One group is bringing its ghost hunting skills to the University campus.

“We decided maybe we should try making a club out of it,” said Nick Haring, senior computer information science major and president of the Ghost Hunters club.

Haring said the Ghost Hunters started during the spring semester.

“We just got the ball rolling during the summer and finally became a club this semester,” he said.

Nate Billings, senior secondary education major and vice president, said though they had a constitution going last semester, Melanie Epperson, secretary of student activities, sent Billings a message about becoming an official group because the SciFi Channel TAPS “Ghost Hunters” are coming to Missouri Southern.

“She needed someone to promote the event,” he said, “and she also wondered why we weren’t an official club, so she kind of prompted us to bring it up and get a constitution out.”

Billings said it was not hard to become an official group.

“We had to get enough people interested,” he said.

Eric Ostendorf, sophomore undecided major, said before they could put together a constitution, they had to go do hunts and gather material.

“The other issue we had was finding an adviser who wouldn’t laugh,” he said. “The idea of ghost hunting is absurd to most people.”

Billings said they asked several people to be the adviser, but found Dr. John Knapp, professor of geophysics.

“He joined our group on Facebook and I’ve talked with him before,” he said. “He always seemed like a good guy, so we decided to ask him if he would even remotely consider helping us. He gave us his full support and is already coming up with ideas.”

Billings said the group is not actually hunting for ghosts.

“It’s more investigating whether the site is actually haunted,” Haring said.

Matt Porte, junior psychology major and treasurer, said they cannot use empirical data exactly, but they try to use as much data as they can to measure the environment, such as thermometers, cameras or tape recorders.

“We can get a general feel of what’s going on,” he said.

Haring said the group has about eight active members, and they had a good turnout for its first meeting.

“We added a whole bunch of new people that are real good,” he said. “They’re probably going to give us some good results in the future.”

Porte said those who have joined are interested.

“(They are) not there for the thrill seeking,” he said.

Haring said they had problems with thrill seekers early on when the group was first starting.

“That’s because we were getting people that (said) that could be interesting,” he said, “but they weren’t out there for the science of it. They were just out there to have fun, which we like to go have fun, too, but we’re in it for the scientific part of it. That’s why we spend more time analyzing data.”

The Ghost Hunters club has visited many places such as the Peace Church Cemetery, Tipton Ford, Baxter Springs Cemetery and the Prosperity Bed & Breakfast.

“(We also went to) the Webb City (Mental) Health and Rehab Center, which I especially liked,” Ostendorf said.

Haring said they have also gone to Carthage Battlefield and Galena Cemetery. Billings said they went this past weekend to the Old Cemetery in Newtonia.

“A Civil War skirmish took place there and the smoke is supposed to still rise over the road,” Billings said. “Soldiers walk the lanes of the road, too.”

The club has gone to the Spooklight, Haring said.

“We were out there for about an hour to an hour and half,” he said. “We weren’t finding anything. We were very disappointed.”

On the University campus, Haring said they went to Taylor Auditorium to investigate.

“One of the security guards let us in,” he said.

Haring said the explanation for Taylor Auditorium being haunted is a lady in black.

“I looked that up and it seems like every auditorium and theater has some lady in black that haunts it,” he said.

Billings said the group was told it was a tradition for the theater to be haunted.

“Some people have claimed to see a lady in black,” he said.

Billings said people have posted on the Internet about the lady in black.

“She went here four or five years before us,” he said, “but she claimed she was on stage one night and looked up after hours. There was a woman walking down the stairwell. She was just completely dressed in black. She turned the lights on over on the side of the stage and the woman disappeared.”

Haring said he believes there “maybe” are ghosts.

“I was a pretty big skeptic when we started this thing out but after the course of just going out there and experiencing all this, I think there’s actually something out there,” he said.

The Ghost Hunters club meets at 9 p.m. Thursdays at the University Java in Spiva Library.

“Toward Halloween we are going to start using the TV more for viewing our results and trying to promote not only us by the SciFi TAPS ‘Ghost Hunters,'” Billings said.

The TAPS “Ghost Hunters” are scheduled to come to Southern at 7 p.m. Oct. 26 in Taylor Auditorium.