Have any of you heard stories or encounters related to campus being haunted? Have heard from current classmates that weird things happen during the night in Wilson / Jefferson Halls. I have also heard of Wilson Hall and the permanently padlocked room, along with the seriously messed up stuff that happened at the Ridges

It’s all rubbish invented by some local reporters in the late 1960s. At the time they said it was because if you plot a bunch of local cemeteries they form a five-point satanic star around the city of Athens. Don’t believe a word of it. There are those that make money off this malarkey, just like the Ghost Tours you can find in many cities. Very few of these have any legitimate basis. The Athens Ghost Business Inc. was started relatively recently in time and has no real historical basis. “The Stain” is simply a chemical deposit from a decaying body. It was known way before anyone associated a ghost with it.

Who is that man behind the curtain? The ghosts of the Tin Man, the Lion and Dorothy want to know.

I lived in Jefferson Hall my freshman year, most of the stories I heard were from the girls on the 4th floor (all girls floor at the time, may still be the case) that heard banging or thumping in the walls.

My senior year, I worked at the Ridges Cafe for a semester and had to open a few times at 5am before anyone else was there. I did hear a few pings and bangs in the morning which was a little unnerving when you know you're the only one in the building.

I also had a friend when I lived in Columbus who also attended Ohio for a minute, claimed there was a street light on Richland Ave that that would always turn on or off regardless the time or day when he was about to walk under it, never when he was on the other side of the street. He claims it was haunted...

Most of what I heard/experienced I could easily explain off as just "old buildings making weird noises" or confirmation bias. I think if you're a person who is inclined to believe in ghosts/spirits/hauntings, then you'll run into them if you look for them. I personally don't believe in such things, but I'm not going to tell people that their experiences they strongly believe are just figments of their imagination.