Questioner: Anonymous
Posted to: Shari Shuman, Vice President Administration & Finance
QUESTION SYNOPSIS-I:
The other day I did see my faculty colleague walking in our building with goose feces on her shoe. Due to my background, I do not say such things to people, but it is a concern of mine. With all of the geese and people that walk, we shouldn’t have to suffer through this situation. Are there solutions? Can sidewalks be washed regularly? Must geese stay near people? Are there other options? Thank you for the consideration.
ADDITIONAL QUESTION SYNOPSIS– I:
At the last meeting, my question was read and I sensed most people joking, so please let me try again to share the serious issue of the goose feces in building. Now I see the geese causing issues of making feces on sidewalks. I saw the students – and even the faculty – having the geese feces on their shoes and making public building carpets and floorings so messy. I researched the issue and found that Chattanooga State Community College had similar issue. Their maintenance crews remove up to 100 pounds of geese feces each day. Goose feces in ponds are bad for the water and cause much algae growth. Stony Brook University had similar issue and used the border collie dogs with trained handlers to humanely remove the geese. Other idea is the Solar Super Sonic system. With this technology, the system plays pre-recorded goose distress calls every ten minutes to alert geese of danger. There must surely be more options the university can enact before we have a feces crisis.
I understand your concern about the geese droppings on our campus. It is a daily reminder that life existed on this plot of land before UNF was built and hopefully it will be here long after we as individuals are long gone. Our campus has a tradition of coexisting with the natural beauty that surrounds us, which makes us very attractive to prospective students and visitors. Still, it is not fun to have to dodge droppings as you walk across campus.
Physical Facilities works hard to clean the walkways of the droppings daily. Pressure washers are going full speed every morning.
We have researched various ways to handle this dilemma, including the very unconventional method of using what’s called a Goosinator. It is essentially a remote controlled creation that can go as fast as 25 mph to scare geese away. If you want to see for yourself, watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=junuoSsHqks
After much debate, it left us with a variety of concerns, including how we treat wildlife on our campus and dangers of possibly scaring the geese into crowds of people. Goosinators have been successful on golf courses, but we are a campus, with activity 24-hours a day and 3,000 residential students.
We are continuing to research ways to make the campus safe for all: faculty, staff, students, visitors and yes, even safe for the geese.
Shari Shuman
VP, Administration and Finance
University of North Florida
1 UNF Drive
Jacksonville, Fl 32224
904-620-4727
