Boston University College of Arts and Sciences Student Government posted a video on its Instagram showing a dead mouse in a vending machine slot tray in the CAS building Wednesday.
CAS StuGov Vice President of Internal Affairs Tejas Kaur, said she discovered two mice “running around” the vending machine Tuesday in the basement of CAS when she went to purchase a granola bar between classes.
“I honestly just ran away because I didn’t want to deal with it,” Kaur said.
Kaur said she told CAS StuGov President Matt Lutkins about the mice in a CAS StuGov meeting later that day, and when they returned to the vending machine, they found one dead mouse.
“Let’s make a tik tok out of it, I think we can go viral for this,” Kaur said.
The two posted the “satirical video” to the CAS StuGov Instagram, captioned “90k for a mouse in the vending machine.”
Lutkins said while the mice were a chance to make a funny video, they served as a way to shed light on issues around campus.
“As the president of CAS Student Government, we’re always looking to improve CAS,” Lutkins said. “Whether that makes a mark on the quality of CAS, I think that’s important to know or understand.”
CAS opened in 1947 and is one of the oldest buildings on campus.
“Really the motivation behind [the Instagram post] was just a little bit of a joke and kind of playing along with some funny stereotypes of CAS,” Lutkins said.
Lutkins and Kaur both said they alerted BU Facilities workers and the mouse was quickly removed from the vending machine.
“A service person from the vending firm responded and took care of the problem and sealed up the machine to prevent it from reoccurring,” BU Spokesperson Colin Riley wrote in an email to The Daily Free Press. “Our pest control vendor also set traps around the area.”
Mouse sightings in BU buildings are a recurring issue. A video posted to the BU subreddit earlier this semester showed a mouse on the third floor of Mugar Memorial Library.
“I’m just shocked of how that could have happened,” said freshman Emma Schorr about the video on Instagram. “I’ve never seen them inside, but I’ve seen them outside all the time just running back and forth between the sidewalks.”
Freshman Roxanne Sweetwater said the video may impact how she sees vending machines on campus.
“I would be disgusted if I saw that in a vending machine,” Sweetwater said. “I’ve never used a vending machine here, and it makes me not want to.”
Junior Nancy Feng said despite having a mouse problem last semester in her apartment, she isn’t alarmed by the video.
“I thought it was pretty funny,” Feng said. “Mice are around in a city … it’s just gonna happen.”
Yes, mice are an ongoing problem anywhere. But in a vending machine? I’ll pass.