Haunted NY State Colleges: Cortland and Elmira

If you are lucky (or unlucky) enough to be assigned room 716 in the Clark dorm building of SUNY Cortland, then you may run into the ghostly football player said to appear each year. When sighted, he is often seen in his uniform with a gash under his eyebrow that seems to be bleeding. The ghost has a reputation for roaming the hallways and sitting outside of a windowsill. This article also presents other supposed haunted locations on the SUNY Cortland campus.

State University of New York , Cortland

In Brockway Hall, the oldest dining hall on campus can be found, where the ghost of a former cook is believed to haunt the premises. One story tells of staff brewing a pot of coffee in the kitchen when they caught sight of a man standing at the top of the stairs, where someone could gain access to the ground floor and the loading dock. The worker asked if the man could be helped, but he turned to his left without speaking and disappeared into a small break room located off the kitchen. When someone went to see what happened to the man, he was nowhere to be found.

Connected to Brockway Hall, students may live in one of two dormitories, including the haunted Cheney Hall. A well-known ghost tale involves a former student named Elizabeth who lived in one of the oldest residence buildings on campus. It is believed that during the 1980s, her boyfriend pushed her from the fourth floor down the central staircase. Ever since, students have reported odd happening. In memory of the young woman, a mural was dedicated to her. However, the students living on the fourth floor feel uneasy when looking at the mural, often feeling as if she is looking directly at them. Students have also claimed to see misty apparitions with outstretched arms. Female figures that appear airy seem to vanish into walls and into thin air. The fourth floor apparently doesn’t have much luck with the students, as another female student fell after drinking too much alcohol. After leaning too far over the brass banister, she fell but was luckily unharmed.

While no actual reports have been submitted, it is said that Degroat Hall is haunted. On the ground floor, there is a “tunnel” or long hallway that also connects to Brockway Hall.

Elmira College , Elmira

There are two halls that specifically stick out when it comes to weird happenings and ghostly hauntings. Reports of floating lights traveling down the halls and the sounds of unexplainable whispers are linked to Cowles Hall , a building with a reputation for generating weird feelings. Many people hesitate to enter the building alone and this includes campus security. There is a rumor that good and evil are literally split down the middle of the building.

Since the late 1960s, there has been an empty room located on the fourth floor of Tompkins Hall that no one has been assigned to and is believed haunted. Residential staff has reported the lights in the room being turned on even though the door is locked and no one lives there. Across the hall, the photograph of a former nun for the female students is said to haunt the room after her sister died while on campus. It is said that she waits for her sister to return so that she can surprise her with a visit.