At Indiana University Southeast, strange stories do not have to come from an old castle or dark forest. On Oct. 21, IU Southeast Librarian Courtney Block led the annual Haunted IUS Walking Tour, sharing reports of unexplained experiences from campus buildings, student housing and university history. Block has led the tour every year since 2017. The group met at McCullough Plaza near the Clock Tower and walked around campus before finishing inside University Center. Block explained that the tour is not a haunted house and has no jump scares. It shares stories people have told her and accounts found in campus archives.

The stories came from students, university employees, and campus police. Block said she asked people whether they had unusual experiences they were willing to share. She also searched old newspaper articles and library records. The stories are reports of personal experiences, not proof of paranormal activity.

At Hillside Hall, campus police officers reportedly heard footsteps behind them while patrolling an empty building, but found no one. At the library, a facilities worker said they saw someone enter late at night but could not find the person afterward. A campus police sergeant later saw a motion-activated light turn on in an empty study room. He could not explain what triggered it.

The tour also included stories from campus housing. At Grove Lodge, an officer reportedly felt as though he had walked into a large spider web while checking a room after reports of loud noises, but no web was found. At Orchard, students reportedly felt something touch them when nobody was nearby. One former employee said she woke up with a large handprint on her chest.

At Knobview, Block shared a story from a 1994 article in the student newspaper, The Horizon. Students in Robinson Theater reported losing objects and finding them again, hearing singing with no clear source, and finding strange marks on a script. The article considered whether the reports might be connected to donated household items used as theater props. An older story came from a 1973 article in the local Tribune newspaper. It described reports of a UFO with flashing red, yellow and green lights near campus while it was still being built. One report said the object landed behind the university on Grant Line Road, but the

newspaper noted that it could not be identified or confirmed.

Block also shared two events from 1984. In February, campus police Captain Shirk died of a heart attack in a parking lot near where the tour began. His widow later arranged for his funeral to be held in University Center. The following month, paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren visited campus to discuss their work, including the Amityville case. Block is also an author whose books explore reported paranormal experiences in libraries. She said she began collecting campus stories because people sometimes worry that an interest in the supernatural will not be taken seriously. Recording people’s accounts, she explained, can document human experiences even when the cause remains unknown. The tour did not ask attendees to believe the stories were true. Instead, it connected campus history, newspaper archives and personal accounts, linking familiar buildings to decades of unexplained reports