A Spirited Campus Indeed: Hauntings Reported in Rutgers-Camden Chancellor Office

Can apparitions do light filing?  If so, the Rutgers–Camden Chancellor’s Office staff might have less paperwork on their hands, thanks to a benign presence reported on the third floor of its 303 Cooper Street location.

Built in 1867 as the residence of Isaiah Woolston, the Rutgers–Camden Chancellor’s Office was once a Victorian home and is currently a beautifully refurbished workspace for 11 living employees and perhaps a final resting place for one lost soul.

While most Chancellor Office staffers acknowledge the old building’s air of times past, Monica Buonincontri, editorial specialist, says she actually witnessed a ghostly presence last spring.

On her way from the third floor to microwave her morning oatmeal, Buonincontri passed the office of Cathy Donovan, who was at her desk, sporting a high bun and white shirt with billowing sleeves. Seconds later, Buonincontri arrived in the kitchenette on the first floor and was surprised to hear Donovan's voice in the adjacent office. She had just seen her three floors up! To further perplex Buonincontri, Donovan was complaining about traffic and why she had just arrived to work.

“That can’t be Cathy,” Buonincontri recalls. Confused, Buonincontri trudged back upstairs to peek in again to Donovan’s office, expecting to see the chair turned toward the computer and attribute seeing a person to her imagination. “But the chair was now turned out, facing me. Empty,” she gasps. “And Cathy was definitely not wearing white or her hair up!” In fact, Donovan had yet to sit down at her desk.

Other reports of the Rutgers–Camden ghost, the Communications Office has named “Abigail,” include a repeated turning of a gargoyle on the desk of Beatris Santos, a Rutgers–Camden web designer.

A cluster of knickknacks and photographs line Santos’ desk on the third floor, but only one object consistently turns on a hard right angle every couple of weeks, without the help of Santos.

“Gargoyles are supposed to ward off evil spirits,” says Santos. “I think Abigail is just letting us know she’s playful.”

Rutgers–Camden electrician Jim Wager also can attest to the haunting at 303 Cooper.  Some 40 years ago his father worked in the building when it housed the United Way and remembers the footsteps and whisperings his father noted long after the other employees had left.

“I could always sense something when I went there as a child, and still do,” says Wager.

Even canines have refused to take the steps off the first floor. Kristin Walker, director of special events at Rutgers–Camden, brought her dog, Thomas Jefferson, to work with her one Saturday. But no work was to be done. Jefferson refused to fully enter the building.

But the backyard was no safe haven.  That’s where long ago family dogs, Jack and Mick, from the early 20^th century, are buried under elaborate gravestones.

Media Contact: Cathy K. Donovan
(856) 225-6627
E-mail: catkarm@camden.rutgers.edu