Hauntings at the University of Oklahoma

Some students at the University of Oklahoma know Christopher Borthick as an advisor in the Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication. Not everyone knows that Borthick has an investigative hobby that takes him to different places on the weekends. Borthick is a member of the Society of the Haunted, a group that investigates paranormal activity. The group has even been on Animal Planet’s “The Haunted.” The Society of the Haunted conducted an investigation in Ellison Hall on the OU campus. The school yearbook asked the group to investigate the building. “The stories have gone for years that Ellison was haunted,” Borthick said. Some of the staff at OU had experienced the phenomenon while at work. One night Angela Startz was working late with a coworker in Ellison Hall. “At the other end of the hall there were all of these crashing noises,” Startz said. “I leaned out and there wasn’t anybody around.” Susan Bayliss also works in Ellison Hall and was there the night of the investigation. Bayliss has ever had an encounter with the ghosts by herself, but she thinks that is because she is not as open to those kinds of things, Bayliss said. One theory that people had was that there was a ghost of a little boy with roller skates because people would hear rolling sounds against the floor. The rumor was that a young boy on roller skates was hit by a car in front of Ellison Hall and he was taken in to Ellison be treated but died, according to the College of Arts and Sciences site. The Society of the Haunted was not able to make contact with the spirit of the little boy, but made contact with other spirits who had died at Ellison Hall when it used to be a hospital. The rolling sounds are now thought to be from hospital beds rolling down the hallways. Other buildings on the OU campus are also rumored to be haunted. The Society of the Haunted has not investigated any other buildings on campus, but would be willing to investigate if asked, Borthick said. The Society of the Haunted will be traveling to Booneville, Ark. this weekend to conduct another investigation.