The University News

Issue date: 10/26/09 Section: Culture

Media Credit: Melissa Oribhabor Ronny McDougal is both a ghost and a student at UMKC who is searching for love.

Being a college student can be tough.

Trying to pay for school and balance love, studies and a social life can seem overwhelming at times.

But for sophomore ghost Ronny McDougal, things work a little differently.

McDougal is a Philosophy major who does not like to talk about his death.

The truth is, he was a hemophiliac who accidently cut himself in the Oak Street parking structure while working on an art project in his car.

McDougal was attending UMKC when he died in 1985. After spending the last 24 years in the afterlife, he decided to come back to finish his degree and pursue other unfinished business.

"I came back to find true love," McDougal said. "I'll take a dead or live girl. I came back to UMKC because there are more chicks in school."

But things are not really going as he planned - it turns out dating is even harder when you're dead.

"Live girls don't really pay any attention to me, it's like I'm invisible to them," he said.

And to make matters worse, the dead unfortunately spend all eternity in whatever outfit they died in. Much to McDougal's dismay, he was wearing a Hawaiian shirt.

"Mostly, I look like one of my Philosophy professors, George Gale," McDougal said.

He now wears something over it, but he believes it plays a significant role in his difficulties to pick up girls on campus.

But as difficult as he may have it being a ghost, there are perks.

While alive, McDougal had to use student loans to pay for school, but now McDougal says it doesn't really come up.

He takes classes for free, without grants or student loans.

The downside, however, is he can't leave campus.

"I try and I just get kicked back in," McDougal said. "I can only experience things that happen on campus."

Studying Philosophy has made McDougalbecome cynical about the afterlife and the prospects of ever going back.

The study of Philosophy, he says, makes him believe there is no afterlife, which confuses him since he has been living in the afterlife nearly a quarter of a century.

The era in which he died has had an affect on his perception of modern-day.It seems ghosts only perceive the world in the way they remember it.

"Say what you will, but the Royals are world champions, and will forever be a strong and successful baseball franchise," he said. "Molly Ringwald is the cutest girl in Hollywood and Tab is delicious."

Even though he may seem delusional, he knows his dream of finding a pretty college co-ed to call his own may be slightly ambitious. So, he would be satisfied with accomplishing his other goal.

"It was 1985 when I died and I never got a chance to see 'Back to the Future II,'" he said. "The end of the first one said 'to be continued …' and I really want to know what happened next."

So unless the movie is ever shown on campus, McDougal will most likely be a UMKC ghost student for a long time to come.

moribhabor@unews.com

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools