Assistant social sciences professor Joyce Thierer tells ghost stories to students during the campus ghost tour last night. Giri Nam/The Bulletin.

Excited chatter, flashlights, supernatural tales and cocoa were just a few highlights of the Ghost Tours, organized by the Society of Historians at Emporia State. The tour began last night in front of Plum Hall.

“I was so excited about the ghost tour this year,” said Kyra Strobel, senior communication major. “It’s an event that I actually brought to the homecoming committee and suggested we put it together because they used to do it years ago here at ESU and this year when I found out that homecoming was on Halloween, I thought, ‘what a perfect opportunity to bring that back.’”

Blood dripping from her paled skin, Liz Coffey, junior earth science major and member of the Society of Public Historians, jumped out from behind a wall to scare people at their post as the Towers Complex Ghost. Coffey helped plan the event and investigated the background of the stories.

“We did a lot of research into victim reports and that sort of thing,” Coffey said. “We’ve got our story straight and we have a bunch of little stories for the tour guides to tell.”

Some of those stories included tales about ghosts in different residence halls, the boy who lived in the tunnels and the Wooster Lake monster.

For Strobel, the interest was sparked by the unique history of Emporia and ESU.

“I still don’t really know if I believe in ghosts or not,” Strobel said. “But I found out that Emporia is actually one of the most haunted towns in the nation.”

She began to research ghost stories when she learned that the dorm she lived in was supposedly haunted.

“When I first moved to Emporia, I started hearing a lot of ghost stories here on campus,” Strobel said. “In fact, I lived in northeast Morse 415, which is supposedly one of the haunted rooms. Some people on my floor said that they could hear (the ghost dribbling a basketball), but I could never hear it.”

Audrey Hanning, junior elementary education major, who attended the tour, was unfamiliar with the haunted history of the campus.

“I hadn’t heard any of the stories of what’s happened here,” Hanning said. “But I think I believe the one about Albert Taylor Hall, other than that I’d have to think about it.”

While more enthralled by the actual history than the supernatural, Strobel is excited for the tours.

“I don’t think it’s really the ghosts that fascinate me,” Strobel said. “I think it’s just fun to hear the stories about this campus and it’s fun to hear what other people think about ghosts.”

Alice Christian, elementary education major, attended the tour for a similar reason.

“I’m pretty skeptical,” Christian said. “It takes a lot to get me to believe things. If I had an experience, I’d probably believe it. I liked learning the stories though, and was really excited to come. I had been looking forward to it all week.”

Strobel said that whether or not someone believes in ghosts, it is always fun to attribute peculiar occurrences to their stories.

“Every time a door slams or something, we always blame it on Martha,” Strobel said. “It’s not something I’m spooked about. It’s just something to joke about.”

Sarah Shaw/The Bulletin

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At least six car break-ins have occurred this semester. Police say that the break-ins are generally cyclical and linked to narcotic avtivity. Photo illustration by Jennifer Baldwin&Kellen Jenkins/The Bulletin

So far this semester, there have been six auto break-ins on the Emporia State campus. A recent string of auto crimes was linked with a suspect, whose name has not been released.

“There are suspects in multiple cases which are currently under investigation,” said Captain Chris Hoover, campus police and safety. “Several of these are joint investigations with the Emporia Police Department. An arrest was made by EPD with ESU officers assisting. The individuals arrested are suspects in several campus auto burglaries.”

While the recent spike of crime has elevated concern, Field Sergeant Mark Summey of the Emporia Police Department said that the amount of this type of crime does not fall out of usual patterns.

“Car breakins seem to run in cycles,” Summey said. “We’ll get a rash of them, usually it’s tied to narcotic activity, when people need to pay for drugs.”

He also said that it is not abnormal for car breakins and damage to occur in a chain and be linked to a single suspect or group of suspects.

“Usually somebody, or a group of people, will start, and they won’t just break into one car,” Summey said. “They’ll do several.”

Both officers agree that certain measures can be taken to help decrease the risk of a break in, but that it is not completely preventable.

“I don’t know what you can do to stop it, but certainly don’t put things of value in plain view,” Hoover said. “It you go to the bar and you don’t want to haul your purse in, don’t put your purse in the trunk in an obvious way, do that before you leave home.”

Hoover also noted that window tinting can play a factor in theft.

