The university and students alike are continually battling with squirrels on campus for various reasons. These persistent squirrels can cost university employees large amounts of money.

Squirrels are causing problems for Facilities Administration and Planning and costing the university money, said Administrative Assistant Joy Daly.

“(The squirrels) get into buildings a lot,” Daly said. “At Kilby (Laboratory School) they get into the ceilings, and we have to send someone out to plug the holes so, yes, they do cost us money.”

Facilities Administration and Planning Assistant Director Mike Thompson is amazed at the tiny spaces squirrels can sneak into.

“They can fit into very small spaces, as small as the size of a quarter, so we just do the best we can to keep all the buildings tight,” Thompson said.

Getting into university buildings is not the squirrels’ only way of costing the university money, though.  

“We’re always having to clean the gutters out,” Thompson said. “It’s possible the squirrels have made that harder for us.”

Many students, like sophomore Cameron Graybill, have heard of the squirrels dragging trash out of garbage cans around campus.

Graybill knows people who have been eyewitnesses of campus garbage can robberies. The nut-wielding furry mammals have taken food and trash out of the cans right in front of them, he said.  

Students like junior Kelly Norton has her own battle with squirrels.

 “I try to stay away from squirrels all together because I got bit by one when I was 16,” Norton said. “It bit my thumb through a vein.”

Norton was tested for rabies, but the results were negative. The squirrel bite cost her a hospital visit, which was not cheap, she said.

Norton’s worst nightmare was relived when she saw a squirrel in the ceiling of her apartment.

“It made a hole next to the gutter and got in there,” Norton said. “It’s going to cost my landlord money to fix it.”

Senior Tiffany Frankenfield has helped out a friend who was battling a squirrel in her apartment, she said.

“One of the squirrels got in my friend’s apartment,” Frankenfield said. “It got in her closet and everything, but we finally ran it out.”

Every story needs a conspiracy theory and conspiring against the university is exactly what Andrew Butler thinks the squirrels are doing.

“I think the squirrels have an underground plot to steal all the nuts,” Butler said. “Then campus won’t have any.”