Legend tells of many a ghost and apparition at Manchester College.  From ghosts that peek about in the residence halls, to occurrences that only a ghost could cause, these sightings have given rise to fear and countless stories.  There are tales of witnessing orbs of light in Cordier on occasion, as well as visions of a ghost that would appear in the mirror in the basement of East Hall, just to name a couple.

             
It comes as no real surprise, perhaps, that there have been strange happenings involving the elevators in the new Science Center.  Not too long after it was built, both professors and students had problems with the elevator getting stuck between floors momentarily.  Most likely, these weary travelers shrugged their shoulders and chalked it up to the fact that everything was so new at the time.  

On the other hand, just days after the Science Center opened, a person visiting relatives decided to take a look at the new, shiny building for himself.  It was somewhat late at night, and very quiet.  Climbing into the elevator, he made their way from floor to floor.  From what has been speculated, things changed on the way back down from the third floor to the first floor—the elevator began to get stuck. 

People who found the body the next day said that the look frozen on his face was one of terror.  It is assumed that the young man in the elevator was awfully terrified of becoming stuck.  “That kid was so claustrophobic,” his relative recalls, nearly bursting into tears.  She will remain nameless for this article.  “He also had pretty low blood sugar that day, running around so much.  I told him to eat something, but he was so excited about seeing the new Science Center…”

An autopsy concluded later that the young man died of diabetic shock.  The claustrophobia was just an after-effect; however, since nobody else was with the young man, it is difficult to say which came first.  The coroner determined that he died somewhere between the third and first floors.

I had heard small talk about the possibility of a ghost in the Science Center and decided to check into this for myself one night.  It isn’t too difficult to understand that such stories are kept under wraps for a reason—elevators should be faulty by design rather than being faulty due to a ghost, after all.  I took my camera with me (realize, this was two years ago or so) and climbed carefully onto the elevator.  Checking my watch, I saw that it was nearly 10:30 at night and remembered that the time of death of the boy was rumored to be around 10:15, so I was good to go.  I managed to see a flash of what appeared to be a ghostly apparition after about five minutes and was able to catch it with my camera.  Of course, the camera got a much clearer picture than I alone could have in my head. 

I came across the ghost partly by luck and my own experimenting.  The trick is to get onto the bigger elevator at the first floor, and ride it to the third.  After three repetitions, I felt rather tingly, like the hair was standing up on the back of my neck.  I KNOW I saw something out of the corner of my eye, and so I quickly took a picture and hoped that the elevator would not get stuck before I could make it home.  

You, too, may be witness to yet another spirit on the Manchester College campus…if you aren’t too claustrophobic, that is. 

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