Students were evacuated from the BYU Testing Center on Oct. 23 after a fire alarm was accidentally pulled. Around 300 students were taking tests at the time of the evacuation.
BYU Police arrived around 11:30 a.m. and took about 30 minutes to clear out the building, according to Jeanine Bell, Testing Center Operations Manager.
The BYU Police website states, "The investigation determined that the alarm had been accidentally activated by a student. No criminal violations were identified and no charges were filed."
Maia Apezteguia was taking an economics exam when the alarm suddenly ripped through the spacious room. Apezteguia said test takers responded slowly to the alarm, due to confusion and being unsure of the correct protocol.
As the alarm blared, an employee came into the main testing room, telling all students to quickly leave the building.
To facilitate a seamless evacuation, testing center employees stationed themselves along multiple exit ways and guided students to the front of the building to wait.
"It went very smooth," Bell said. "We followed our policy and evacuated, and then once we got cleared to re-enter, we did."
Test-takers were instructed to wait between the Testing Center and George H. Brimhall building until they were cleared to return to their tests.
Bell said that after BYU Police cleared the building, testing center employees led students back to the building, checking for BYU IDs before students resumed their tests.
The ordeal took around 30 minutes. The intermission did cause anxiety for some students, like Apezteguia, who said she was running on a tight schedule when she initially went in to take her test.
"With limited time, I gotta lock in," Apezteguia said. "It was definitely weird."
Although the evacuation may have caused a personal time crunch for some students, the Testing Center informed those taking timed tests that their professors would be notified of the evacuation, and they shouldn't worry about losing test-taking time.
According to Bell, evacuations like this happen once a year, but the Testing Center's evacuation protocols have kept students safe.