During the 2003/2004 academic year, Barnum Hall students have learned how to study using two textbooks simultaneously. They did so, not because of their knowledge-thirsty natures, but simply because of their concern for personal safety and health. They would hold one textbook open and read from it, while tightly holding the other one ready to strike the member of an invading MICE ARMY!! Before living in Barnum Hall, most would firmly believe that humans were the dominant race on this planet, but after spending seven months in a room on any floor in Barnum, it is to a firm conclusion that can be made that mice are smarter than men. They have an unbeatable strategy of getting food from our trash cans, drinking water from our sinks, and sleeping in our beds. They use ceilings and radiator vents as their invisible infrastructure, and dark corners as their breeding sites. As a matter of fact, there are probably more mice living in Barnum Hall than students today!
They are everywhere, and more importantly, they are highly organized. They have swiped over Barnum in an organized attack, and succeeded in occupying the whole building ten times faster than Bush did Iraq.
In any case, the mice must be better organized than the extinguishing team at UB that has not been able to come up with a successful defense strategy for the past eight months. It could be that the poison is not strong enough, or that traps are not the right color, or mice simply may be far more intelligent than our attack team. Which one of these assumptions is true it is hard to determine, but one of them must be the answer because although there was an assurance every time a call was made to maintenance to help get out a dead mouse out of a room for the last eight months there was no commitment to actually do so.
If anyone comes up with a winning strategy against the mice problem, please share your knowledge with the exterminators at UB…it is with your help that three hundred Barnum students can live safely without mice.