’Tis the Season

Abstract

Late fall is a truly wonderful time to be a student on the Hilbert campus. Something I noticed last year and enjoy even more this year are the beautiful views I see as I walk to class every morning. The landscape of our campus is truly beautiful, as is the very spacious view of the sky. One particularly special thing I’ve noticed this semester is the abundance of wildlife in and around campus. The long and the short of it is this: we are not the only ones enjoying all that Hilbert has to offer. Although they are often hidden out of sight, we are sharing our space with a large and varied group of animals. Beyond our favorite group of bossy geese, there are many other critters that I have seen in and around the Hilbert property. It started with the small fox I saw walking through the open field behind campus. Since then, I have seen a pudgy skunk waddling his way onto the blacktop and walking down the middle of the road, and small green frogs jumping between drainage ditches. There have been crows and a stray cat and the blanket of ladybugs that descended onto campus a few weeks ago. My favorite, however, is the family of deer that EDIToR’S INTRoDUCTIoN