By Steven Dixon
Advertising director
For generations, various spots in Oklahoma, the United States and the world have ghostly tales that have been passed down, and the SE campus is no exception.
It seems that our campus holds not only a thousand magnolias, but also a dozen ghost stories in a few of our buildings.
One popular legend is the haunting of Montgomery Auditorium in the Morrison Building, in which there are accounts of two ghosts.
Dell McLain, Department of Art, Communication and Theatre chair, recalls his days of directing theatre productions and his experiences with the ghostly kind.
McLain explained that he was told a young woman died in Montgomery Auditorium in the 1920s or ’30s. “Her spirit then and still today inhabits the building,” he said, adding that when the building underwent major renovation in the late 1950s, a worker fell from the scaffolding to his death.
However, according to McLain, it didn’t seem that the worker slipped but that he was actually frightened.
“You absolutely can get an eerie sense in the room of not being alone when you are,” said McLain, adding that he has heard doors open and close in the balcony and seen lights turn on or off on their own. He also said many theatre students have shared similar experiences.
“I can assure you, in Montgomery Auditorium, things go bump in the night,” he said.
According to other sources, the girl that McLain speaks of apparently met her demise in a pool that was once in the basement of the Morrison Building.
In October 2002, seven students set out on an informal ghost hunt in the Morrison Building from midnight to 6 a.m. as the rest of Southeastern slept, according to Andrew Pagel, a reporter for The Southeastern in 2002.
Pagel, who was one of the ghost hunters, reported that throughout the entire evening, two tape recorders were recording specific locations away from the party.
When the tape was played back, strange noises could be heard, though no physical evidence was found of paranormal activity.
Another ghostly horror is of a young woman who killed herself over her boyfriend. In another variation of this story, a young man who lived in Shearer Hall shot several other students before turning the gun on himself.
Composition and Graphics Specialist/Sports Media Production Specialist Jason Hicks shared the story of his encounter with this spirit.
Hicks said that archives used to be kept in the old Shearer Hall, and one day it was his job to find some old files for the President’s Office.
“And as I’m going up there to the third floor, and I’m walking around, it’s just me up there. I know it’s just me up there,” he said. As Hicks searched the floor for the files, he found a faucet running.
“I didn’t even know the water worked up there,” Hicks said. “So, very gently, I turned the water off and said ‘Hope that doesn’t offend anybody.’ And I got the hell out of there.”
Although Hallie McKinney, another of Southeastern’s older buildings, is not reportedly haunted, McLain brought up an interesting point.
“Hallie McKinney is absolutely alive, with the vibrations of students past. Think of the literally tens of thousands of students that lived in that dorm throughout the years,” said McLain.
“And think about the physical vibrations left from the students, good and bad, happy and sad. I mean, just that spiritual energy has to leave a mark. And I think it does.”