A security guard with a brown paper bag was knocking at the door. Professor William McVaugh opened the door during Human Anatomy Lab and all McKenzie Van Loh saw was a heart being returned. McVaugh assured the guard it was a pig heart, not a human one.

The class observed in a silent stupor at the exchange.

“He didn’t say anything until after we finished our quizzes,” Van Loh recalled, as her professor reminded the class what is appropriate behavior when handling materials from the biology department. “We received a lecture, but it was just shocking because who really wants to take a heart out of a lab,” Van Loh said.

The class was bothered that someone would take a heart from the lab, as was McVaugh, although he has decided to give students the benefit of the doubt, hoping that the reason behind taking the heart was for studying, and didn’t feel that a thorough investigation into why the heart was found in the West Lot one afternoon in late October.

“It was still a thoughtless and inconsiderate way to treat lab material, but I see no reason for further investigation,” McVaugh explained. The only disciplinary action taken is the implementation of new ‘visitation hours’ for lab material for all students. Materials are available for use during daytime hours only now.

Emmy Inwards, also a sophomore, was a bit more cynical than McVaugh and Van Loh.

“I’m just not really sure why you would want a pig heart, other than satanic rituals or some really weird eating fetish,” Inwards said. While the disappearance of the heart is bizarre, it’s not the first time that an item has been stolen from the lab spaces. Earlier this year, a skeleton was taken and later found in the Chemistry department.

Senior Tom Ritter was in the class when the heart was returned and expressed his frustration on the matter. “We are constantly reminded that use of lab materials is a privilege, not a right,” Ritter said. “To be that disrespectful of material like that is startling, to say the least.”