Professor explores the haunted campus

From professors to students, seemingly normal people are diving into paranormal investigations of the University of Oklahoma campus.  Freshman Programs professor Jeff Provine spends his days directing students, and some of his nights telling ghostly tales. 

After going on several ghost tours while studying abroad in Europe, Provine said that he was possessed by a case of “ghost jealousy.”  A suggestion from a friend led him to create OU’s very own campus ghost tour.

“At first I was like, nah, there’s not enough ghosts,” Provine said.  “But as it turns out, there’s more than enough.  In fact, we’ve even kind of had to scale down all of the ghost stories.” 

In his stark office in Wagner Hall, Provine has office hours and meetings with students like any other professor.  However, in his spare time Provine said he investigates OU’s paranormal past. 

“I’ve always loved the paranormal,” Provine said.  “ ‘Ghostbusters 2’ is a big influence on my life.”

On the tour, Provine, in his tweed jacket, guides the groups from Holmberg Hall to Walker Tower, stopping along the way at buildings like Ellison Hall and Cate Center.  Provine said he drew on external sources, like OU student David Burkhart’s film of the Cate basement ghost, to create his tour. 

“The tour is always changing,” Provine said.  “I’m always looking for more stuff, but it’s hard to decide what to include and what has to go for time’s sake.”

In 2010, The Daily Oklahoman ran a short feature on Provine’s ghost tour.  The article briefly described Provine’s interest in ghosts that led him to create a “Mysterious and Macabre Norman” tour. 

Though Provine runs the only ghost tour on campus, he said he is still a skeptic on the subject of ghosts. 

“I know that something is obviously going on that is supernatural,” Provine said.  “I’m just not quite sure what that is yet, but I’m going to find out.”

OU history and anthropology senior Sarah Nevling said she also uses her spare time to investigate otherworldly activities and is looking to start a paranormal club on campus.  Though she has not gone on Provine’s ghost tour, she said has heard of his tour and hopes to go on it soon. 

““I found a website of some investigators who explored the campus at night, and they got some compelling evidence that there’s definitely something here,” Nevling said.  “I would love to do an investigation of my own here on campus one day.”

Like Provine, Nevling said she does not know for certain whether ghosts are even real.

“When it comes to ghosts, I’m a complete skeptic,” Nevling said.  “Now if you were to say angels and demons, then yes, I absolutely believe in them.  I don’t know if the spirit of a person can actually stay here on Earth, but that’s what I’m interested in finding out.”

Other groups have shown an interest in OU’s paranormal aspects.  In 2011, group called Society of the Haunted investigated Ellison Hall, which used to be OU’s infirmary, according to the group’s website. 

The Society of the Haunted website includes audio that allegedly came from ghosts in Ellison Hall and blog posts from two of the investigators describing their paranormal experience there. 

With Halloween on the horizon, Provine said that interest in the paranormal is at a high point.  To accommodate for this demand, Provine will run two tours on October 31, both of which are already full.  The tours are free, but Provine said he will take up a voluntary donation, which he will give to the Children’s Advocacy Centers of Oklahoma.

(VIDEO 1:36)

International Bazaar brings culture to campus

The International Advisory Committee will soon allow local public school students to experience world culture without looking any further than the OU campus.  The South Oval will be filled with cultural displays as part of the IAC’s International Bazaar on Nov. 2 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

“This year we’re trying to reach out to more public schools, and we want to get students to come as a field trip,” Cassi Toney, IAC president, said.

Toney emphasized the importance of involving the local community in this year’s bazaar.

“I think it’s really cool for the kids to see the cultural diversity on campus so close to their homes because I don’t think a lot of the Norman population realizes how many international students we have on campus,” Toney said.

Toney said the bazaar will cater to the young students with activities like a scavenger hunt and a name sheet, where the children can have their names signed in several different languages.

Aside from the changes involving the local public schools, Toney said the bazaar will follow the same format as in the past.  Different student organizations will set up booths to showcase or sell items from their countries.  The sale will serve as a fundraiser for the groups to raise money for their events throughout the year.

“A lot of the things are handmade by the student organizations or brought from their countries specifically for this purpose,” Toney said.  “Some booths sell services like henna art for your hands or writing your name in different languages.”

Above all, Toney said she hopes the International Bazaar will be an opportunity for younger students to gain cultural experience.

“It makes the kids just more aware that there are different people in the world and not everyone looks like you and not everyone speaks the same language as you,” Toney said.  “It makes them more aware which also makes them less afraid.”

Bangladeshi student learns to adapt

From Bangladesh to Oklahoma, Kaji Hasib Rahman has practiced Islam on opposite sides of the world.  The mechanical engineering graduate student said that the transition has not been too hard, but there are cultural differences.

“It’s not that strange because I got stories from people I knew from my college in Bangladesh that came here,” Rahman said.

Rahman came to Oklahoma in August 2010, and said his word to live by has been “adapt.”

“As a Muslim student, normally it’s really good or very favorable for any kind of religious people on campus,” Rahman said. “People are very kind of curious to get to know people from other religious backgrounds.”

Though he said the majority of the community has been accepting, Rahman said he has had a few experiences that were at the very least, “awkward.”

“When I first came to Oklahoma, the second or third day I was stopped by some people and they were preaching, I guess about Jesus and God and stuff like that,” Rahman said.  “I told them, OK, I can hear your story, but you have to hear my story too.  Then they just left.”

Professor of Religious Studies Charles Kimball said that some Muslim students he encounters have had a similar experience. 

“I know some Muslim students in the past who were sort of relentlessly evangelized by what they considered to be well-meaning Christian friends in dorms and I think that got a little old,” Kimball said.

