A good chunk of my family are graduates of Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. I even have a few credits from the school myself, taken when I lived in the area and was a staff member at the local homeless shelter. I've even had family teach at the SIU, which holds a very special place in my heart.

Now stuff like this is sort of an annual right of spring at SIU-Carbondale, which has a beautiful wooded campus. A couple of years ago there was a buck that got caught in the lobby of one of the academic buildings. But it would appear that this fawning season is a bit more intense than most.

Students and faculty at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale are getting a summer lesson about fawning, after deer have threatened or attacked seven people on campus over the past two weeks.

Four of the victims were sent to a hospital, none with life-threatening injuries. The latest confrontation came Tuesday, when a doe charged three people, hospitalizing two.

The school says such attacks are rare, although warnings about the deer are being posted.

All of the encounters happened near Thompson Woods and may be tied to a female deer's natural protectiveness during fawning season that typically peaks this month and is almost over.

A scientist also says the area's deer population likely is rising and that construction perhaps has pushed the animals into campus.

So remember, Salukis, those deer are NOT tame. Bambi's mama is gonna kick your ass if you piss her off, so please give her a wide berth.