Ghosts and ghouls are thought to exist only in haunted places, but some people are starting to believe that there are a few here at ASU.
ASU spokesman Keith Jennings said janitors and students have occasionally reported ghosts at ASU for more than 20 years.
"It's probably because the campus is old, and when people hear things or see things, they think they're seeing a ghost," Jennings said.
ASU first opened as a small territorial teachers' college in 1885.
Jennings said a janitor reported seeing what looked like the ghost of former ASU President Grady Gammage in the Archives Building in the early 1990s.
Gammage reportedly died in the building, formerly the President's Cottage, Jennings said.
Jennings said he also heard one report of a ghost in the Matthews Center from a State Press reporter in 1981.
Jennings said some people believe the ghost was a woman who committed suicide on one of the upper floors of the building in the 1940s or 1950s.
Two members of Student Media's advertising staff said they've seen a ghostlike presence in the ground-floor men's room in the Matthews Center, a building constructed in 1930 -- making it one of the oldest buildings on campus.
Matt Fisher, Student Media's advertising manager, said shortly after he started working in the basement of the Matthews Center in August, he had an unusual experience in the men's room on the first floor.
Fisher said he was at a urinal when he heard a toilet flush in one of the stalls, and then a sink briefly poured out water. Fisher said he was alone in the bathroom.
"I didn't see anything, but I heard some plumbing turn on," Fisher said. "It was really weird."
Student Media advertising representative Leo Gonzales said he saw a ghost one day in October 2002 shortly after he first returned to ASU as an employee.
Gonzales worked in the Matthews Center as a student for many years without seeing any ghosts. But that day, he saw a shadowy "presence" appear in front of him, as he was about to leave the men's room.
Jesse Bello, a journalism sophomore, said the old buildings on campus are the most likely to have ghosts.
"It sets the mood," Bello said. "I don't want to go in some modern house and find the ghost of Calvin Klein."
Gary Schwartz, an assistant professor of biological anthropology, said he started working at ASU this semester and has heard a few stories about the Anthropology Building being haunted.
Schwartz said the skeletal remains in the building make it a prime target for the creation of ghost stories, Schwartz said.
"It always coincides with anatomy labs. There's a fear of death, and there's a misunderstanding of the nature of working with human and animal remains that manifests itself in these stories," he said.
Reach the reporter at nicole.saidi@asu.edu.
