Are the mice of Clet becoming permanent residents?

By: Sarah Rance

NIAGARA UNIVERSITY N.Y.- Last semester, I wrote an article about the mice issue in Clet Hall. Unfortunately, I am writing about it again because it is most certainly not resolved.

Indeed, mice are still roaming the halls of Clet. In fact, this time they struck quite close to home. No, I have not seen a mouse in my room. But my best friends who live across the hall? They’ve seen three. In a span of just four days.

Despite putting in mouse traps after seeing the first one, my friends ended up moving out of Clet after seeing two more a few days later. Katie Liotta and Emily Mager, both junior education majors here at Niagara, have been roommates since their freshman year. However, when they moved out, they were forced to be split up and now live in singles.

Some people have a fear of heights. Others have a fear of bugs. For Katie Liotta, it’s mice. So, seeing three mice in her room and watching one crawl out of the heating vent, (cringe)  was a big no.

“I have always had a fear of mice,” said Liotta. “So seeing a mouse while I was alone in my room made me feel helpless because I was not brave enough to trap it on my own.”

In a matter of hours, my two best friends were moving out of their room across the hall and into two new rooms across campus. The move caused so much stress on everyone involved.

“Moving to a new residence hall was a very stressful experience,” said Liotta. “Moving is a big process so it left me little to no time to actually work on my school work because I was required to move out between Monday and Friday.”

People are not going to want to continue living on campus if all they hear are disturbing stories about mice invading people’s dorm rooms. This will make an off-campus living situation seem all the more appealing. At least renting an off-campus apartment guarantees that no mice or other vermin will be left to populate in the walls of the building.

No one wants to live with mice. No one wants to hear them in the walls or see them crawling out of vents. Especially when they are paying over $5,000 a semester to live on campus. As a resident myself, I think making the residence halls a safe, clean place to live should be a priority.

Photo by: NH53 licensed under Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)