Psychology junior Josh Droog was in the basement of Mayo Hall the moment when nearly half of campus lost power last spring.

"The second (the lights) shut off, the entire hall got freezing cold, and for no reason this cold breeze just picked up, and it felt like someone was there," said Droog, who was delivering a pizza at the time. He had entered the hall through the basement.

"I felt something touch me. It could have just been the breeze, but it was a grazing that hit my back," he said. "I ran the heck out of there, like Scooby Doo style."

Droog said the experience in the basement made him a believer, but other residents don't need such a dramatic experience to be convinced. The Mayo Hall haunting is common knowledge among students, even to those who don't live in West Circle.

Students say both Mary Mayo and another female resident committed suicide in the basement. A piano in the west lounge plays without the help of human hands. And the infamous fourth floor is, depending on who you ask, the site of Mary Mayo's murder or the meeting place for ritualistic animal slaughtering that took place in the '50s and '60s.

In the midst of all these swirling rumors, Mary Mayo, an activist who vigorously promoted education for women at MSU, resides in the east lounge — that is, her portrait does. Posed in a buttoned up blue dress, the late advocate's mouth is curved into the beginnings of a smile.

"It's putting a face with a ghost story," said advertising sophomore and Mayo Hall mentor Kristin Suarez, who doesn't believe in the legend. "Knowing Mary Mayo was actually a person makes it more believable, although I don't know why she would haunt this place."

Whether the stories are true or not isn't important — what's significant is that people continue to tell them, said Simon Bronner, professor of American studies and folklore at Penn State University. Bronner is a former folklorist for the MSU Museum and has written a book about campus hauntings titled, "Piled Higher and Deeper: Folklore of Campus Life."

"Many people may think of this as a superstition, but it's quite functional and not irrational," he said. "It fills a psychological and social need."

Supply chain management junior Ryan Faloon had a strange occurrence in the hall one night a few seconds after he walked out the door of the west lounge and re-entered the building to retrieve his cell phone. As he was passing the lounge, he noticed all the chairs not nailed to the ground were overturned, even though he said they were upright when he passed less than a minute earlier.

"I stopped dead in my tracks and rationalized that someone must have ran in and knocked over all the chairs very quietly and quickly, because I didn't hear anyone running around like a bat out of hell," he said.

Bronner, who studies the psychological aspect of folklore at Penn State, said the Mayo myths actually fit into some of the most common themes in college ghost stories — their eerie messages help students at the same time they frighten them.

He said ghost stories thrive on college campuses — especially in libraries and theaters — because they fuel ongoing conversations about common pressures and the hardships of college.

"It gets beyond whether (the stories) are real or not — it's the point of retelling it," Bronner said.

Whether students realize it or not, talking about ghost stories involving suicide gets them thinking and talking about how to better deal with the same situations, Bronner said, adding that ghost stories involving suicides far outnumber actual college suicides.

Suicides committed in the throes of love or immense pressure are among the most prevalent themes in campus ghost stories, Bronner said.

Jim Dolan, complex director of Campbell, Landon and Mayo halls, said he has heard countless versions of the ghost story, from Mary Mayo hanging herself in the attic to getting murdered in the basement.

"Someone told me that her father donated the money to have the hall built and that she was jilted by her fiance, and that is why she committed suicide," he said.

Murder stories are another common theme that represent feelings of vulnerability, Bronner said.

In truth, Mary Mayo didn't commit suicide, nor did she die at the hands of a murderer in the dormitory erected in her name. She died in 1903 — 28 years before the hall opened. Her children never lived in the hall either, Mayo Hall director Pam Marcis told The State News in 2003. A Mayo Hall secretary said Marcis would not comment for this story.

Despite the rumors about the fourth floor, Dolan said it has never been inhabited by students — to add insult to a ghost enthusiast's injury.

Dolan said the ghost stories persist, despite the factual evidence that discredits them, because they have created a community and tradition.

"I think it always makes life a little more lively and adds a little notoriety to the fact that you lived in Mayo Hall because people will ask you, 'Hey, did you see the ghost of Mary Mayo?'" he said.

English junior Marissa Yardley has gone ghost hunting in the basement of Mayo Hall and said that while she doesn't know if a ghost resides there, the spooky possibilities are part of the appeal.

"The only reason we wanted to live there is because everyone said it was haunted," Yardley said.

Bronner said college campus ghosts, in contrast with those said to haunt graveyards, are thought of more as residents than as bullies. In his survey of campus hauntings for his book, Bronner found there aren't many campus ghost stories in which the ghost is threatening residents.

"When people talk about them, it's like asking about your neighbor," Bronner said. "They may make noises and create some mischief, but generally, they aren't there to scare residents."

Computer science sophomore Phil Deschaine has lived in the hall for two years and said he and his roommates enjoy pretending Mary Mayo makes the electricity cut in and out.

"When (the lamp) flickers, I yell, 'Mary, stop it!' and it stops," he said. "It's really creepy. Also, the TV does a similar thing — it will get fuzzy randomly sometimes at night, but the more we yell profanities about Mary Mayo, the better the TV gets.

"Me, personally, I'd like to think it's real, but I don't really believe in ghosts, but it is a fun story to scare freshmen with," he said.

Another theory of why ghost stories thrive on college campuses is the heightened sense of identity, a feeling of community and connection with the past and present people around you, Bronner said.

When students come to college, their lives became more individualized, Bronner said. They have their own schedules and have to make their own choices.

It's that feeling of extreme individualism that drives students to find connections with each other through ghost stories, he said.

"First-year students are given a guide not only to where the important buildings are around campus, but also to what the culture of campus is," Bronner said.

Ryan Zimberg, human biology senior and Mayo Hall mentor, said he has helped spread the Mayo ghost stories.

"During our first floor meeting, some of the people asked if the place was really haunted," he said. "When we said yes, some of their expressions were priceless."

Zimberg said he wants to pass the myths on to his residents whether or not there is any truth behind the rumors.

"I don't believe there is a ghost, but I almost feel as a mentor of Mayo Hall, I have to keep the legend alive," he said.

Whether the stories involve murder or suicide, female ghosts are much more prevalent than males, Bronner said.

One theory for this is that females are perceived as more susceptible to anxiety and more emotional about love and their careers, he said.

A Freudian theory says women provide a maternal link that is lost when students leave home, he said.

These are all theories, Bronner said, that attempt to explain the fact that most college campuses have ghost stories connected to them. College is a place of limbo between childhood and what is perceived as the "real world," Bronner said. During this period, students are more apt to believe in ghost stories as a way of coping.

"You probably wouldn't be engaged in ghost stories in your home or office, but campus seems a reasonable place to do that because it's an intensified environment," he said. "I think the purpose why people (tell ghost stories) is to figure out the kind of strategies they are going to need with this rather odd environment."