New York- New School dorm residents have been affected by an ongoing broken elevator in the 20th street dorm, the elevator in question has a history of glitches, the problem with the elevator has caused several students to become trapped inside on different occasions, ultimately fostering a sense of community among afflicted students and staff.
Many are protective of the community being fostered at 20th street, so much so that when asked to comment on the elevator problem, RA Ashley, declined to comment because the problem, to her is minute and inconsequential among the many positive activities being encouraged among the students. However, it seems that the elevator, with its quirks and troubles may have brought the community closer together.
Talking with Hayley Theisen, an office assistant at the residence hall, as well as one of the students stuck in the elevator, it becomes clear that bitterness about being jammed for an hour in a metal box is about the farthest emotion she feels. Theisen explains that several staff and students stood on the other side of the elevator to keep her company for nearly an hour while the problem was being fixed. She says, “It was sweet in an unfortunate kind of way”.
When asked if she was traumatized by the event, she is honest in saying that, “I did not take the elevator for about 4 weeks, but I don’t have nightmares!” Theisen’s only musing about better procedure materializes when asked if she was debriefed after the event, “I was told nothing,” she says, “I know the maintenance crew and I knew they wouldn’t let me die, but it may have been different if I didn’t work here.” The building does a wonderful job keeping the students informed and aware of fire precautions and risks, but the elevator seems to be an issue much more shrouded in mystery.
The maintenance crew, though generally forthcoming, is not allowed to speak about the technical issues in the elevator. Upon calling the company ThyssenKrupp, I talked with a supervisor to the Manhattan branch, Dan, who withheld his last name, gave me the call sheet information. “ I can’t tell you a lot, but from what I have here, it looks like all the incidents are happening at night, which means something”.
Dan suggested, that this problem could either be triggered by a change in power in the building or, a more likely theory that the doors are being held open too often. Dan’s final prognosis of the elevator debacle came down to mechanics, “It’s a machine, sometimes one piece is disrupted and it takes a while to figure out what is wrong”.
Michael Corbett, the 20th street Residence Hall Director commented, “thankfully the complaints have been minimal”. He is secure in his opinion that the staff and security of 20th street is made up of wonderful people, and whenever there is a problem, everybody reacts promptly and correctly. “The elevator is not without problems, but when there is an issue everyone is aware and alert”. When questioned about the fact that there is a Facebook group from 2006, titled F**k The 20th Street Elevator, he acknowledges its presence on the web, and says, “at least there are only 7 members, and no one has joined since 2007!” Sarah Westervelt, a member of the 2006 group says, “I can't believe the elevator at 20th street is still acting up. Yes, it used to have problems all the time, and people did get trapped in there… I don’t think anyone tampered with it on purpose, I think its just a bad elevator.”
Perhaps the best read of the situation can be realized through the support from residents. The students of 20th street are overwhelmingly supportive as of late and understand the issues with the elevator to be only a minor obstacle in their day-to-day lives. Freshman Aaron Sprat says that he, “Hardly ever takes the elevator, but-I would like it to be more of an enjoyable experience when I do.” And Amanda Clark, a sophomore at Lang says, “I would think that maybe the checkups on the elevator should be more routine, considering they've stalled several times already this semester. But, I feel like an elevator breaking down isn’t terribly uncommon. It's inconvenient, certainly, but they're always fixed pretty promptly.”
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