The university, which enrolls nearly 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students, declined to make leaders available for comment, saying their focus was on students, parents, faculty, and staff.

Such false emergency calls are known as "swatting," or calling in a large law enforcement response to a non-existent crisis. On the same day, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga was also targeted with reports of an active shooter. Police found no threat.

Upper Merion police confirmed they received a similar call Thursday, a few hours before the one at Villanova, for an alleged shooting incident at the King of Prussia Mall.