Around 20,000 students are enrolled at OU, and most of them spend their days in ignorant bliss. They only see the happy little commuter school as an innocent place, where one can get an education.

Little do they know of the spirits and the blood-curdling stories that lurk beneath the surface and beyond the textbooks at the very establishment that houses a cute and cuddly mascot like The Grizz.

One man studies the tales of horror at OU and passes his stories down to the Oakland Group Leaders for orientation.

That man is admissions adviser, Adam Panchenko.

All of the following stories come from reliable sources, according to Panchenko

“Some people may deny them,” Panchenko said. “I believe them. I believe that I’ve seen ghosts on campus.”

These are his stories.

 

PHANTOM FOOTSTEPS IN THE HALL

Meadow Brook Hall is a manor with mystery. It has more than 100 rooms, a secret staircase in Alfred Wilson’s game room and beautiful paintings that have eyes which tend to follow people around. Not many other campuses have anything remotely like Meadow Brook Hall.

It’s no wonder people think something supernatural is going on there.

“That building has to be haunted in some way,” Panchenko said.

Panchenko’s main story about hauntings at the hall involves a ghostly set of ectoplasmic footsteps that trodded along slowly and rhythmically through Matilda Wilson’s bedroom.

These footsteps from beyond were supposedly seen on a security camera.

Shannon O’Berski, the Marketing Communications Manager at Meadow Brook Hall says she’s never heard of such footage.

“A lot of visitors inquire about ghost stories,” O’Berski said. “I’ve never had any ghostly experiences working at the hall.”

O’Berski has been working at Meadow Brook Hall for 10 years.

Other tales from that side of campus include a vanishing golfer, a malfunctioning printer that kept printing off photos of a child’s boot and even sounds of ghostly horses, neighing in the moonlight.

There is an animal cemetery on the premises after all.

 

DEMONIC VOICES, 

POSSESSED FANS AND THE SPIRITS OF FRAT BOYS

Vandenberg Hall is where some OU students call home, but perhaps there are other, more malevolent beings that call it home as well.

When it comes to this demonic dormitory, Panchenko has heard everything from ghostly and ethereal arms dangling from the ceiling to a box fan that would fall over at the same time every night.

One night the fan fell over, the student who owned it got out of bed to pick it back up, and it picked itself up and fell the other way. 

“It just kept slamming back and forth back and forth,” Panchenko said. “Pieces were flying off.”

The student ran out of the room and grabbed his friends to come and see it.

“When he got back, the fan was just sitting on the desk, unharmed, untouched,” Panchenko said.

Another of Panchenko’s stories is about two girls who heard a demonic voice coming from under their bed.

“They were so hysterical that they didn’t tell me what the voice was or what it said,” Panchenko said. “But they were hysterical, crying and freaked the F out.”

Perhaps the most notorious story Panchenko was willing to share, is one that involves two fraternity pledges who were given a mission to break into the building while it was being constructed, and shine flashlights out the windows of each room.

One of the pledges was wearing a hat, and he and his friend successfully shined the light out of a few windows. But eventually, they stopped shining their lights.

The fraternity brothers waited about 20 minute before they decided to go into the building and get their pals.

 “They go up to the building,” Panchenko said. “The door is unlocked, but all they see is two flashlights rolling on the ground.”

Nobody knows what happened to them.

Panchenko has also witnessed some ghostly activity in the dorms himself.

Panchenko spent the night in Vandenberg, and woke up to a ghostly figure staring at him, wearing a baseball cap.

Think about it.

 

OPINION OF A GHOST HUNTER

Panchenko’s stories are certainly spooky. But is the campus really haunted?

President of the ghost hunting club at OU, Ryan Hole has heard the tales and has a few explanations.

“When you’re in a dark room, and you’re in a dark room alone, your mind starts to wonder to all sorts of explanations as a defense mechanism to help you survive,” said Hole. “Since Meadow Brook has a long history and people before have claimed that it’s haunted, your mind is more inclined to jump to it’s a ghost as an explanation.”

Hole also gave his opinion on Meadow Brook’s supposed spirits.

“It’s quite possible that Meadow Brook has some legitimate hauntings,” Hole said. “At the same time I’d have to say it’s improbable because I don’t believe there are any instances where spirits would want to linger on. I think it’s been a pretty peaceful place for the most part.”

As for anything from beyond the grave in Vandenberg, Hole said demonic hauntings are rare, but he couldn’t say whether the stories happened or didn’t happen.

“I’m not looking to declare something haunted or not haunted,” Hole said. “I’m just here to help aid your thought process for you make that decision for yourself.”

 

Contact Editor-in-Chief Scott Wolchek via email at 

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