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Move-in is a difficult time for many students; rooms are messy, parking is limited, and tempers are flaring.
This year, however, the newly arrived residents of Perkins Hall had it a bit tougher than their peers. Over the summer, a herd of muskoxen discreetly migrated into the dormitory.
"This has left us looking a bit foolish," Senior Associate Dean of Residential and Dining Services Richard Bova said. "We just weren't paying much attention to Perkins - which is standard operating procedure around here - and I guess we let our guard down."
The odorous Arctic bovids first appeared on security camera tapes in late July, ambling south on Hope Street, Bova said.
"We suspect that this herd came down from Canada for their mating season,"" he said. ""God only knows why they chose Perkins."
Residential Peer Leader Glenn Harris is worried the beasts, which can weigh nearly half a ton, have been using the ground-floor couches inappropriately.
"I got here a week early, and my first thought when I walked through the door was, 'Wow, something large and hairy has been having sex in here!'" Harris said. He deduced the source of scent when he opened the door to his room and found a muskox relieving itself on the bed.
"I guess they were confused by the unisex bathrooms on the ground floor," Harris said. "Hopefully, with a bit of guidance they'll figure it out eventually, because my mattress is all soggy and it's getting hard to sleep in here."
The herd spread out across the building, slowly colonizing each floor. Bova said he was "a little miffed" at first that they couldn't find a way to share the rooms on one floor.
"Then we learned that the muskox can climb up stairs, but not back down," Bova said. "And since Perkins lacks an elevator, once these things got up to the second or third floor, they were stuck there indefinitely."
"And really, never being able to leave the sub-free floor? That's a fate worse than death," he added.
In a downright rude violation of the stated floor rules, the muskoxen that found themselves trapped on the quiet floor were extremely noisy, Bova said.
"We got a few noise complaints from the neighbors," he said. "And I guess not walking the extra three or four blocks to investigate is my bad. But my job training never prepared me for this bullshit. In every sense of the word."
Paul Aries '14, a recent arrival to Perkins, said his new hall mates will "take some getting used to."
"I mean, whatever," Aries said. "Like, one of them bit my roommate and now he's screaming and whatever, but really. this bathroom is gross. You'd think that these things would show a little, like, respect and clean up after themselves."
On the first floor, Daria Cooper '14 said she's hoping for the best.
"I'm already kinda used to it," Cooper said. "I mean, that's what college is all about, right? Starting off on a new foot, meeting new people, or oxen, and making the best of it? Really, I'm just ready to have fun this semester - revoltingly pungent animals in my room or not."
