Ghosts in the Halls?

I entered the new Great Bay Community College building at Pease, on the first day of classes. As I rode the painstakingly slow elevator up to the fourth floor, the new location of all the Business Department classes, my memory took me back to a story – a rumor that I had heard one or two times before. The top floors of the new building are said to be the home of paranormal activity, a place where people have had ghost encounters and have said that the halls are haunted.

This idea of the fourth floor haunting was then mentioned by a student in my Cost Accounting class on that same first day. The class, along with Mr. Murphy, discussed the Ghost story and looked online to see if we could find any documentation of this haunting. Two websites, included the GBCC Pease building on their list of “NH’s Most Haunted Places.” We all joked that we will be listening for the spirits while in our business classes throughout the semester.

NH's Most Haunted Places Websites:
http://theshadowlands.net/places/newhampshire.htm
http://mightbehaunted.com/NEW%20HAMPSHIRE.html

The mention of the haunted halls made me remember a few other creepy - ghost related stories I had once heard about this location. A former GBCC student told me that when he first attended the Pease campus, only the first floor was used for classes and the top three floors were boarded off and abandoned. The dark stairwell leading up was one that no one ever dared to enter along with the abandoned elevator, leaving the upper floors a mystery to students. Another story was told by a friend of mine who worked doing construction on the new GBCC building during the renovation process. He told me that when he entered the top floors they seemed eerie and haunted, still filled with ancient surgical equipment from when the building was the location of the former Air Force Hospital. On numerous occasions the lights would flicker on and off while they were doing construction. He wondered if this was caused by the electricians working downstairs or if it was the ghosts of Great Bay?

With ghost stories flying through my head I decided to do some research to find out some History to go along with these documented Ghost encounter stories.

Yes indeed the current building was the Hospital on the Pease Air Force Base that was established in the 1930’s and was used by the US Navy during WWII. The base was active till it was the first of eighty-six military institutions, closed by the Commission of Base Realignment and Closure, a decision made in 1988. On March 31st, 1991 Pease Air Force Base was officially closed for military operations and re-opened for civilian use. Today the Pease Tradeport is a hub for transportation as well as an industrial park which is the home to over 220 businesses – Including Great Bay Community College, where ghosts roam the halls.

Pease Tradeport Website: http://www.peasedev.org/about_us/documents/PDAPressKit.pdf

Convocation and Student Activity Fair

During the first week of school I was asked to speak at the convocation. Convocation? Yup, that's a word. I had no idea what it was or what it meant. I did a little research, in my spare time, ha, and found out that a convocation is like a celebration of the new school year, kind of like the ceremony of graduation at the end of the year. The only way to understand it fully, was to accept the honor and attend the ceremony. I was asked to memorize a line that described our purpose as a community. Memorization is not a strong point for me, so my weekend consisted of homework, kids, and learning my line.

Convocation Altar

On Monday, September 14th at noon, the President of the college, the college administration, most of the advisers, professors, staff and students crowded into the big white tent in the lawn of the school. Some students sat on the lawn soaking in some rare autumn rays. The ceremony was really nice. There were speeches, mainly about community and why we are all here and the goals of the school. Personally I loved the speech that involved fortune cookies. I got up and lit my candle and spoke my line, as did the other 5 students, and heard the blessing of the school year. Now its official - game on.

GBCC common purposes

After the convocation, Mike Fischer, President Arvelo, Dan Murphy, and other teachers cooked for everyone,cheeseburgers, hot dogs, chips, beverages and cookies. The line was long but the vibe was good. Inside, students were setting up their tables for the activity fair. Some of the clubs and organizations are invite only, others are geared to specific interests, but all are run by students. The Student Senate and the Campus Activity Board (CAB) were conducting surveys, the International Club were hanging and eating their lunch, the Digital Art and Media Club (the Dam Club, as they like to be called) were handing out flyers about signs and laminating specials for any organization that might need graphic artwork done. The Great Bay Nursing Association was there selling merchandise and the Kappa Beta Delta Business Honor Society had an informative table set up showcasing the requirements for admission. The Literary Journal was and still is looking for writers and participants and the International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering had a poster board up describing what students can do to get involved. There are other organizations and clubs that weren't showcased on Monday that can be found on the schools web page under student life. All of these clubs and groups have bulletin boards around the school and have their advisers e-mail address's listed on the school web-site. You can join these clubs anytime and can participate as much as you want.

I never joined a club because I thought, "Like I'm gonna have time for that too?" Well, I do. I go to one meeting a month, and maybe perform some kind of community service (that I never would do by myself), I make some new friends (that will come in handy for networking in my future), I can go on really cheap trips, and my resume has one more activity...who could say no to that?

GBCC Golf Team

Loudon's Downhill 15th Fairway.

As the fall semester commences the Great Bay Golf Team is in full swing. We don’t have as many players as the other teams, but we still aspire to beat them. There are four tournaments throughout September and October that we will be competing in, the last one being the fall championship. The school is a member of the Yankee Small College Conference (YSCC) where we compete against other similarly sized schools at a different course every week.

The first match was Saturday September 12th in Loudon, NH at Loudon Country Club. We played hard, battling the hilly terrain and scattered rain showers. For our first match we did well placing somewhere in the middle of the pack. The next tournament is this weekend Sunday September 20th at Pease Golf Course in Portsmouth, NH. We hope to finish strong since Pease is our home course and we have been practicing extensively for the weekend.

14th green at Loudon Country Club.

Same Ol' Song, New Dance

Here we go again. As we start out our journey through yet another semester here at Great Bay we're all feeling anxious, nervous, and excited about our classes. I'm pretty sure that it's a safe assumption to say that most of us are in the same boat, finding it overwhelming navigating through the blackboard and the new building looking for information about school activities, finding out what the BEST classes are and why, and what's happening in the local business world that pertains to each of us. With that being said, the Organizational Communications class (BUS210) has created this blog as an additional, more personal method for getting that information out to the masses. Also, we would like people outside the Great Bay community to be involved to learn about the school itself from a students perspective as well as other opportunities in the area. Please feel free to post questions, ideas, or anything else you feel is relative to the blogs purpose.