“Dark tint is a bad thing because they can’t see in,” Hoover said. “They assume it means that you’re hiding something of value.”

In addition, people should also think about where they park their car.

“The best thing you can do is just park in well-lighted area,” Summey said. “Don’t park somewhere where it’s real dark and off by itself. That’ll help your door dings, but it will give someone else the opportunity to get into your car.”

Also, consider removing hardware that is built in to the interior of your car.

“If you have a removable face plate on your stereo, remove it when you’re not using it so they can see it’s not there and it won’t do them any good anyway to break into your car,” Summey said. “Try not to advertise that you have something in the car worth stealing.”

Hoover said that unfortunately, it is necessary to make sure that valuable items are not visible, because locks will not deter criminals.

“Locking the car isn’t going to stop someone from breaking in,” Hoover said. “I know cases where they’ve broken windows out of cars that were unlocked because they didn’t stop and take the time to see if it was unlocked. It doesn’t make a lot of sense but that’s kind of the way it is.”

He ensures students that campus policy and safety patrol campus and are aware to look for these sorts of crimes.

“Anything on this campus, we’re there,” Hoover said. “There is no route – it’s 24/7.”

However, Summey said that it is everyone’s responsibility to be on the look out for crime.

“Keep your eyes open and if you see something suspicious report it,” Summey said. “Don’t be afraid to call and report anything you see.”

Sarah Shaw/The Bulletin

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Harrison George

Last Wednesday was the Huge Activities Fair, a collection of campus organizations recruiting for members and advertising upcoming events. Spread throughout the sidewalks on campus, excited students learned about new clubs and opportunities and how to become engaged in their campus and community. As I walked along the crowds, I couldn’t help but think: “Why can’t it be like this everyday?”

It seems that the start of every semester is full of feelings of optimism and cooperation between the groups on campus.

But after the first few weeks the clubs turn all their attentions inward and tend to stop trying to gain campus-wide attention. Communication breaks down between groups, and co-sponsorship is infrequent. If one group wants to plan an event, they have to hope it does not interfere with another group’s activity on same day. And for those students interested in joining a club after the first month of school, I wish you the best of luck.

Finding out when certain clubs meet can take the detective skills of Sherlock Homes. Overall, it seems there is a vacuum of information regarding activities and events on campus. It is not any one person or group’s fault: this is a problem with infrastructure. The school does not have a decent network of communication in place to properly disperse new information to potential new members and other clubs.

Just look at the adverting options currently in place. How often do you read the fliers put out on the bulletin boards every week? Sometimes I feel that they have just become white noise in the background of campus life.

What about the tables in the union? When a club is there handing out leaflets to their next event, do you stop? Or avoid eye contact and speed walk through? I feel that these techniques are not the most effective ways to spread information throughout the campus.

Perhaps a calendar could be displayed containing all RSOs events for each month. Or, we could create a sort of “Club Council” that is comprised of representatives from various active groups on campus. They could meet to exchange updates about what their club is working on as far as upcoming events or activities. They could also brainstorm new idea in recruitment or fundraising. Some of the smaller or newer groups on campus could learn a lot from the larger clubs like UAC.

One thing that definitely needs more attention is the school’s Web site. The group pages, designed to serve as a directory of contact information, is woefully out of date. On many occasions I have seen the Web site list contacts that had graduated over two years ago.

I remember as a freshman the frustration I encountered trying to track down active members of the Environmental Club, only to find they had all graduated or left, and the club had disbanded.  I am not sure who is in charge of keeping this information up to date, either the CSI office or ASG, but this is one task that should not be left on the backburner.

By building stronger relationships between the campus groups, we will be promoting interest and involvement in what is going on around us.

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Kevin Rabas, assistant professor in the English, Modern Languages, and Journalism Department, leads the Committee on Campus Governance meeting Tuesday afternoon in the KSN room of the Memorial Union. As it was the first meeting of the year, not much business was up for discussion. KELLEN JENKINS/THE BULLETIN

Nine members of the Committee on Campus Governance, a special committee of Faculty Senate, congregated for the first time this academic year on Tuesday afternoon in the KSN room.
The COCG’s main focus is to help facilitate evaluations of administrators and to review the concerns of other committees.
The discussion of the meeting centered mainly around concerns voiced by George Durler, associate professor of accounting, who was not present at the meeting.
His first grievance was against the Center for Student Involvement’s policy that requires all flyers and posters distributed on campus to be branded with the power E and “Emporia State University.”

