Jenna Crowe
Staff Writer
Some supernatural beings are said to be seen once a year on Halloween, but according to the ISU custodial staff, ghosts can be seen year round at ISU.
Connie Krisman, who has been a custodian for five years, has had a few spooky encounters, though most of them turned out to be pranks played by fellow custodians.
“The night she called Public Safety, though, that wasn’t a prank,” Moses Collier said.
Collier has worked as a custodian for seven years and has his own share of stories.
“There is a ghost is the Roy F. Christensen building, in the kitchen, and I’ve worked there, so I can verify this,” Collier said. “His name is Frank.”
It is said that Frank is more of a bystander than an actual threat, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t there. Collier claims that for years people would see a figure out of the corner of their eye, yet there was never another person there. Frank will also allegedly knock utensils, such as knives and ladles, off of the wall.
“The floor is concrete, not like wood that can shake things when you walk, and you can give it a wide berth when you pass,” Collier said. “Frank will knock three or four ladles off the wall.”
Rumors of a haunting in Graveley Hall have been around for years.
Graveley Hall used to be a dorm, so the basement that is now full of offices is a former cafeteria. According to stories he has heard, other custodians sometimes think they hear the sound of people while walking to the basement.
The administration building isn’t the most active building on campus, yet the basement is known for hosting ghosts. While it is unclear how many ghosts supposedly live in the basement, custodians have reported incidents of strange noises during the night and doors shutting themselves.
Frazier Hall is also said to be haunted and pops up on more than one website listing haunted places. A prankster ghost by the name of Alex is said to inhabit the building. Some say that piano music can be heard in the old theater when it is supposed to be empty.
Carl Weenig, another ISU custodian, claims that the only “spooky” theatre in Frazier is the black box theatre, also known as the Powell Room, on the second floor.
“Kids are always trying to pull pranks,” Weenig said.
Because of this, Weenig never believed that Frazier was haunted. The night that changed, Weenig still thought theatre students were responsible for the noises he heard.
One night, around 11 p.m., Weenig was cleaning on the first floor of Frazier right underneath the black box theatre. While cleaning, he heard people running up and down the bleachers, so he ran upstairs to try and catch the kids in the act.
“The door was shut and the lights were turned off,” Weenig said. “I know every part of that room and there was no one there.”
Weenig also had a supernatural experience when working in Graveley Hall.
He claims that there was a closet in Graveley that gave him a “spooky feeling, similar to the feeling you get when someone that’s very angry with you stares at you.”
When he asked one of the other custodians, Jennifer Otte, he was told that a student hung themself in that closet.
Sightings and incidents such as these have been spotted for years, all over campus.
