By: KJ Burns
I’m convinced Newman is haunted, and you can’t tell me otherwise.
That might be a bit dramatic, but something bizarre is going on in DeMattias Hall at night, and I have a personal experience to prove it.
To start, I’ve heard a few people talk about how they think campus is haunted, including some of my roommates who work for the admissions office.
They claim that a few buildings on campus are definitely haunted, and at first, I thought they were simply making things up.
I don’t really believe in ghosts, but at the same time, I don’t play around with things like that.
After becoming managing editor of The Vantage and spending several late nights editing in DeMattias this year, I unfortunately now believe there are some weird things going on.
It was either the first or second week of editing the paper in DeMattias when I started hearing a bunch of noise coming from the ceiling or roof above the editing room on the second floor.
I thought it was the air conditioning at first, but the noises continued the entire time my co-worker and I were there that night.
I remember asking him if he heard it, and he was basically unfazed. He said that it happens a lot. I was confused but continued editing and attempted to ignore it.
Over the next few weeks, those same noises got louder and more persistent. I’m not exactly sure how to describe them, but it sounded like either an animal walking around or a person making a bunch of noise on the roof.
I still thought it was the air conditioning and tried to brush it off. But one night, I noticed the noises were coming from different parts of the roof.
What finally creeped me out was when it sounded like the noises were coming from the hallway, along with some funky rustling sounds outside the double doors.
By that point, I figured it wasn’t the air conditioning anymore because I personally haven’t heard any air-conditioning system sound remotely close to whatever was going on.
Of course, it’s possible I was just hearing other people in the building. However, when my co-worker and I go in to edit, the doors are typically locked, and there usually shouldn’t be anyone else in DeMattias.
The night I heard the sounds coming from the hallway was the most I’ve heard the noises while editing.
That same night, I wrapped up my portion of work and headed out the double doors into the hallway.
This sounds very cliché, but the moment I stepped into the hall, I got that gut feeling that I needed to book it out of there.
I thought I was just spazzing out, but before I could even finish that thought, I heard something rustle downstairs near the art rooms.
I’m not going to lie: That was probably the fastest “hell no” I’ve ever hit in my life.
I proceeded to speed walk down the stairs and straight out the doors without bothering to turn around and see what could’ve made that sound.
From that point on, I was officially freaked out and convinced there was something bizarre going on in that building at night. Even more so, I was slowly starting to buy into the rumors that Newman might actually be haunted.
The final piece of evidence came when I was going through some old Vantage archives and found a ghost story that was set in DeMattias Hall several decades ago.
Long story short: There was a sister in her art studio in DeMattias painting a portrait for a couple who had lost their son to cancer when she started hearing noises on the roof.
One night, she heard a bunch of noise and went outside to tell the kids she thought were up there to be quiet.
Instead, she reportedly saw the face of the boy she was painting, who had died, peering over the roof and looking down at her.
After reading that story, I can confidently say it didn’t make me feel any better about the sounds I’ve been hearing at night.
