Section A·Page 6
The University Daily Kansan
Wednesday, October 13, 1999
Who's afraid of Virginia the ghost of Sigma Nu?
Lorraine Warren explores a room in the Sigma Nu Fraternity house for a spiritual presence.
Warren and her husband, Ed, have explored paranormal activity for more than 45 years.
Photo by Roger Nomer/KANSAN
By Emily Hughey writer@kanson.com Kanson staff writer
Couple walk halls of local chapter looking for spirit
The Sigma Nu fraternity house sits on a steep hill near Emery Road. Formerly the governor's mansion, it now houses more than 60 men, occasional female visitors and someone else who never leaves. Meet Virginia, Lorraine Warren has.
"Wow, I can definitely feel a psychic vibration in here," she said, in a light trance, when she entered the Bowery, the third floor bedroom where the fabled Virginia was said to have hanged herself in the 1920s. "There's a lot of anger and sadness. I see a young woman in black and white. I'm confused as to what she's wearing, as to what her job was, but by her dress, she looks like she had maybe a position of servility or something."
Lorraine and her husband, Ed, look like an average grandma and grandpa. They call people "honey" and squeeze their hands, with eyes smiling. But they are ghost hunters, and they have been for nearly 50 years. And since 1969, they've been touring the world, investigating haunted places and lecturing on college campuses. While Ed prepared for their 8 p.m. Student Union Activities-
sponsored presentation last night, Lorraine toured Sigma Nu fraternity searching for paranormal activity.
She sensed a woman's presence, former governor Roscoe Stubbs' alleged mistress, Virginia, whom residents blame for the bumps in the night and the creepy vibes they often sense.
Brian Wanamaker, Sigma Nu president, said some members had reported Virginia sightings.
"They've walked into a room and thought they saw a guy on the couch with a girl sleeping next to him," Wanamaker said. "Then they'd ask about it the next day and the guy wouldn't know anything about it."
Stories like Sigma Nu's and visits to haunted places are routine for Ed and Lorraine. She is clairvoyant, a medium to the spiritual world, and he is a demonologist, an expert in handling spirits and reversing curses — an exorcist.
Together, they've investigated and exorcised everything from people to houses to dolls. But before beginning their research, Ed invokes the presence of St. Michael the Archangel for added protection. He specializes in the Latin prayers that remove evil spirits and protect people from being haunted after the research is complete.
Although he said the good spirits and the angels were what kept his wife and him safe most of the time, he's been blown across the room by evil spirits and seen Lorraine thrown 25 feet into
"There are a lot of spirits out there," Ed said before the lecture, "and some not good ones."
"There are a lot of spirits out there, and some not good ones."
Ed Warren
Ghost hunter
the air.
"Spirits can do a lot," he said. "They can slash; they can puncture; they can burn; they can cause internal combustion."
In the lecture that followed the tour of Sigma Nu, the husband-wife team showed slides of spirit sightings, video clips from an exorcism Ed performed and photos of haunted houses to between 300 and 400 people at the Kansas Union.
"If you walk into that house and you feel a million eyes staring at you, they are staring with hate," Ed said. "You have no place being there. You should go out and never go back. It's not your house to have."
Although some laughed at the stories at the beginning of the presentation, by the end, the audience was silent.
Some students find commuting to college can save money
Brenda Chung, Student Union Activities vice president for membership, said she was skeptical at first but that their stories got to her after a while.
"I was trying to think, 'oh well, it just looks like a picture,'" Chung said. "But it was freaky. You actually believe them."
— Edited by Brad Hallier
By Lori O'Toole
writer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Last year, Liana Hemphill had to drive an hour each day from her home in Lenexa to get to campus.
Hemphill, Westwood senior, had to make long-distance calls to contact professors or classmates.
She did not have time to make a second trip to campus in the evenings to meet with study groups.
Hemphill has an internship, which is part of her academic study at the University of Kansas, in Overland Park — near her home in Westwood.
“It’s nice,” Hemphill said. “I’m getting more sleep. I was always so stressed.”
She said that this year, as a non-commuter, she had more time to get things done.
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Although she doesn't attend classes on any of the University's buildings, she is still considered a student
who commute 10 miles or more to campus.
Although she doesn't attend classes on any of the University's campuses, she is still considered a student. Hemhill is one of a decreasing number of students
Although this semester's specific number of commuters has not yet been released, figures from the last several years show that fewer students commute each year.
According to statistics from the Office of Institutional Research and Planning, 1,644 students commuted last fall, compared to a total of 2,459 commuters during the fall of 1993.
Even with the continuously decreasing number of commuters, there are still many who deal with travel time and costs, including gas and turnpike tolls.
Jennifer Haganey, Leavenworth junior, said there had been times this semester when she had been too tired or had not had time to make the 40-minute drive to campus for her 9:30 a.m. class.
She makes the 80-minute round trip three times a week to get to campus for classes.
Haganaye she would probably spend more time on campus if she did not live 40 minutes away.
"I don't know that the distance keeps me away," she
said. "But if I lived in town, I'd have more time to do things like study at the library."
She is taking two independent study courses and plans to take as many as she can while she works toward her anthropology degree so she doesn't have to commute as often.
Grant Bowers, Olathe sophomore, is also a commuter. Last year, he lived in McCollum Hall, but this year, he is living with his family in Olathe and makes the 30-minute drive to campus each day.
He said he preferred living in Olathe and did not mind the drive.
"It's cheaper, the food's a little bit better and there's much nicer accommodations," he said.
He said he kept all of his textbooks and notebooks in his car, so he didn't have to worry about leaving something he needed at home — an hour-long round trip away from campus.
He said even when he lived on Daisy Hill last year, he only spent about an hour more on campus each day than he did now.
"The campus accessibility really didn't make much difference," Bowers said. "I just have to get up a half hour earlier."
Jason Williams/KANSAN
— Edited by Brad Hallier
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