Cornell University, a New York Ivy League school, is banning students from preparing wild game in communal kitchens after two students skinned and butchered a black bear last year.
The incident happened in Ganędagǫ: Hall, a residence hall on the university's North Campus. "Ganędagǫ:" means "it's in the hill" in the language of the Cayuga Nation, according to the university's website.
The new policy was included in the university's guidelines for the upcoming academic year and states, "processing wild/game animals in community kitchens is strictly prohibited."
Cornell told USA TODAY in an email that the "update aims to provide clarity regarding what is or is not appropriate to do in a communal kitchen space."
New rule follows 2025 skinning
According to The Cornell Daily Sun, in September,
two students legally hunted an adult black bear, then skinned and butchered it in a shared kitchen.
One of the students involved, Aaron Chin, identified himself on the MeatEater Podcast in September. He told the podcast host that he and a friend had planned to process the bear at a friend's house, but once that no longer was a viable option, they took it to their dorm kitchen to avoid letting the meat rot.
The newspaper reported that the kitchen had to be shut down for cleaning and sanitization for two days.
Neither of the students faced disciplinary action in the incident.
More instances of wild animals in dorm rooms
College dorms have long been a prominent setting for the unexpected.
In 2014, three University of Vermont students were accused of stealing and killing a chicken, then eating it in their dorm. The chicken was stolen from the house of Alpha Gamma Rho, a fraternity for students interested in agriculture, according to CBS News.
A motive for the theft was not uncovered at the time.
In 2017, a trio at Florida Gulf Coast University took a dead alligator to a dorm room and posted pictures of it on social media. Students had reportedly found the animal dead on the side of the road and brought it into the dorm as a prank, CBS News reported.
Michelle Del Rey is a trending news reporter at USA TODAY. Reach her at mdelrey@usatoday.com.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Cornell bans wild game in dorms after 2025 black bear skinning
