Explosions may be campus prank

By MARC LEVY

Middletown Press Staff

MIDDLETOWN -- Two explosions about 15 seconds apart resounded through the city Sunday night, their source tracked to what was most likely a student prank.

Police, hearing the blasts at about 9:50 p.m., began searching immediately, quickly zeroing in on the Wesleyan University campus.

Where commencement ceremonies are held, at the campus' Foss Hill and Andrus Field area, police found the culprit -- two Coca-Cola bottles filled with nitrogen, according to scanner reports -- at the commencement podium.

Nothing was damaged and no one was hurt, police said.

Police took the bottles as evidence for further investigation.

University and police officials were unavailable for comment.

The location of the bottles suggests the prank may be connected with the May 30 commencement. This year the speaker will be Amartya Sen, an economist who won the Nobel Prize in 1998 and who is father of Wesleyan student Kebir Sen -- a more high-minded but less splashy choice than last year's speaker, actress and talk show host Oprah Winfrey.

But the choice of Sen as speaker has drawn no criticism, according to students contacted Sunday night.

"Most people seem pretty enthusiastic about him coming," senior Scott Cavanaugh said.

"I think it is going to be a vast improvement over Oprah's toilet story last year," said student Sung An -- an economics major -- in the campus newspaper The Wesleyan Argus.

In addition to Sen, there will be five people receiving honorary degrees in May, including Tony Kushner, the playwright of "Angels in America."

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