In his cluttered office filled with binders and loose sheets of paper with John Mayer crooning in the background, Rahman seemed hard at work like any typical grad student.

“One thing is that for grad students you are not interacting with that many Americans or other people because in a professional way you are working on your masters and it’s not like you can interact with people much,” Rahman said.  “You have that problem with making friends and stuff like that.”

During his time at OU, Rahman said he has met many others like him from Bangladesh, and considers himself comfortable.  However, he said he does encounter issues with honoring religious festivals or dietary guidelines. 

“One thing is that the American culture doesn’t go the way the Muslim culture goes,” Rahman said.  “You get breaks at Christmas, but we don’t get breaks for Ramadan so we don’t get to execute or I would say we don’t get to enjoy religious festivals at that level.”

Kimball said that the same is true for many other religions.

“Whether it’s a Muslim or a Hindu or people in the Jewish community as well, I think they face some of the same kinds of challenges in a culture that kind of presupposes a Christian backdrop,” Kimball said.

Rahman’s situation is different from Muslims who have grown up in Oklahoma.  Kimball said that the issue of race or ethnic identity is often more challenging that religion.

“In a place like Oklahoma, or any of the southern states, the possibility of growing up in a context as a minority or as a person of color can be more alienating that maybe even just being a Muslim,” Kimball said. 

Rahman said he counts himself fortunate to be in a progressive college town like Norman, as opposed to a town in more rural Oklahoma.

“Because it’s a college town, people get used to seeing other people that aren’t like them, but if you just go to any other random town in Oklahoma, you might find people who have never seen a Muslim before who wasn’t on Fox News,” Rahman said. 

Despite cultural differences, Rahman said he plans to remain in the United States and find a job as long as he can get a visa to work here.  

Student discovers herself at OU

For a student who didn’t know what being gay meant before high school, Brianna Versteeg has come a long way.  As a member of the LGBTQ Advisory Board, Versteeg helps other students overcome their own fears of being gay in Oklahoma. 

Since coming to the University of Oklahoma to study psychology and pre-physical therapy, she has embarked on an ongoing journey to find out who she is.

“Before I went to high school I didn’t know there was such a thing as gay,” Versteeg, said.  “I didn’t know it was different because I was home schooled, and I never knew there was such a thing as being different like that.”

After “coming out” during her junior year of high school, Versteeg said she has overcome many of her reservations of sharing her sexual orientation with new people.

Versteeg said that even her mother has had difficulty understanding the change.

“She accepts it because it’s me, but I know that she’s not all that comfortable with it,” Versteeg said.”

With her role on the LGBTQ Advisory Board, Versteeg is a leader for other students.  Letters junior Tyler Tennant has been involved with the LGBTQ community and said he tries to follow Versteeg’s example.

“Brianna is always completely open and fearless,” Tennant said.  “It’s impossible to feel embarrassed or shameful around her because there’s not an ounce of shame in her.  She’s totally OK with who she is.” 

However, Versteeg admitted that the continual process of coming out could be daunting.

“It’s coming out over and over again because it’s not just a one time process,” Versteeg said.  “It’s literally like every time I meet a person I have to wait for them to find out that I’m gay or something like that.”

The road has not always been clear, as Versteeg said she has had to discover the full spectrum of the LGBTQ community.

“My journey has kind of gone from being like ‘Am I bisexual?’ to like, ‘What am I?’” Versteeg said.  “I consider myself pansexual because it just means loving people no matter what their gender is.  I still don’t think I have it pinned down to one spot.”

Currently, Versteeg is dating a woman, and said that her feminine appearance often confuses people about her sexual orientation.  In her pencil skirt and emerald green blouse, Versteeg certainly did not seem to fit the stereotypical image of a lesbian.

“I think it’s hard for people to understand because they want to see one flat dimension,” Versteeg said.  “Either you’re gay or you’re straight.  That’s how it is to them.  They don’t get the in between stuff.” 

Still, Versteeg and Tennant both agreed that the general attitude towards LGBTQ students at OU could be much worse.

“I haven’t really heard any bad stories about people being harassed or anything,” Tennant said.  “The community here is really supportive, and the people who don’t like us just mostly keep their mouths shut which is fine with me.”

Versteeg said she has had a similar experience.

“Sometimes I get hateful looks kind of like people will look at me like, oh, you’re gay, but I don’t think I’ve ever had anyone outright say anything,” Versteeg said.

OU is among the Oklahoma schools that have created policies to support LGBT members of the university community, according to a 2012 Higher Education Fairness Report by the TEN Institute.

“While 73 percent of Oklahoma colleges and universities have no policies in place to support and protect LGBT faculty, staff, and students, there has been a 9% gain in the number of LGBT-inclusive institutions since 2010,” according to the report. 

In addition to the LGBTQ group resources, OU also hosts a student life group called GLBTF.  Versteeg explained the difference between the two groups.

“LGBTQ is kind of the more serious side of GLBTF because GLBTF is more like bringing people together for fun and doing social events whereas we’re more into what we can do for advocacy and awareness of issues,” Versteeg said. 

Both groups are gearing up for this Thursday, which is National Coming Out Day.  Versteeg said she hopes people will take this day as an opportunity to educate themselves about the LGBTQ community.

“I just think that if I had known more about what being gay was when I was younger, then maybe I would have everything figured out by now,” Versteeg said.  “I’m trying to prevent that from happening to someone else.”  

Versteeg participates in the annual LGBTQ Candlelight Vigil, which works to raise awareness and honor the hardships of the LGBTQ community. 

Morning at the Duck Pond