Ever share a dorm room with a ghost? Ever walk a little faster than usual past the ancient ivy-covered buildings near West Circle Complex late at night? Or perhaps refused to go in your residence hall’s basement alone?

Some students and faculty members say there is good reason to do so. They say certain parts of MSU’s campus are haunted by someone or things not of the earthly world.

According to The Shadowlands, a Web site devoted to investigating the paranormal, MSU is a ghost hunter’s haven. Mayo Hall, Williams Hall and the Auditorium’s Fairchild Theatre are reported to have some friendly - and not so friendly - haunts.

Mayo Hall is the most potent source of unexplained phenomena, Shadowlands reports. Sharri Margraves, an associate director of University Housing, said the residence hall was built in 1931 and named for Mary Mayo, who launched women’s courses at MSU. Shadowlands says students have reported a strange presence in the basement corridor linking both sides of the hall, a ghostly figure in the west lounge that is believed to be Mary Mayo herself, and a space in the fourth-floor “Red Room,” that was allegedly used by students in “quasi-satanic rituals.”

Accounting freshman and Mayo Hall resident Dave Milnes said he has heard the legends of the residence hall and said some students are trying to get a firsthand glimpse at what reportedly haunts the building.

“I’ve heard of people trying to go up to the fourth floor, but it’s locked,” he said. “That’s where it’s all supposed to be.

“I know people who won’t walk in the basement hallway alone, too.”

Kinesiology freshman Stevyn Walk, another Mayo Hall resident, said her firsthand accounts are reason enough to suspect something unusual about the building.

“One night, all of the stuff on our TV stand just fell off, out of the blue,” she said.

Williams Hall is another supposed hotbed of paranormal activity. Margraves said Williams Hall was originally built in 1869 before it was destroyed by a fire in 1919. It was rebuilt in 1937.

Shadowlands reports that students have heard noises from unoccupied rooms, seen televisions and computers switching on and off, and witnessed ghostly figures walking in hallways and dancing in the hall’s former cafeteria.

But residents said the hall might be a bit more subdued than Mayo Hall.

“It’s an old, creepy-looking building,” said Matthew Dykstra, a psychology junior and Williams Hall resident. “But I don’t think it’s haunted.”

Actual events - not myths or legends - are enough for Williams Hall resident and psychology senior Lorena Tewksbury.

“I haven’t heard any of the ghost stories,” she said. “But what happened last year (creeped me out).”

On Aug. 26, 2001, a nonresident man broke into a Williams Hall men’s bathroom. The man peeked at male residents while they showered.

Strange stories also abound at Fairchild Theatre, another paranormal hot spot, according to Shadowlands. Legend says the ghost of a young boy roams the theater’s hallways. Students and staff members have also reported strange noises coming from the stage area.

Marcus Olson, a theater associate professor, said his time working alone in the theater gave him reason to be spooked by the old building, which was built in 1939, Margraves said.

“I was here over Christmas break, working mostly by myself,” he said.

“There was some kind of shuffling, enough to kind of spook me out. They were vocal noises, nothing that could have been structural.”

Olson said that although he had never heard the legend of the young ghost roaming the theater, students have noticed the alleged haunting.

“Students who’ve been working late have been creeped out too,” he said.

But psychology Professor Gary Stollak said that fear may have a more logical explanation.

“There’s a desperate need in many of us for explanation of things we don’t understand,” he said. “This desperate need can lead to believing in paranormal and astrological prediction.”

Stollak said humans’ limited sensory input can lead to false interpretations of unexplained noises, such as cases of wind blowing or a door creaking.

“Given limited sensory input, we decide how to interpret it,” he said.

For more information on paranormal incidents, visit www.theshadowlands.net.