LOYOLAN 1
Find out which five teams
made the list for best
in LMU history.
Page 20
EST. 1921
VOLUME 94
Why you should be
proud to be a fan girl.
Page 15
I issue 28
Students discover mice on campus,
Facilities Management responds
Michael Busse | Loyolan
The Western Exterminator Company has been seen by students on campus on at least two occasions. The exterminators are contracted with Sodexo, which operates the on-campus Starbucks.
The return of
Straw Hat Man
The University has yet to
comment on the alleged
mouse problem.
Jackie Galvez, Michael Busse
Asst. News Editor, Senior Editor
@LALoyolan
Sophomore entrepreneurship major
Pierce Wasserkrug was working on home¬
work early Wednesday April 20 morning
in his living room in Rains when he heard
scratching noises coming from a pizza box
behind him. Wasserkrug opened the box
and a mouse jumped out, startling him as it
scurried over to the couch to hide.
It is no secret that LMU is home to a
plethora of squirrels, but very seldom do
students hear of the other rodents resid¬
ing throughout the University. In the past
semester, Wasserkrug and a number of
other students have reported mice sight¬
ings, particularly near William H. Hannon
Library and its surrounding areas.
After the first mouse encounter, Wasser¬
krug, along with his roommates, fashioned
homemade traps in an attempt to capture
the mouse, but after a few days of no sight¬
ings, they assumed it had left the room.
Some time later, Wasserkrug was sitting
on the couch, which had been moved into
his bedroom, when he heard squeaking
noises. Suspecting the mouse they had been
searching for was nearby, Wasserkrug and
his roommates picked couch cushion and
several baby mice fell out from the cush¬
ions. In total, they found five mice within
the cushion.
While LMU has yet to release a state¬
ment on a mouse problem, several students
have described similar experiences with the
creatures.
Clara Hill, a sophomore film and televi¬
sion production major, was working at the
circulation desk in Hannon Library late one
evening when she was informed of a mouse
running around by the computers and print¬
ers on the first floor.
Hill told her supervisor she would
attempt to catch the mouse with a box and
magazine the creature without harming it.
While Hill did not end up finding the mouse,
she said that the sighting was a surprise to
her and her supervisor, as this sort of rodent
encounter had not been reported before.
And this has not been the only report of
mice within the library.
Senior political science major Amie
Gonzalez has also seen rodents near the
library twice this academic year. During the
fall semester, Gonzalez saw a mouse at the
Starbucks patio area just outside the library
around midnight one evening. Her second
encounter occurred this semester, when she
saw a mouse ruffling around the foliage near
Hilton one night.
“Considering that I myself saw [mice]
twice, I think that obviously there’s rodents
in that area ... it’s not just a one-time
encounter,” Gonzalez said. “The school has
a duty for pest control so I definitely think
that should be a concern of theirs.”
Despite the absence of a University state¬
ment regarding the rodent situation on
campus, there have been pest control efforts
around Hannon Library and the Starbucks
located in the building.
Western Exterminator Company trucks
have been seen parked outside the library
on at least two occasions this academic year.
The Loyolan first confirmed the extermina¬
tor’s presence on campus on Wednesday,
Nov. 4, 2015, when one of the company’s
trucks had been parked in front of Starbucks
after midnight. That night, baskets of pack¬
aged food inside the Starbucks were covered
with plastic but remained full.
Exterminators came to campus again as
recently as April 19, when the same
See Mice | Page 4
Andrew Brumfield details his
return back to campus as well
as his plans for the future.
Austin Gay
Asst. News Editor
@LALoyolan
After almost a year away from LMU,
Andrew Brumfield returned to his position
on campus as the University’s most popular
crossing guard in Spring 2016.
Brumfield took off the entire 2015 fall
semester and the majority of the 2016
spring semester to attend a police academy.
He currently has one class remaining in the
pursuit of becoming a full-fledged officer.
Aside from his time spent at the police
academy, Brumfield took a part-time job
as a deckhand on the Catalina Express,
a passenger ferry service that travels to
Catalina Island daily. He has also contin¬
ued in his studies for a degree in criminal
justice administration, worked his security
job at the StubHub Center and spent as
much time as possible with his loved ones
during his time away from campus.
“A student asked me earlier, ‘What
brought you back?’ and I told him, ‘It’s
you guys,”’ said Brumfield. “If I didn’t feel
that love or feel like I wasn’t doing a decent
job at saying ‘hello’ or motivating the
students, I wouldn’t have come back.”
However, Brumfield won't remain as
the crossing guard for long. He plans to
begin working as a security guard with
the Department of Public Safety in early
May, but explained that a stipulation of
the job was that if he wanted to return to
his position as crossing guard, he would be
allowed to do so.
“I think working with [Public Safety]
gets me more involved with the students
and the staff. At the crosswalk you can
only speak for so long, but if people see me
as a security officer at their school, they
can come to me for all sorts of things,”
Brumfield explained.
It wasn’t an easy path here, according to
Brumfield, but he says the journey is what
matters, not where you were in the past.
“About seven years ago, I was 19 years
old. I was a totally different person,” said
Brumfield. “All I cared about was making
money and hanging out with friends, and
then I realized that the path I was going
down wasn’t going to help anybody, and I
wanted to help people.”
The beloved crossing guard credits his
past for getting him to where he is today.
He also credits his past for the famed straw
hat that we all know and love .
“There’s a reason for the straw hat,
besides the sun of course. My grandpa
always wore a straw hat, and I lost him
around that time. It was a very hard time for
me; I was just trying to get my life straight.
So now, I wear that hat in his honor.”
The straw hat appears to be a trending
fashion in LMU’s workforce. Other cross¬
ing guards have been seen sporting them,
as well as maintenance workers and other
faculty members .
“It's cool seeing other people wear it,”
said Brumfield.
See Straw Hat Man | Page 3
