Jacki Donovan/Life Editor
Jacki Donovan
Life Editor
As anyone who’s been on campus longer than thirty seconds can tell you, good old Idaho State is in no short supply of student-led clubs.
Whether you’re into chess, financial management or grilled cheese, chances are there’s a club out there for you.
So when the Bengal newspaper staff met to plan this spooky Halloween issue you’re reading right now, you can imagine this editor’s delight in discovering a webpage dedicated to ISU’s very own Paranormal Research Club.
According to the purpose statement on ISU’s “Clubs” webpage, the Paranormal Research Club was established toward a myriad of purposes, ranging from “provid[ing] a platform for members to explore and discuss various types of paranormal phenomena” and “discuss[ing] research techniques, conduct[ing] experiments, research[ing], and catalogu[ing] various phenomena” to “hav[ing] potlucks and watch[ing] scary movies.”
How quickly delight can turn into horror: ISU’s Paranormal Research Club? It’s been dead for years.
This grim discovery was set into motion the way so many are: with a single email. After radio silence from the address ISU’s web page claimed to have belonged to the “club officer,” it was time for a spooky field trip down one flight of stairs to ISU’s Student Leadership and Engagement Center.
The official time of death?
According to Student Leadership and Engagement records, the beginning of the 2024-2025 school year. Interestingly, this all shook out according to a pre-existing university procedure for abandoned student organizations.
“Two years have to pass before we deactivate [a club charter],” says Student Leadership and Engagement coordinator Jessica Kay. “It looks like [the Paranormal Research Club] very recently hit that mark.”
Pending renewed interest in the abandoned club, it’s thankfully not the end of the world. Kay laid out the reanimation process:
“The next step is to look at club finances, to see if the club’s budget was taken back out,” says Kay. “If that’s the case, then club members will need to present the club to ASISU again and have funding reapproved.”
This is not always the case for defunct clubs, though: it all comes down to whether or not ASISU has gotten around to pulling the cash.
“If [ASISU hasn’t pulled funding], you simply provide them with the club roster and at that point, you’re all good,” says Kay.
An informational handout provided by Student Leadership and Engagement defines a viable club roster as no fewer than eight “currently registered and full-fee paying” students, as well as “a full-time faculty or staff [member] to serve as an advisor.”
It begs the question: in its earthly lifetime, what kind of membership did the Paranormal Research Club boast?
Vivian Conner, a sociology junior and Student Leadership and Engagement Center employee, pulls up the records.
“Looks like there were 25 members,” says Conner, “but they only threw a couple of events.”
One such event, according to the records accessed by Conner, was a club outing to Frazier Hall, in what was likely an ongoing effort to “conduct experiments and catalogue various phenomena.”
Frazier Hall is campus’ oldest standing building and thought to be one of campus’ most haunted. There is no record of Paranormal Research Club activity after this outing.
Jacki Donovan/Life Editor
Any number of factors could have contributed to the ‘death’ of this club. Grades, work, love; any and all of these realities of life can twist themselves into a terror far more sinister than the paranormal.
But this editor still can’t help but wonder: what did those Bengals see inside Frazier Hall that night?
Those interested in starting (or restarting) a club can reach the Student Leadership and Engagement Office by email at studentorgs@isu.edu or by phone at (208)-282-3451.
