Second-floor residents of Bissell Hall placed towels in front of their doors to block mice from entering their rooms, only to be reprimanded for fire hazard violations after Wednesday night's fire. The towels were locked in a closet and students were told that they could retrieve the towels the following day after speaking with their janitor about fire safety.
Students believe they were unfairly reprimanded because they found Office of Residential Life to be unresponsive to initial rodent complaints, which they voiced early last week. "Mickey" -- the name students assigned one identified mouse -- was first sighted in the shower during the weekend before the fire, and one member of the Class of 2010 contacted the Office of Residential Life the following Monday.
As a first response to complaints, ORL had a custodial supervisor contact an exterminator and explain to students that food should be kept in plastic containers. Eckels said the rodent problem was exacerbated by food left on dorm room floors.
The exterminator examined Bissell three days after the initial complaint because he only visits campus once a week. According to Eckels, between the time of the initial complaint and the exterminator's arrival, a parent contacted ORL to complain about the delayed response. As a result, ORL set mouse traps around the dorm on Tuesday, Feb. 6.
Despite initial efforts, mouse sightings continued until roommates Morgan Covington '10 and Heewon Kim '10 trapped the mouse in a drawer, where it died several days later. Covington said the traps were ineffective, although the campus exterminator will return to Bissell later this week to check them again.
"I felt like no one was really doing anything," Covington said in response to the exterminator's arrival two days after ORL set the traps. Covington said she lost sleep over the mouse, and that she occasionally woke up in the night to the sound of scampering. "I was petrified of the mouse," she said.
"All we can do is to react as quickly as we can," Eckels said.
He stressed that insect and rodent infestation is a recurring problem on campus and that ORL has dealt with extermination many times.
"[Rodent infestation] happens every year. We probably get three or four building complaints [every year]," Eckels said, "It's been a fairly active year, because it's been so cold, and there hasn't been great snow cover."
Indoor rodent sightings have occurred frequently on campus this year with the opening of new dorms. Eckels explained that after opening of the McLaughlin Cluster, which had been under construction for two years, complaints arose because mice were trapped in the building.
"Reactions of the students in Bissell are very different from the reactions of the parents," said Eckels. He explained that parents, in general, say students are very upset, but the students don't seem too concerned.
Covington called the incident upsetting.
"My parents aren't paying all this money for me to live in here with vermin," she said.
