This spring the Carnegie Mellon Department of Ornithological Innovation installed its first red-tailed hawk nest on the north gutter of the College of Fine Arts. This was the pilot in a larger university-wide initiative to install hawk nests on campus.
After three years hiring consulting companies to form a special subcommittee for the commission on managing future innovation, the University finally decided to go through and install their first hawk nest. “We really wanted to make sure that this nest was the right thing for the University … the right thing for students,” said Dr. Alice C. Gull, chair of this committee. The committee has been polling students during the pilot program.
Some students report confusion on why the University would be installing hawk nests on campus. Sophomore ECE student Maddie Upp said, “I just don’t know if it’s right for the University. I mean, isn’t this detracting from the budget for replacing the grass every five days? What are these nests even doing?”
Professor Robin J. Byrd in the College of Ornithology responded to these concerns and described why our campus needs hawk nests: “With a flock of hawks living on campus, any critters running around on the grass will immediately get swooped up. Rodents, squirrels, children of older Ph.D. students, you name it!”
Professor Byrd went on to explain how by getting rid of these critters, the grass will stay even greener and less trampled than it was before, thus effectively moving the schedule of grass replacements from every five days to every six days. “It’s really a win-win for the entire community,” Byrd remarked.
Now that the pilot program proved successful in reducing the critter population by 12 percent, the University has decided to go forward with installing four more hawks nests in Scaife Hall, Hammerschlag, Wean, and Mellon. The commission estimates a budget of 4.8 million dollars for this project. When asked for comment by The Natrat about the seemingly high budget, Dr. Gull just shrugged and said “we’ve got to justify tuition increases somehow, also the price of twigs have really skyrocketed in recent years due to inflation.”
The new nests are expected to arrive on campus by spring 2027.
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