An opossum and its baby fell through the ceiling of Whitten LC 170 during a psychology class around 9 a.m. this morning.
A student who was in the classroom and wishes to remain unnamed said that students had been hearing “sounds of an animal running around in the ceiling” throughout the class.
“A UM facilities employee had been called to the room when the students had first complained about the noise, but [he got] there at 8:58. He did not want to distract the class, [so he] left until our class usually would be over,” she said. “However, the [o]possums fell around two minutes later.”
The opossums fell through the ceiling near the front of the classroom and landed next to the professor, Dr. Melissa Noya, while she was teaching her 8 a.m. PSY110 course.
The unnamed student said that she heard a “series of clanging” right before the opossums fell. Students gasped and some tried to climb onto the desks to avoid the opossums, but Dr. Noya instructed everyone to leave the room. As the student was leaving, she said the larger opossum appeared unconscious.
After a few minutes of standing outside, the student said that everyone returned to the classroom to get their belongings because the older opossum was “staring at everyone in the corner and seemed frightened, while its baby was walking around observing everyone.” She said that neither animal was hissing.
Prior to the opossums falling through the ceiling, the student said it appeared in good condition. Now, three panels are missing from the ceiling and there is debris on the floor.
“The safety of the campus community is our top priority. University Facilities and Operations staff responded immediately to the Whitten classroom and the two opossums were removed humanely,” said the University of Miami in a statement to The Hurricane. “The animals did not come in contact with those in the classroom and the room and ceiling were secured.”
The ceiling in Whitten 170 is designed so that the back of the classroom has paneling, the middle is solid, and the front of the classroom near the professor has a paneled ceiling that is lower than the rest of the classroom. The student suspects that the opossums ran from the back of the classroom to the front and fell onto the panels that are lower, causing them to fall through.
“It made me wonder about the state of our infrastructure, especially when it comes to older buildings like Whitten LC,” said the unnamed student. “I had an exam later in the day in Whitten and I think I was more nervous about this [incident] repeating than the exam.”
Although the student originally identified the animals as “possums,” the University confirmed that the animals are actually opossums, marsupials with gray fur that are native to the Americas.
Opossums make their homes in roofs when they are forced out of their normal territory, usually during the mating season. Once they find a safe spot, they are notoriously hard to remove.
The Hurricane reached out to Dr. Noya for a comment and has not yet received a response.