Of all the people who have passed through Western Kentucky University, some of the most notorious are said to have never left – their spirits reportedly remain on campus to haunt future students.

Sunday through Tuesday, the public can learn more about these ghostly Hilltoppers as part of the Haunted Hill Tour.

Hosted by WKU’s Lambda Pi Eta, the communications honor society, the walking has served as the group’s main fundraising effort for several years and allows people to explore the paranormal histories of six of WKU’s oldest, most well-known buildings.

The Haunted Hill tour will feature stops at McLean Hall, Schneider Hall, Rodes-Harlin Hall, the Kentucky Building, Van Meter Hall and Potter Hall.

Whether based on actual events or merely the products of active imaginations, the ghost stories have come to be embraced by the university, with Greek organizations and other groups regularly taking the tour – and a page on the school’s Web site dedicated to the haunted happenings.

The most famous of these appears to be the story of the ghost at Potter Hall, documented on the Web in several sites dedicated to the paranormal.

Now an administration building, Potter Hall was once a women’s dorm – and the place where a student is said to have hanged herself.

“I’ve worked there, and I firmly believe in eerie happenings,” said Hannah George, a WKU junior and public relations chair for Lambda Pi Eta.

George said the sounds of footsteps at night, as well as strange noises, such as coins being dropped into a vending machine where no one is standing, have been attributed to the ghost, which has come to be known as “Penny” (for the coins the spirit is said to drop throughout the building).

McLean Hall is named for Mattie McLean, longtime secretary to WKU President Henry Hardin Cherry. McLean’s presence is said to be felt in the co-ed dorm – George says it’s a friendly spirit watching over today’s students.

While those hauntings seem to be based on actual people, other spooky happenings seem to be embellishments of popular scary stories and folklore.

Take, for instance, the computer glitches, moving furniture and strange sounds reported by people in Schneider Hall. Are these really the product of a WKU student said to have been killed years ago in that building by a deranged ax murderer?

“These stories have been passed down from generation to generation; whether or not some of these ghosts exist is debatable,” George said. “I do know that it has to be terrifying to stay behind working by yourself in Potter …”

The walking tour costs $5 for adults, and $3 for WKU students with an ID and children 12 and under. The tours will be given every 15 minutes from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Tuesday, leaving from the Amphitheater and Colonnade. Costumes are welcome.