Editorial: Elevator Malfunction Left Me Trapped in Kolbe Hall for Almost 4 Hours
As a student with disabilities about to graduate in May, I didn’t expect this to be the start to my last semester.
On my first day at The University of Akron in 2017, a student told me they got stuck in the elevator once.
January 29, 2020
Going into the first two weeks of my last semester as an undergraduate student at The University of Akron, I thought the semester would start strong with no issues.
I was wrong.
Being a Communication major, most of my classes are held in Kolbe Hall. For those who don’t know, a new elevator was installed and the process took all of summer 2019 to complete.
As a student with physical disabilities preventing me from using the stairs, the elevator is one of the most important things allowing me to go to class: along with my health and vehicle.
So when the elevator malfunctions three times within the first two weeks of class and causes either missed classes or constant classroom changes, I feel there is an issue.
The first time the elevator malfunctioned was on Jan. 14, the first day of classes held on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Because of this, I had to video call into the class and unfortunately could barely hear the lecture.
My night class that day had to be moved from the second floor to the ground floor, into a room that almost couldn’t fit all the students.
Next, the elevator stopped working again on Jan. 16. Luckily my first class had been cancelled for the day. But again, my night class had to be moved from the designated classroom to one almost too small.
But the best instance of the elevator breaking down occurred on Jan. 23 after I had used it to reach the second floor of Kolbe Hall.
I arrived on the second floor of Kolbe that day around 2:30 p.m. for a meeting with a fellow student at 3 p.m. The elevator showed no signs of malfunctioning or issues.
Once the meeting ended at 3:30 p.m., I went to leave and saw the elevator doors wide open with the small screen flashing “OS” where the floor number should have been.
Because of this, I was trapped on the second floor of Kolbe Hall.
Almost four hours and much anxiety later, the elevator was operating and my night class moved to the ground floor in the middle of the lecture.
The point I am trying to get across with this is that UA needs to do better when it comes to maintaining the elevators on campus.
I understand that technology tends to malfunction, but for an elevator that was just installed the previous summer to break down three times in two weeks is ridiculous.
Michael • Feb 2, 2020 at 1:52 PM
Thanks for sharing! I too had a few bad experiences with elevators at UA. When I was a student a few years ago, I was on a tour of the then-brand-new InfoCision stadium. I had to leave the tour early to be in an orchestra concert. Attendance at the concert made up most of the grade in the orchestra class. The elevator got stuck on the way down and I couldn’t get the call button to work, which really increased my anxiety about the situation. I had to call UAPD holding my phone in the top corner of the elevator to get a decent signal. A few hours later, an elevator mechanic got me down and out. I missed most of the concert, but thankfully the director was understanding. Wouldn’t you know, the next semester, I got stuck in the elevator in my residence hall with a few friends. That was an easy one though (not alone, didn’t have an important place to be, and the call button worked). I hope in the future UA gets all the bugs worked out with new elevators before getting people stuck.