Police support captain Kyle Garwood was working a graveyard shift with another campus cop two decades ago when the pair received a call. Two girls reported that screams could be heard coming from Henrion Hall. Upon arrival, Garwood and his partner heard the voice for themselves — a female, likely in her late teens or early 20s — calling for help.

“We searched that building from top to bottom,” Garwood said. “I heard it as plain as day, this young lady screaming for help, clearly inside the building.

“We never found anything.”

Garwood’s experience is one of many paranormal encounters that students, faculty and staff have had on campus. From unexplained sounds to shadowy figures, Wichita State University is home to its fair share of spectral sightings and occurrences.

Most of these sightings are limited to the historic southwest portion of the university, which served as the core of campus in the early 20th century. Accounts of paranormal activity dominate Henrion Hall, Wilner Auditorium and Fiske Hall, as well as Grace Memorial Chapel and Elliott Hall.

Henrion Hall

The home of the first permanent gymnasium on campus, Henrion Hall, was built in 1921. The Memorial Gymnasium was dedicated to students who served in World War I and saw Wichita State’s men’s basketball games, military balls, and physical education classes inhabit its halls.

Several sources claim that a maintenance worker was electrocuted in the building while on the job in the 1950s. However, no records identifying this employee or describing this incident could be found.

Megan St. Clair, an adjunct art instructor and WSU alumna, said she saw this spirit — or, potentially, a different ghost altogether — while preparing for her senior showcase as a student.

“I’m working, pulling sheets of paper hunched over. I look up, and I see a figure of a man in work coveralls,” St. Clair said. “He was there for a second, and then he disappeared.”

Years later, St. Clair returned as a videographer for the Wichita Paranormal Society with her team to collect and document evidence from Henrion Hall. While doing the initial walkthrough of the building, with no audio equipment recording, she said they “audibly heard a male’s voice,” but they “couldn’t make out what it said.”

St. Clair recently led Wichita State’s first ghost hunt, walking participants through some of the campus’ allegedly most haunted buildings while sharing personal accounts. She said she’s excited to share her experiences with others and ponder the unknown, even though she’s now familiar with the world of spirits and ghosts.

“It’s been tangible experiences that I have proof of, or I can believe in it,” St. Clair said. “For others, I can see how there’s critics and people that … just don’t know. Since I’ve had such extensive experiences with the other realms, it’s not anything that I doubt.”

Wilner Auditorium

George Wilner, the namesake of Wilner Auditorium and the former head of the speech and theatre programs, is said to still remain in the performing arts building. The professor worked at WSU for nearly four decades before retiring in 1959 and dying in 1976. Campus legend has it that his spirit lingers to ensure the building is properly maintained.

While most accounts say that Wilner’s spirit is friendly, some experiences are more unsettling than others.

Garwood said that, later in his career, he was training a young officer on flashlight techniques when they both saw a shadowy figure in the auditorium’s balcony.

“And out of the corner of both of our eyes, we see a shadowy figure up in the light box,” Garwood said. “So this is in the middle of the night, third shift. There should not be anyone in that building. The doors are locked … We knew that there was not supposed to be anyone in there. So we go, we search that area top to bottom and didn’t find anything.”

Dariane Johnston, a lead custodian at Wichita State, said that while she isn’t responsible for the upkeep of Wilner, she’s heard eerie stories from other custodians of disembodied red eyes in the shadows of the stage.

“There was some people that were saying that, like in the auditorium, like they’ve seen, like, red eyes,” Johnston said. “(There were) some people that was saying there were red eyes and (it feels) like someone’s staring at you.”

Fiske Hall

The oldest surviving building on campus, Fiske Hall, has served as the men’s dormitory, an influenza infirmary, and now the hub for the history and philosophy departments in its more than 100 years. 

Fiske is one of the buildings Johnston and her team are responsible for maintaining. Over the last year, she said she’s had more than a few eerie experiences.

“(Once), me and my coworker were working on the floors,” Johnston said. “Everyone was gone. Everybody. The doors were closed, locked, the lights were off, everything … and then I heard a laugh, a woman’s laugh.”

Johnston said she first thought she was going crazy — until she heard footsteps.

“Now I got up and checked again,” Johnston said. “Like, I went through room to room (and) checked, (and there was) nothing … Then we didn’t hear anything after a while, but when I came down here by myself, there were times where I feel like someone is looking at me.”

On other occasions, Johnston has heard doors opening and closing and seen shadows through the third-floor windows. She said it’s incredibly unlikely for these to be students or faculty members, as she keeps careful track of who is in what building and for how long.

“I pay attention to names, rooms, like, descriptions,” Johnston said. “I pay attention to my students because I actually care for them.”

Johnston believes several spirits still linger in the building; she even affectionately refers to one as “Barbara.”

“I don’t know if it’s a female or male, but I’m just like, ‘Hey, Barbara,’” Johnston said. “Call me crazy, but sometimes … I’ll say ‘Hi’ to them because I don’t know if they’re friendly or not.”

Johnston and St. Clair said that it’s important to respect the spirits that may inhabit campus spaces. But regardless, exercising caution is the best practice when potentially interacting with spirits.

“It’s just about setting healthy boundaries and putting out protections of yourself,” St. Clair said. “You’re not just a dumb teenager, asking for anyone to communicate on the Ouija board. I’ve learned a lot of healthy, respectful practices, (about) setting good intentions, and also maintaining strict boundaries, which is important in every aspect of life.”