During my first night of orientation as an undergraduate, orientation leaders walked all of us new students into our campus chapel and asked us to sit quietly in pews. The lights were very dim and the day’s excitement fell quiet to a feeling of cryptic anticipation. With a demeanor of bold excitement, an older student – who we would later learn was a prominent campus leader – stepped behind a lectern and told us in a deep storyteller voice that we were now going to hear the about the “eerie” side of our college. Every one of us became silent.
For the next hour we sat in our half-lit chapel and listened to supernatural tales ranging from the macabre to humorous. We learned about two illicit lovers who froze to death on a winter night before the college was co-ed, trapped on a rooftop after sneaking out. We learned about the spectral librarian who leaves a copy of her favorite book – Life After Death- open on the floor every morning for staff and students to find. We were told about the ghostly aftermath of avoidable accidents, hallways that were well-known for mysterious noises, and narratives of benevolent spirits who were looking out for our well-being.
Within an hour, our campus transformed from the two-dimensional photos we saw in admissions packets to a community alive with history, cautionary tales, and magic. During the next four years those ghosts stayed present in our imaginations and conversations. They lived in our campus culture and made their way into the collective consciousness of all of us. Through our fear and wonder, we were bonded with each other and in some senses with the decades of community that came before us. We felt a part of something much bigger than we were as individual students.
In honor of the season, I thought this would be a good opportunity to write about how my undergrad experience convinced me on a student affairs level that ghost stories and folklore are valuable assets to a college community. For me, there was something extremely beneficial about this enchanting introduction to my new world of higher education. The stories made the transition much less frightening because instead of focusing solely on the anxiety of making friends and doing well in classes, I was able to ponder the more lasting elements of my community. I felt like I was let in on a series of secrets that the rest of the world knew nothing about. I felt initiated.
Elizabeth Tucker writes in Haunted Halls: Ghostlore of American College Campuses that ghost stories serve as a much safer form of initiation than hazing. She also writes that ghost stories can help new students feel more at home by introducing them to resident ghosts and affirming the mystery of the new environment. My experience support these assertions. And folklorists write about myriad other positive functions that ghost stories serve within a culture, from serving as warnings to allowing people to explore their deepest fears. I think that, particularly in a community as transformative as a college campus, these functions are even more potent.
Did ghost stories play a significant role in your college experience? If so, how? And how do you think that ghost stories on your current college campuses affect the student population? Happy October!
