Myths: with one rumor spoken through a line of hushed whispers, the unbelievable becomes the believable, however implausible.

Every campus has its own myths. Some even share one or two that have been passed by transferring or visiting students looking to spread their unreliable knowledge about secret ways to get A’s, free tuition and skip class without getting in trouble.

Is there any truth behind the rumors spreading across the UW-Eau Claire campus? The truth may surprise you.

Myth No. 1: If you get hit by a Cushman, you get free tuition from the university.

The truth: Every student knows the Cushman, the stout little transport vehicle scuttling around campus that resembles more of a beefed-up toy car than any sort of actual truck or van.

According to Bob Shaw, associate dean of students, not much happens. Shaw is no stranger to the Cushman rumor.

“That’s one of the many that floats around,” he said. “But it’s not true.”

Junior Jessica Weiler has definitely heard this rumor. In fact, she even made a bet with her friend about getting hit with a Cushman to get a free year of tuition.

“We were going to buy (a Cushman) in Antigo,” Weiler joked, “and planned to run each other over to get free tuition.”

Weiler admitted that their plan to run students over so the university would have to dish out free tuition might not work – after all, it is just a myth.

Any upperclassman who hasn’t had a close encounter with a Cushman hasn’t walked around the campus enough. So what if one day you happen to step in front of the path of one of these mini-trucks, seriously injuring yourself in the collision?

Shaw never has heard of any collisions involving students and Cushmans, but affirms there is no university policy regarding free tuition for any student accidentally hit by one of the white transport vehicles.

Susan Brumberg-Schaefer, program assistant for the University Police, cannot remember the last time she received a complaint regarding a Cushman hitting a student. Nor could she remember the last time any Cushman-related incident had been written up in a report.

Despite there being no official policy on the books, Shaw admitted with a laugh that a student hit by a Cushman could probably hire an attorney and do much better than just a year’s worth of free tuition.

Myth No. 2: If your roommate dies, you get all A’s for the semester.

The truth: In the movie “Dead Man on Campus,” two students discover an age-old loophole in their university’s charter stating any student whose roommate dies receives all A’s for the rest of the semester. The two spend the remainder of the movie picking out possible “candidates” who look especially suicidal.

In the real world, no such thing exists. At least not at Eau Claire, Shaw said.

“It’s a common rumor on campus, and it’s been around for twenty or thirty years,” Shaw said. Shaw suspects the myth originally started when a university went out of its way to help a student who had recently faced a tragedy, he said.

In the case of a student who has undergone a particularly traumatic tragedy, Shaw said most professors are more than willing to help by extending deadlines.

In extreme cases, Shaw said a professor could make a special case by grading a student based on the work he or she has completed up to the point of the tragedy. Seeing that the student sufficiently has completed the course, Shaw said the professor could discount the remaining work for the grieving student.

Getting all A’s for the semester, Shaw said, is not true. He added that this particular rumor did have a strain of truth but has since been blown out of proportion.

Myth No. 3: If your professor is more than five minutes late to class, students can leave without being punished accordingly.

The truth: Believe it or not, this is one of those myths with more than a shred of truth slipped in.

“There used to be a standard policy where if the teacher was more than ten minutes late, the students were allowed to leave,” Shaw said. “This used to be a pretty standard practice, although it wasn’t written anywhere.”

Shaw said he could remember when the rule stood somewhere around 15 minutes before dropping down to 10, and now five, although “five seems too early.”

Myth No. 4: The ghost of Earl Kjer haunts Kjer Theater, causing bizarre, unexplainable occurrences, including broken lights and strange noises late at night.

The truth: Senior Jim Pitroski has worked in Kjer Theater and has heard about the ghost myth. Pitroski said he never has experienced any close encounters with the ghost, nor has he heard of anyone else who has. He added that he and others have joked about it in the past whenever something went wrong.

“I’ve heard that all theaters are haunted, Pitroski said. “They all have their legends of previous people there that haunt it.”

Though he has not heard much regarding the ghost, Shaw said he understands how something unexplained could be attributed to the unexplainable, like a ghost.

“Those kinds of myths grow up.”