Ep 23 – Haunted College Tour Pt 4 – Salem College and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Continuing our Haunted College Tour Palooza, we’re “visiting” Salem College and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro to tell you all about the ghouls, ghosts, etc etc (you know the drill!) that spend their afterlives haunting unsuspecting students. Prepare for history, local lore, and a recitation of the first stanza of Edgar Allan Poe’s “Annabel Lee” — because Robin will use any excuse to bring literature into the equation.

But first, Zoey introduces a new element to Something Spooky: Creature Corner! A demon in Japanese mythology, the Kappa lurks in rivers and waits for humans to pass through. Remember to bow if you see one!

While googling haunted universities in North Carolina a few weeks ago to get ready for this episode, I thought I’d give my grad school alma mater, UNCG, a quick search just to see if anything came up. And I’m super glad I did!

Unlike my experience at the University of South Carolina, UNCG never really gave me much of a haunted vibe. For one of my jobs, I was tasked with pinning event posters to available bulletin boards around campus. This meant sometimes roaming empty, poorly lit halls at odd hours (which constitutes any weekday after 4 PM when you’re talking about a university campus). There were creaking floorboards, ominously darkened rooms, and surprising spans of time when I didn’t see another person — but I rarely felt like something supernatural was going on.

Note that I said rarely.

The Foust building — separate from the Mary Foust dorm I talk about in the episode — always gave me an odd feeling. For one, it looks like a haunted Victorian mansion. A beautiful building, but it sticks out like a sore thumb among the not-so-Victorian-looking structures on campus. The first floor is busy enough with offices to offset any potential hauntedness, but the cramped basement and near-bare second floor gave me pause.

I didn’t really know anyone else who went into Foust, so I had no notes to compare mine too until I came across the Carolinian article by Benjamin Pulgar-Guzman that I list in the sources below. He interviews people who’ve experienced hauntings on campus, and while no one he talked to had any Foust stories, he wrote that he often feels watched in that building.

I think that’s a good way to put it! Perhaps there’s something hanging out there in its afterlife, or maybe it’s the effects of a somewhat ominous looking building. Either way, I was happy to have the validation that I wasn’t alone!

UNCG Sources:

“The Ghosts of The University of North Carolina at Greensboro,” posted by Hermann Trojanowski, UNCG History, Oct. 29, 2012.

https://news.uncg.edu/exhibition-charles-b-aycock-commemoration-auditorium/

“The Ghouls of UNCG” by Megan Pociask, The Carolinian, Oct. 30, 2019.

“UNCG: A Campus Haunting” by Benjamin Pulgar-Guzman, The Carolinian, Oct. 24, 2018.

“The Ghosts of UNCG,” posted by Hermann Trojanowski, UNCG Special, Aug. 12, 2009. (This post has the comments w/ personal stories that we feature in our episode!)

Salem College: