Lindsey Arceci
Equinox Staff
While scrounging around in a recycling bin, a few mice were spotted cheesin’ it up in a photojournalism class in the Media Arts Center, perhaps in pursuit of some cheese.
On Oct. 17, members of the 12 p.m. photojournalism class taught by professor Julio Del Sesto, discovered mice right outside their classroom in room 160. According to Sylvie Rice, the campus manager of environmental health and safety, said that once the mice were discovered, a couple traps were set up and two mice were found. She said grounds employees were able to release one of the caught mice out past Joyce Field, but the other one didn’t survive.
Rice said the school doesn’t have any specific plans because this incident may just be a reaction of the mice due to the weather.
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“I found an article in the Eagle Tribune last week, and there’s been an especially busy year for the mice population because of the mild winter last year,” Rice said. “There’s kind of a population explosion, and when that happens and it starts getting colder, the mice get inside because they don’t need big spaces.”
When mice are discovered in buildings on campus, Rice said they tell all the occupants to make sure that they take food away because the mice are looking for food. She also said that the staff look for obvious openings they can seal, and when they find openings they seal them.
As far as the safety of the students and staff are concerned, Rice agreed that the mice are not a present danger to students.
“If you have a real mice infestation then it’s important to keep things clean, and clean up any droppings when you find them,” Rice said. “The main thing is to try and keep your food covered, and not provide them with food.”
A student in that class, senior Emily MacKenzie, agreed that class started off normally until Del Sesto walked over to the recycling bins.
“He was just like, ‘Okay, class is cancelled!’ and just kind of let us go,” MacKenzie said. “Then we were all in the back of the room, and he was trying to explain the assignment and they [mice] just started popping out, so everyone just left.”
MacKenzie said she thought the mice were probably looking for food.
“I feel like it [Room 160] might be one of those rooms that might get forgotten about because there was a lot of paper in the recycling bin, and maybe someone just put food in there and maybe it had been sitting there a little while,” MacKenzie said. There is now a sign by the bins that says “no food,” MacKenzie added.
She said Del Sesto has conducted classes since the incident, and there have not been further sighting of mice during that class.
From the classroom next door to 160, junior Celeste Thibault said she heard a scream, and didn’t know why until her class got up to look.
“There was a little, tiny mouse that ran back underneath the door into the lab [room 160],” Thibault said.
Thibault added that her professor just figured it would be taken care of later, so there wasn’t much discussion in her class.
She said it does kind of bother her that mice were in a school building.
“It bothers me to a point,” Thibault said. “I mean I know it’s getting colder, and I understand, I had a mouse in my apartment, so it’s understandable.”
The difference for her though, between mice in an apartment and mice in a school building, is that the MAC is relatively new.
“At the same time, it’s just weird having a live animal in the classroom, especially because that’s a newer building too,” Thibault added.
Although the weather seems to have played a part in this incident, Thibault said she hopes the school continues to address this problem.
“I hope they can enforce a food policy so it won’t attract further mice,” Thibault said. “If they could kind of work on catching them, and releasing them somewhere else. So we don’t have little creatures with us while we learn.”
Lindsey Arceci can be contacted at
larceci@keene-equinox.com.