FAYETTE (AP) - Upper Iowa University locked down Thursday after a student reported a man with a gun. Officials later determined the person was an off-duty police officer visiting campus as a guest.

"He entered the building, and they noticed he had a gun," spokeswoman Sheila Miller said.

The incident began about 10:50 a.m. at Colgrove-Walker Hall, the school's liberal arts building. Miller said Fayette police told the university to send an e-mail alert to staff members and students, and all buildings on campus were locked down.

Miller said the university followed its safety policy and conducted a campuswide sweep. Officials then verified the identity of the police officer.

The university has worked on its safety procedures for several years, Miller added. Officials also held a mock incident on campus that involved bombs in a dormitory cafeteria on April 14.

"We had all local emergency personnel in Fayette County come out - ambulance, fire, police … It was just to tell us where the holes are and what we needed to improve on and just to prepare us for an incident," Miller said.

"This is one of our procedures - to lock down the campus."

Louise Scott, dean of students, described a white male dressed in a shirt and tie seen with a gun in his waistband, according to the Fayette Police Department.

As a precaution, police initiated the community's lock-down protocol, which affected the elementary school and day care center.

The officer, not a member of the Fayette Police Department, was a guest speaker in a class on campus.

The timing of that drill coincidentally was two days before the massacre at Virginia Tech. A student gunman killed 32 people and himself in that incident.

Miller said she doesn't think Upper Iowa is particularly nervous because of the shootings in Virginia.

"We don't feel on edge or threatened here, but somebody did see a person with a gun and reported it. We took proper measures," Miller said.