Contributor: Leah Lattanner
Informant: Eric Matthews
Title: “Dorm Legends”
Fall 2005
The last person I interviewed was a senior here at Indiana University, named Eric Mathews. He is also from Indianapolis, Indiana; his legend comes from his freshman year. He is majoring in management and entrepreneurship. The legend is of a man who used to get onto the floors of dormitories and somehow get into girls’ rooms. He would just watch girls sleep but not hurt them at all.
LL: Have you heard any legends that have to do with the dormitories, surrounding haunted houses or anything on campus?
EM: So the story was that my freshmen year there was some kid who broke into girls floors at night and just walked around until he found an open room and would walk in late and night and just watch girls sleeping… he didnt do anything to them…. when they woke up he would just run out… fucking creepy… but there were stories about him in the IDS and they just said girls need to start locking their doors… not sure how many times it happened but it was more than once.
Legends heard in college dormitories have a sense of purpose for being told. Students may tell legends to be included in new situations. Majority of the time legends are not old in the way they were first heard. But are made up with their own twist or variation to make their audience believe the legends. The legends are told to simply scare people of suspicious events happening in their room or close to their surroundings.