A bomb threat forced police to evacuate the entire Pima East campus of UA South last night for the second Tuesday in a row.

Pima campus police began guiding cars out of the parking lot and escorting teachers and students out of classrooms around 7 p.m. after the threat was reported to the Tucson Police Department. Students with later classes found every entrance to the college blocked by orange cones and were unable to attend their courses.

Police at the scene refused to comment.

“”We’re hoping it’s another false alarm and we’ll get back to business tomorrow,”” said Richard Fridena, acting dean of

instruction for Pima Community College.

Standing alongside the police who were directing cars, Fridena said evacuations cause problems in management, cost money and are disruptive for everyone.

Despite the inconvenience, academic requirements will still be enforced.

“”We’ve still got enough time in the semester for people to make adjustments,”” Fridena said, who plans to meet personally with teachers and discuss ways to continue through the semester.

“”You can’t take a chance in thinking that it’s a hoax,”” said Mary Petrosky, an employee in pharmacy technology at Pima.

Petrosky said she didn’t realize that there was a threat until she noticed the campus was empty, and she walked up and down the halls for minutes trying to find out what was going on.

Jason Brown, a business sophomore, said he drove nearly 20 miles to get to his 7:30 Legal Environment of Business class and was surprised to see nobody around. Like other students on the Pima East campus, which hosts UA South classes, Brown was not given any information about the either of the bomb scares, and drew his own conclusions.

“”It’s a community college,”” he said. “”I have no idea why somebody would want to bomb it, even if they were getting bad grades.””