Todd Vanderwerff

The crunch of leaves and the glimmer of wicked smiles from jack o’ lanterns combine with chill winds to welcome in the last days of October and the holiday known as Halloween.

Halloween originally began as the day before All Saints Day, a day when the dead were rumored to walk the Earth.

From those humble beginnings sprang forth the holiday where black cats and wispy specters are more at home than human beings and their mortal world.

Some would say that SDSU is as far removed from the creatures of the night as a place can be.

These people, obviously, have never heard the creak of footsteps or the shrill laughter of an ethereal spirit.

These people have obviously never seen the other side of SDSU.

At least five places on the SDSU campus are rumored to be haunted and one has prompted enough stories to be seriously considered by paranormal researchers.

While there is no proof any of these ghosts exist, on a chilly Halloween evening, sometimes it’s fun to speculate.

Doner Auditorium

The grandfather of SDSU haunted places and the home of SDSU’s most tempermental spirit, Doner Auditorium has attracted the attention of, among others, Dennis William Hauck, the author of “Haunted Places,” a guide to various haunted sites in the United States.

Located in the Administration Building, Doner Auditorium is said to be haunted by a ghost referred to as “George.”

The name came from an old yearbook, where the president of the theatre society was thanked for giving the society “George.” Modern readers assumed the yearbook was referring to the cranky ghost even though it was referring to a trophy in the form of George Washington. However it happened, the trophy’s name eventually got attached to the ghost.

George caused a strike by the theatre department’s costume crew in the 1970s. They refused to work until they were moved because George kept bothering them. Eventually, they were moved to a location downstairs and were harrassed far less.

George is famous for knocking things over, throwing things around the room and making noises on Doner Auditorium’s cavernous stage.

As recently as this summer, George was up to his old tricks.

“I was in the costume shop with a friend and I saw a chair start to spin around with no one in it,” said sophomore theatre and physics major Ryan Siebrasse.

“One night, we left a tape recorder on while we were in the prop room and when we played it back, we heard a voice talking over our voices,” said junior music major Jennie Marion.

Regardless of what is causing the incidents in Doner Auditorium, George has already become enough of a household name among theater students to exist outside of the realm of fiction.

Lincoln Music Hall

An oddly attired spectre is said to roam these halls late at night.

Former music major Lindsey Nordsiden used to work in the building’s computer lab late at night. Usually after 9 p.m., she would begin to hear strange noises, which she dismissed as being the pipes or the building settling.

However, one night, a friend came to tell her that a man in a black trench coat was roaming the halls of the basement. Several nights later, another student encountered the man and chased after it. The man went into the building’s “pit” area, which is a dead end. The student followed right behind and was unable to see the man.

The next night, the man wandered past the lab as Nordsiden was working there. She called out after him, asking who he was, then followed him out into the hall.

“I recieved no response and by the time I had left the lab and turned the corner it was gone,” Nordsiden said.