Many generations of students here at the University of California, Riverside (UCR) have reported incidents supporting a macabre rumor: the Rivera Library is haunted.
For those who don’t know, there have been many tales of students studying late at night who have seen and heard strange occurrences. Some people have reported hearing footsteps and voices in the staircase when no one was present. Others have seen a refrigerator door open and close on its own. A janitor once claimed to have seen a door handle shake with no one on the other side. All of these events might have been coincidental, but after two deaths in the Rivera Library, it only seems fitting to credit the ghosts. The most famous Rivera Library ghost is named Carmen.
Many years ago, Carmen was a night guard of our library and liked to drown her sorrows in alcohol, riding up and down the elevators to avoid being caught by her superiors. One night, after drunkenly leaving UCR, she got into a car accident, tragically losing her life. Students now believe that she is the ghost that haunts our library at night as it was one of the places she felt safest in.
So if you are studying in the Rivera Library late at night during finals week and you hear an eerie whisper, it might be Carmen looking for someone to talk to.
