Even with the passing of Halloween, famous legends and conspiracies are still circulating, with the University having a few of its own to add. While there are classics like the haunted English Building and the Main Library ghouls, the campus has many more to uncover — whether you’re a believer or not.

It’s no secret that the spirit of a woman roams the halls of the English Building, which was allegedly used as a women’s residence hall in the early 20th century, though the exact story varies from person to person. Students claim it was a suicide, with reasons ranging from failed love to academic failure.

However, some versions don’t take place in the English building at all. 1993 University alum Phillip Sumida recounts a similar story occurring in Gregory Hall, with the same premise of a woman dying in a former girls’ dormitory. 

“The story we heard was that Gregory was once a girls’ dorm, and that (the woman) continues to wander the building, hoping to finish her degree,” Sumida said. “I never saw anything, but there were always people who said that they did.”

Another tale is that of the unexplained hauntings in the Main Library. Popular legends say students got so lost in the Main Stacks that they died there, unable to find their way out. Stories also feature ghosts appearing at various locations in the library, though no specific tale has been told. With so many stories, the Main Library has even made a page dedicated to these hauntings, listing the most popular ones. 

With any classic tale comes many more waiting to be uncovered, rumor or not. In the case of 1996 University alums Steven Krasinski and his wife, Jolie Krasinski, not all University hauntings have to be secondhand — they themselves experienced unexplainable scares during their time here. 

“I slept on the quad, and a man in a wide-brimmed hat rode his bike through in the wee hours,” Jolie Krasinski said. 

Steven Krasinski also remembers a tale of a spooky station wagon that was always parked in Urbana near student-rented houses. 

“There was a black painted station wagon with a bunch of purple rats on the dashboard,” Steven Krasinski said.

The hauntings at University go far beyond what’s visible to the naked eye, however, and they certainly did for Sumida, who worked as a student custodian during his time at University. With access to buildings after hours, Sumida got an inside look at paranormal experiences not all students knew about. 

“I particularly remember the ‘spookiness’ of cleaning the first and second floors of Davenport,” Sumida said. “There were always doors closing themselves and ‘strong breezes,’ and some people attributed that to the spirits of professors past.”

Sumida also recalls going into the steam tunnels, which run beneath the ground all across campus and are strictly forbidden by the University from student entry.

“I occasionally had a key to access the steam tunnels on my key ring for the night,” Sumida said. “During my break, I went down to the tunnel door in Davenport and opened it, then wandered about 100 feet along the tunnel. It was definitely dirty and gross, and there were creaking sounds. I did not return.” 

Even with the hundreds of variations of all these stories, one thing remains: The University has a lot of spooky history. Tonight, grab your most easily spooked friends and turn down the lights, because whether or not you believe in the supernatural, these ghost stories bring a piece of University history to life.

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