The Spire

Ciara Long ’29

Staff Writer

For the College of the Holy Cross, the year of 2025-26 has been filled with growth, but not all of it is positive. The cost of college has increased to $87,790, compared to last year’s tuition price of $83,320. The number of incoming students is record breaking compared to previous years, and has led to a surge of forced triples and quads for first-years. And, the number of rodents sharing housing with those students has grown as well.

Reports of mice are not exaggerated, as many first-years, especially in Brooks— the largest dorm on campus, housing over four hundred students— have described their encounters with mice in the basement, the laundry room and even their rooms. 

One student stated that late one night, “I felt something crawl up my blanket that I could not ignore” and the light of a phone flashlight revealed that “two feet in front of me was a mouse.” However, this interaction was not a once over, as only a week later the student “opened the door to a second mouse stuck in one of the traps.” Although the mouse was released and exterminators were called to check that specific room for evidence of mice, if mice are in one dorm room, more likely than not, the issue is not an isolated event.

Mice infesting the dorms that students are living in is unacceptable. It’s not just that having mice in a dorm or a room is frightening; mice have been known to carry a multitude of diseases as well as ticks and other insects. Additionally, mice can start reproducing once they’re only six weeks old, which means that, even if we started the school year with only two mice in the basement, before October break those mice could produce dozens of reproducing offspring. In my opinion, this is already an infestation that must be addressed in its entirety. Instead of just setting traps and bringing exterminators to one room, the whole basement should be checked for mice.  

This brings me to my question: if the money for our living expenses isn’t going into adequate housing that is free of rodents, where is this money going? A student should not have to worry about waking up to a mouse in their bed, or being forced to see mice scurry away as they go to pick up their clothes from the dryer. Although mice are often frightened and hesitant around humans, it is predicted that over the various breaks throughout the fall and winter, the mice will begin to invade, as they will no longer be disrupted by student activity, leaving residents to return from vacation to a dorm even more overrun by mice. Additionally, mice often seek warmth and food inside during the winter months and migrate to the nearest building. If nothing is done about the mice issue, sightings will likely increase over time, in other dorms until this is a campus wide dilemma.

I have many positive things to say about Holy Cross. I love the buildings and people and professors. I love the library and trees and even the hills. But, I do believe that the mice issue here has gotten out of hand and if left unchecked will only get worse, and it is my firm belief that residents here should have sterile and safe places to live.

Featured image courtesy of Google Images

Copy Edited by Gail Durkin ’26