A Department of Public Safety officer was driving by Freeman Hall over an academic break some time ago and saw a face in a window on the fourth floor.

No one was supposed to be in the building during the break, so officers decided to investigate.

They searched the entire building but found no one. Even more frightening, they had seen the face move to the right of the window. However, when they examined the window, they found a wall directly to the right of it, which a person could not have walked through.

Supposedly, the person they saw was the ghost of Alice Freeman, said Heather Heller, a sophomore in psychology and Freeman resident.

Freeman Hall and its neighbor, Barton Hall, are reportedly haunted by the ghosts of their namesakes, Alice Freeman, former educator, and Clara Barton, founder and first president of the American Red Cross.

Stories of ghost sightings and unexplained occurrences are abundant.

“[The ghost of Alice Freeman] makes beds,” said another Freeman resident. She spoke of an instance when, upon returning from class, a girl thanked her roommate for making her bed. Surprised, her roommate said, “I didn’t make your bed. I thought you made mine.”

She also heard of a girl who woke up from a deep sleep to find she was turned around in bed. She had gone to sleep with her head on one end of the bed and woke up with her head on the other. Unable to explain how this happened, it was attributed to Alice.

A sophomore in child and family services said earlier this year while she was laying in bed her stereo turned on by itself. Later, the TV started changing channels. “No one was touching the remote,” she said.

Several other students living in Freeman Hall relate experiences of slamming doors and lights turning themselves off. One girl last year came home from Christmas break to find the lights on in her room, which she distinctly remembered turning off.

Many seem convinced that Alice is behind all these occurrences. However, sophomore Jen Pluger said she does not really believe the ghost rumors. “Maybe Alice just doesn’t like to walk up stairs, because I’ve never seen her up here [on the third floor],” she said.

“A lot of people think [the ghosts are] true,” said senior Tina Lemon, a third-year resident of Barton. She said people have reportedly seen the apparition in windows and have seen it walk by two windows which are separated by a wall, implying that she passed through the structure.

Freshman Angela Jones was staying on the third floor of Barton Hall during rush week. “When I was sleeping late at night I could have sworn I heard someone walking down the hall,” she said.

Jones said another girl told her that during the summer when Barton Hall was all locked up and empty, she saw a room “glowing” on an upper floor.

“But Barton is a good ghost,” Jones said. “She looks over you. She doesn’t haunt you. She’s a friendly ghost,” Jones said.

Apparently, Clara was looking out for one resident earlier this year. Megan Osfar, a freshman in psychology, was given a condom by her roommate. She didn’t want it and decided to throw it into someone else’s room. She threw it in an open door down the hall and ran back to her room, pounding on the door for her roommate to let her in, in case the room’s occupant was angered by the flying condom.

“Then I heard the condom smack against the wall and thought ‘Oh boy. She’s pissed,'” Osfar said.

Wanting to apologize, Osfar walked into the room, but no one was there. She had other people help her look for the girl who lives in the room, but they couldn’t find her anywhere.

“I couldn’t find anything in the room it could have bounced off of,” Osfar said. “To this day I don’t know who threw it out, but I bet it was the ghost of that damn Barton woman.”

So, do you believe in ghosts? Happy Halloween.