Imagine sitting in your English class staring out the window during a lecture. Now imagine watching a dead body being pulled up by some pulleys to the fifth floor of a building.

This was a reality in 1944, when the fifth floor of Marquette used to be a biology research and dental school. They had to lift the bodies to the fifth floor with a pulley system since the elevator did not go to the fifth floor.

 “When we were in class, before air conditioning, the windows were always opened on a hot day you could hear the pulleys creaking and they were pulling cadavers up onto the fifth floor,” said physics professor Carl Brans. “I might be sitting in Latin class and I hear the squeaking and I look out the window and I see a cadaver being pulled up to the fifth floor.”

To this day, students and faculty alike report hearing the pulleys outside Marquette Hall.

But that’s not the only eerie occurrence that’s taken place on campus. According to various sources, the campus bookstore has also had ghost sighting.

There has been a report of a white shadow caught on surveillance cameras moving near the stairs by the textbook department. But according to the workers at the bookstore, this activity has been going on for years.

Workers would walk into the textbook room and find books in the middle of the floor without any explanation as to how they got there. Also workers say when working late at night, they would get a eerie feeling, like a breeze passing by, and feel that they should leave. An explanation for this, according to the workers, is that the ghost may want them to leave. Also caught on surveillance in daytime was movement under closed doors.

Paranormal activity has also been reported in Buddig Hall. According to music industry business freshman Alexa Moulakis, there are stories of a playful ghost on the tenth floor of Buddig.

 “Someone ran out of ink in their printer, but one day the printer just randomly printed out page from the script of the movie Fight Club,” Moulakis said.

Yet another instance was from biology sophomore Ysabel Wright and her mysteriously flushing toilet in her sixth floor room in Buddig Hall. Wright repeatedly heard her toilet flushing each night along with some other noises.

 “It was an indescribable noise that sounded kind of like tapping, but wasn’t tapping. I tried to ignore it and go to sleep but that didn’t work out,” Wright said.

She ran to her friend’s room afterwards and the next day called the RA to report the strange noise.

 “She came and sat with us and heard a flush and some noises too. Next thing we know we hear a loud noise from the bathroom and that’s the moment she believes this ridiculous story of ours and we dash out of the room,” Wright said.

Another account of strange activity in Buddig was last year in room 1108, according to economics sophomore Bridget Kratz.

 “One of the most common things was that our door would open and close on its own. It got to the point where our door was opening and closing itself loudly several times a night,”  said Kratz

Some of her friends then decided to hold a seance to contact the spirit. They set up some recording equipment and had a flashlight for light.

 “We asked the “spirit” a couple questions. The light on the flashlight flickered when we asked it if it was here to do harm, and we all freaked out and ran away from our room.” Kratz said.

They later listened to the recording of the seance and found something surprising.

 “You can hear a low growl in the background when we asked if the spirit was here to do harm. It was all a big joke and we just wanted to give ourselves a thrill, but it was scary nonetheless!” Kratz said.

Chantel Jackson can be reached at [email protected]