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While spending winter waiting in line for that inevitable flu vaccine might be tough, many students would agree that it beats the more rare rabies shot.

This past Tuesday, a rabid bat was found in the basement of Memorial Chapel near the tunnels leading to the ’92 Theater.

A construction worker doing stone work on the outside of Memorial Chapel, was exposed when he came upon the sleeping bat Tuesday morning and proceeded to kill it. Blood that spilled on the worker tested postive for rabies, and he was innoculated.

"It is my understanding that bats are very shy creature and they don’t normally attack people. It seems that if the guy hadn’t attacked the bat he wouldn’t have been exposed," said Director of University Communications Justin Harmon, who spoke for the University on this issue.

In response, the University imediately shut down both Memorial Chapel and the ’92 Theater, which is connected to the Chapel by an underground tunnel, until they had evaluated the situation. Students using the facilities were told to find a different place to meet until the area had been searched and cleared of any additional bats.

"As soon as we heard of [the bat] we closed the buildings and called in an exterminator and notified the state," Harmon said.

The exterminator searched the two buildings and found no evidence of any other bats living on the premises. Both buildings opened for business as usual on Wednesday morning and construction continued.

In the meantime, however, several students found themselves somewhat inconvenienced. Amy Ebenstein, head of 2nd Stage, lost a full day of rehearsals in the ’92 Theater due to the rabies scare.

"It’s a shame we had to lose some rehearsal time. Every week is production time in the ’92," Ebenstein said.

Ebenstein, who had never heard of a bat in the ’92 Theater before this past Tuesday’s encounter, said she was very pleased with the way the University dealt with the problem.

"It’s somewhat disconcerting," Ebenstein said. "But Public Safety was actually great in ensuring that we lost as little time as possible in rehearsals. It was done with as little disruption to productions as possible."

While bats may seem a little out of Public Safety’s domain, Maryann Wiggin, director of Public Safety, explained that they take care of all security threats within the Wesleyan community.

"Anything that poses a safety issue or concern is something that Public Safety responds to," Wiggin said.

Wiggin also said that it is not unusual for Public Safety to get a few calls each year from students who have bats in their houses.

"The university acted proactively, and as always erred on the side of safety," Wiggin said.

While Ebenstein was upset about missing a day of rehearsals, she was glad that the university took the necessary precautions.

"Safety is a big deal. I’m just glad that it wasn’t found to be a bigger problem than one isolated creature," Ebenstein said.