Exam: A test of mice and men

Meyerson Hall B-1 was as quiet as a mouse yesterday morning. Quiet, that is, until one scurried across the room. During the first 20 minutes of a History 164 midterm, the only stirring was the scribbling of over 400 pens until a row of pensive students spotted the furry rodent scampering underneath their seats. Screams and laughter filled the air for the rest of the 55-minute Recent American History exam. Some students picked their feet up off the ground and others moved their bags and jackets in hopes of escaping the furry creature. History 164 Professor Bruce Kuklick, who missed the mousecapade, said he found the incident funny. A teaching assistant told him about it immediately after the exam. This was not Kuklick's first brush with four-legged exam visitors. A squirrel crawled into College Hall 200 during an exam he was giving a few years ago. Kuklick said he does not believe that the "rodent trauma" affected exam results and that the incident provided an opportunity for stress relief. And Teaching Assistant Allison Isenberg, who spotted the mouse twice as she proctored the exam, said no one was seriously shaken up by the incident. "No one really freaked out," Isenberg said. "It seemed like everyone figured it out." But at least one student said reaction to the mouse caused him to lose his concentration. "People [in the vicinity of the mouse] should've had more time to finish," College junior Jon Shiff said yesterday. While Kuklick said the mouse incident was humorous, he was quick to add that there was a serious problem with the exam setting -- he said many seats in Meyerson B-1 are broken and unusable. "I am sorry this happened," Kuklick said. "It was funny and you can't prevent it from happening, but you can prevent having a building in bad shape."

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