New Bwogger Nicki Camberg brings us this terrifying tale of residence hall horror.

As a first-year, I had always dreamed of what my dorm and roommates would be like. Were we going to be best friends? Would I have horror stories to tell? What cute, Pinterest-inspired decor would adorn our walls? Little did I know, my double would be a triple: me, my roommate, and the not so holy ghost.

Let me explain.

During NSOP, fellow new Bwogger Eliza Staples was told by her OL the myth of the Brooks 5 ghost. Now, I’m not one to publish a story as fact without more than one source, but this tip was corroborated by several other bold beautiful former Brooks boarders, and I knew I had to investigate.

I picked the brains of my floormates and we have noticed the following paranormal phenomena occurring, much to our horror:

• Hallway lights flickering
• Noises in the walls
• Ear piercing drawer and door creaking sounds
• Our curtain rod just fell off at 2 am with no warning???
• A shower that is constantly leaking
• Signs posted by our wonderful RA constantly falling down
• In the middle of the rain, in the darkness of night, IT IS ALWAYS HOT. We believe this to be the burning hot anger of the ghost.
• Water pressure comparable to that of a tsunami

Now, we here at Bwog (aka Eliza and I and no one else) have a concrete, airtight theory. On the walls of many a fifth-floor quad bathroom above the toilets, the name “Margo” has been written in all caps in large letters. This is some classic ghost shit à la Moaning Myrtle, but wait! There’s more! Brooks was basically the first building built on the Barnard Campus, dating back to 1907. Ghosts tend to come from the past because they are dead, and as such, it would make sense that the ghost would be drawn to an old building.

Let’s recenter on the name Margo. Via some hard-hitting investigative journalism that involved Googling “name popularity tracker”, we were able to find some fascinating data, as shown in the chart below:

The name Margo reached the height of its popularity in the ’40s, so it is reasonable to assume our Margo was a Barnard student in 1968, when the historic Barnumbia protests against the Vietnam War, proposed Columbia construction, and racism occurred. Oft forgotten was the co-occurring discontent and activism on Barnard’s campus about the school’s ban on off-campus housing, which limited the freedom of students to have jobs and live with partners. Although these protests have been perpetuated as ground-breaking and non-violent by the administration, this is a coverup!! I am convinced that Margo died fighting for housing rights, but unfortunately passed before the policy was changed. Therefore, she haunts the freshman dorms, encouraging us to live literally anywhere else but Barnard, which is exactly what she wanted in the first place. We love you Margo, ghost of Brooks 5!