Third in a series of four stories from Mt. Holyoke.

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My very lazy sister, Women of Rugby Players, related to me the following stories about the Mandels Dorm. For those of you who do not know the Mandels, it is a dorm on the campus located on the top of Mandel Hill. It's nestle amoung the treetops and looks quite forbiding.

The story has two variations. During a october the seniors of years gone by were hazing the freshman. Part of the the hazing process was to take the freshman up to the attic of the dorm and initiate them in any particularly degrading way the seniors could think of. One particular freshman was rather homesick and was having a hard time adjusting to the school. She did not really get into the hazing experience which angered the Hazers. They locked her in the attic and apparently forgot about her until milk and cooking time. When they went up to get her. One version of the story goes that they found her hung. The hazing had driven her to madness and suicide, not at all the intention of the Hazers. The attic was locked and is not accessable to the students.

The second version of the story tells that the Hazers left the freshman in the attic. As it got dark, it got scarry and she became upset and distraught. She yelled and screamed for quite a while but no one heard her because everyone was downstairs eating dinner. As she was trying to find her her way out, she fell down the stair in the dark to her demise.


These stories are given as explanations of why the doornob to the attic occasionally rattles as if someone is desperately trying to open it from the other side. The door is often found open, even though no one has the key. It also accounts for a tumbling sound that can be heard from the rooms that are closest to the attic stairs.

* a word about hazing.....it is no longer allowed at MHC. This story is supposed to have happened a long long time ago.