The Daily Campus

Issue date: 10/31/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Ryan Sayers Legend has it that Gulley Hall, which houses the UConn president's office, is haunted.

Administrators in Gulley Hall can't agree on who or what causes the unusual nighttime noises in the building's basement, but they can agree on one thing: it's spooky.

"It's a creepy old building," said Steve Rhodes, special assistant to UConn President Michael Hogan.

"I've only been here a few weeks," said Rhodes, who was also Hogan's special assistant at the University of Iowa. "But one of the first things I heard when I started working in this building was that there's a ghost in here."

While some staffers treat the "Gulley ghost" as a joke or rumor, others are completely serious when they say the building is inhabited by something inhuman.

One administrator who works in the basement of the building said she is sometimes terrified by the unusual noises she hears while working at night.

The staffer, who declined to provide her name, said she's heard banging, murmuring and even voices coming from the basement.

"I do frequently jump," she said. "You hear all kinds of stuff down there … I've actually heard the elevator going but there's nobody on it … it's uncomfortable to be here on the weekends by yourself."

The basement of Gulley Hall - a labyrinth of arched doorways and exposed brick walls - would likely cause even the staunchest ghost skeptics to watch their backs. Because it's underground, the windows provide a view of earth and grass and only a sliver of sky. The unfinished rooms feature cement floors with open ceilings and exposed pipes.

Bhupen Patel, director of the office of construction assurance, has worked in the basement of Gulley Hall - which is located between Beach Hall and the Family Studies building - since April.

Patel, who works during the daytime only, said he has never seen anything unusual in the basement. However he said there have been over a dozen occasions where he's heard whistling but can't figure out where it's coming from.

Still, he isn't concerned.

"I'm not worried about it," he said. "I'm not scared."

Karla Fox, a business professor who previously had an office in the basement of Gulley Hall, also remembers hearing unusual noises in the building at night.

Continued...

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