“Out There Somewhere”: Ghosts On Campus

Augusta, GA—Their campus, they say, is really creepy…

Andrea Davis, ASU student: “I think it’s really scary, and I won’t be here when it’s dark.“

Keenen Mitchel, ASU student: “I’ve actually hear about the hauntings…like Civil War victims, or something…“

Kathy Schofe, Augusta State University: “Whether you believe in ghosts, or whether you don’t, there is an unexplained phenomenon and what it is…we don’t know.“

What we do know is…there’s an old military cemetery at ASU, it has Confederate graves, and some say…ghosts. A professior spotted a Confederate soldier walking one day but at first though little of it.

Schofe: “His thought was we had somebody dressed up for the play and as he was walking to his car it hit him…we don’t have a play going on right now, so when he looked again the figure had vanished.“

But, one spooky soldier is just the beginning, at ASU, in the old arsenel section on campus, the buildings date back nearly 200 years.

One of those is the Benet House. Today, it houses the Admissions Office. And here, they admit there’s spectral strangeness going on.

Schofe: “When I’ve been working in the building, on the weekend, by myself for instance, sometimes you just hear people slamming doors. Someone is really irritated that you are in the building.“

Brittany Addison took us up to the second floor of Benet House to show us where it’s believed some ghosts are hanging out, an upstairs closet…the “haunted closet.“

Brittany Addison, Augusta State University: “People will be working in here and, all of a sudden, hangers banging and you open the closet and there’s no hangers. There’s hangers in there now, but there’s nobody in there to move the hangers rattling around.“

It could get crowded in that closet. The legend is two ghosts haunt Benet House, and one might have turned up recently for a photograph. To get a good night time picture, those in the building were told to leave their blinds open and lights on.

Carol Giardina did just that…but in the picture, the dark office with the blinds closed is hers.

Carol Giardina, Augusta State University: “Made me feel like I had sabotoged the picture, you know, I specifically left my blinds open and the lights on…“

Is it a ghost that haunts the picture? It’s one of the many tales at ASU, where the strange and eerie are part of the curriculum.

George Eskola, “Does it frighten you, as a student?“

Shannon Zumwalt, ASA student: “No, I love it.“

Eskola: “Have you ever used the excuse the ghost ate my homework?“

Mithcel: “I never used that exuse.“

But, come Halloween, you would be excused if you felt a little leary.