Elevator Debacle Brings Community Together

New York- Ultimately fostering a sense of community among those students affected, an elevator in the 20th street dorms with a history of problems recently caused several students to be trapped inside.
Many are protective of the community being fostered at 20th street, so much so that when asked to comment on the elevator problem, Ashley, a resident adviser in the building declined to comment because the problem to her is minute and inconsequential among the many positive activities being encouraged among the students. However, according to the students, it seems that the elevator, with its quirks and troubles may have united the community over minor inconveniences.
Talking with Hayley Theisen, an office assistant at the residence hall, as well as one of the students stuck in the elevator, it became clear that bitterness about being jammed for an hour in a metal box is about the farthest emotion she feels. Theisen explained 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 said, “It was sweet in an unfortunate kind of way."
When asked if she was traumatized by the event, Theisen was 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 materialized when asked if she was debriefed after the event, “I was told nothing,” she said, “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.” Theisen noted that, the building does a good job of 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, The elevator troubles began to become a bit clearer while talking with a supervisor of the Manhattan branch, Dan, who withheld his last name, he read through the call sheet information saying, "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, causing the sensor mechanism to weaken. 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, “The complaints have been minimal, thankfully”. He is secure in his opinion that the staff and security of 20th street is made up of responsible people, and whenever there is a problem, everybody reacts promptly and correctly. Corbett says, “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 seven members, and no one has joined since 2007!”
Sarah Westervelt, a member of the 2006 group says, “I think its just a bad elevator. I don’t think anyone tampered with it on purpose. People did get trapped in there. It used to have problems all the time, I can't believe the elevator at 20th street is still acting up.”
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, and I know the people who do, it doesn't hurt to get in some exercise.” And Amanda Clark, a sophomore at Lang says, “It's inconvenient, certainly, but they're always fixed pretty promptly. I feel like an elevator breaking down isn’t terribly uncommon. I would think that maybe the checkups on the elevator should be more routine, considering they've stalled several times already this semester."