Student Government once again turned the unused Lohman Complex into a scream-filled haunted hallway last Thursday, leaving students crawling in fear from masked monsters.
The event was preceded by a trick-or-treat meet-and-greet with campus resources in Yochum hall. Once the sun fell, Capital Grounds in Saylor-Ackerman residence hall turned into an entrance for something much spookier.
Students were taken, after enjoying free food and treats, to the daunting and dimly lit doors of the Lohman Residence Hall. After being greeted by Tom Snee, the university’s director of Residential & Commuter Life, students were brought to a cobweb-infested doorway and told to wait.
After making their way through the long line, students stood outside the entrance door in anticipation as screams and door-slams echoed throughout the building. Upon entering, they were greeted with a loud slam, glaring skeletons, cobwebs and the aptly named ‘scarers.’
Student Government acquired volunteers to put on Halloween-themed masks and hide in the dark corners of the hallway, jumping out to scare students as they passed through.
After walking through the eerie hall, students were taken out the back entrance to catch their breaths. Some students left laughing, while others were still shaking, but everyone seemed to agree that the haunted hallway was a chilling success.
“It was a lot better than I expected,” said first-year Willow Crosson-Bush, still catching their breath after exiting the haunted hall. “I’ve never been in Lohman, so it was kind of scary ‘cause all of the lights were off and stuff.”
Rachel Baird, the event planning coordinator for this year’s haunted house, said that despite last year’s event having more activities, such as raffle baskets, the event garnered more participation this time around.
“[L]ast year we pulled in 109 people … but this year we pulled in 150 people,” said Baird.
This is the second haunted house event Student Government has hosted, once again being in the Lohman Complex. “We picked Loman specifically because it was vacant, and no students were in there, so we could set up as long [for] as we wanted to,” said Baird.
“The only time that we’ve ever had the event was last year. That was the start of the haunted house, and then we just decided to make it an annual thing,” said Baird.
Volunteers and members of Student Government spent hours transforming the unused Lohman Complex. According to organizers, the event aimed not just to entertain but also to bring students together in a lighthearted, seasonal way.
The event had multiple people that volunteered to help out. “As far as the volunteers, we had different volunteer things to sign up for … like scarers, we had navigators, we had line managers, we had exit monitors, food, people who do Corq,” said Baird.
With the event growing larger than last year, the Student Government maintains plans to keep the event going annually. Participating students left Lohman satisfied and shared their memories of fear and laughter while walking back to their respective dorms on that All Hallows’ Eve night.
