were just living in fear for those three hours it was going on for,” Everingam said.

Olsen believes the incident serves as a lesson on handling disagreements and campus tensions.

“If you can just keep people talking in civil way, about ideas and lead with curiosity rather than fear and judgement, anything is possible,” Olsen said.

By 10 p.m., police had confirmed there was no active threat. Still. Olsen says the experience will leave a mark.

“This is gonna be a difference campus on Monday, than we were on Thursday,” Olsen said.