Mice are scurrying about the halls and rooms of Tenley Campus, according to Washington Semester students.
Jenny Nowatzke, a Washington Semester student from Omaha, Neb., said she and her two roommates caught at least three mice between January and Feb. 21 and found evidence of other mice.
"We got a few more traps and baited them with peanut butter, and [Thursday] morning the peanut butter was gone and no one in the trap, so we know we have another one," Nowatzke said.
Nowatzke, who lives on the third floor of Federal Hall, said her roommate left a bag of Chex Mix on the floor of their closet and the mouse ate a hole through the bag as well as a hole in her roommate's backpack.
It took AU Physical Plant a week before it came to look at the problem, Nowatzke said. Physical Plant gave the girls two mousetraps and left.
Federal Hall Resident Assistant Jennifer Ford also had a mouse in her room, she said.
"I had a mouse, but I kept it a secret," Ford said.
Ford said there were probably four rooms on the floor that have had complaints about mice. Ford says she receives a complaint "about very three weeks." Ford advises the residents to call 2FIX, the campus maintenance service.
Tenley Campus Resident Director Dale Booth said complaints about the mice are being addressed.
"It's not an epidemic," Booth said. "There have been a few here and there."
Everyone on the floor was warned about a possible mice problem the very first week they were at AU, according to Nowatzke.
The mice entered the building through holes found near the pipes along the building walls when it was cold outside, according to Booth.
"We have gone through every room and plugged all the holes found around the pipes," he said.
While Booth and Physical Plant have gone through all the rooms to try to capture the mice, Nowatzke said Physical Plant has not fixed the situation.
"No one has really been helpful in trying to get rid of them," she said. "They keep saying, 'We've always had mice.'"
Michelle Paladino, a Washington Semester student from New York University, said she and her roommate saw a mouse one day, but it was gone the next.
"We haven't had much of a mouse problem, but the people living by the kitchen have had more of a problem," Paladino said.
With mousetraps placed everywhere in her room, Nowatzke said she feels that the University isn't doing enough to keep the problem from rising.
"I live on a farm and we have less mice than I've had in this dorm room," she said. "It's just disgusting"