The topic sparked little discussion and will likely be brought up at a later date. Durler said that this policy sends the wrong message to the community and is due for a revision.
The second concern received more comments from committee members. It pointed at policy 3M.08 FOOD as legislation to be reviewed. Students may know this policy as the one that prohibits ordering pizza in the dorms or having outside food served at events.

It is also the policy that has allowed Sodexo to become the primary food provider on campus. Durler said that this policy also sends the wrong impression to area businesses.
Stan Felix, assistant professor of music, considered Durler’s point.
“I think that is a legitimate concern,” Felix said. “Also, the idea is that they are not catering to the Asian population or different groups that are coming through campus, so they have to go off campus a lot to get food.”
A decision has not been reached on either of these concerns. However, the committee will meet again on Sept. 8 for further discussion.

Sarah Shaw/The Bulletin

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A car drives through Kellogg Circle in front of Plumb Hall on Wednesday evening. The construction is projected to be complete by mid-September. KELSEY RYAN/THE BULLETIN

While most of the student body was away for the summer, University Facilities was working on several projects that have made visible changes on campus.

“These were things that really needed to be worked on and I’m always for improvement,” said Shanda Hendricks, front end supervisor for the Memorial Union bookstore.

The most noticeable of the more than six projects was the resurfacing and repair of Kellogg Circle in front of Plumb Hall.

The project was started several weeks before classes ended last spring and will continue until mid-September due to rain delays.

“We are nearly complete with the street part of the project,” said Mark Runge, director of facilities. “We started the project about three weeks before school ended last year because we knew we would be in a time crunch.”

Throughout the summer, Runge said that the contractors lost nearly 15 days due to excessive rain.

“If (the weather) had been more cooperative, we probably would have been done,” Runge said.

The project, which will end up totaling about $250,000, has been in the works for the last 5-6 years, Runge said. Kellogg Circle will be complete after the sidewalk around it and new light fixtures, similar to the lantern shaped ones used downtown, are added.

“If it all works out, we’re hoping in three to four weeks, we’ll have those sidewalks all finished,” Runge said. “The lights we had in Kellogg Circle weren’t very bright so we’re also adding new lights to the sidewalks.”

“The improvements that they’ve already made look good,” Hendricks said.

A much larger task Facilities undertook was the remodeling of the library which totaled about $2 million. The final inspections for the library were made on Monday and Runge expects everything to be moved back into the library by September.

“We completely gutted the second floor and redesigned the spaces and areas for the library services departments,” Runge said.

A better emergency exit, costing about $150,000, will also be added to West side of the library.

Building signs will be placed near every building to help newcomers find their way around campus. Runge said that a few signs still have to be put up but he thinks that they will be a big help to people on campus.

“I’m new on campus this year,” said Abdul Hamid Maassarami. “(The signs) have been helpful for me. When I had to be in Plumb Hall, I just followed the signs.”

Another project that Facilities completed was repairing the foundation underneath Roosevelt Hall, which cost the University nearly $175,000, Runge said. Unsettling and shifting in the foundation were making cracks on the interior of the building.

“We got tired of patching the cracks,” Runge said. “We had people come in and take a look at the structure. They recommended us on what action to take.”

Among other things, Morse Drive was resurfaced and repainted, HVAC systems were replaced in several buildings, a new drainage system was added to the pool and King Hall got a new electrical distribution center.

“We had a lot of work,” Runge said. “It was probably more than average but there have been other times when we were busier.”

Projects that students will see in the future will be the replacement of water lines that are more than 60 years old, a new roof for the science hall and several projects that will be funded by federal stimulus money.

The stimulus money distributed must be used for certain projects, including plans that will increase energy efficiency. These projects are fully funded by the stimulus money and will be audited at the end the year. Three jobs, including new fume hoods in science hall, new double paned insulated windows across campus and new light fixtures will total nearly $1.2 million, Runge said.

“(The stimulus money) was a blessing,” Runge said. “We got some projects getting done here that it would take a while to do if we didn’t (have the money).”

Ashley Peaches/The Bulletin

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