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arbiteronline.com
May 6, 2013
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Bronco Abroad: Popular ways to remember the journey
Patrick Sweeney/THE ARBITER
The elevators in the Education Building are some of the busiest on campus. This also means the are serviced more often than others.
Elevated concerns Who is responsible for campus elevator maintenance? Jessica Adamson Staff Writer
Last month, freshman Laray Stoffels and four friends were heading to dinner from their dorms on the fifth floor of Towers Hall. The five of them got in the elevator, as usual, and descended toward the first floor. What happened next was not usual. “We got like halfway between the fifth floor and the fourth floor and like it just stopped, it just completely stopped,” Stoffels said. Realizing that the elevator was stuck, Stoffels and her friends pressed the call button and were assured maintenance personnel were on the way to get them out. Stoffel and the others on the elevator remained calm and waited to be rescued. “One of the girls on the elevator had gotten stuck in Towers before and it took like ten minutes and they got her out, so we didn’t think it was that big of a deal,” Stoffels said. Maintenance arrived and after trying several different methods to fix the problem, they discovered there was no way to safely get the girls out due to their location between floors; Boise Fire Department had to be called. “We waited longer and the fire department came and they had to pry it open with all their tools and then they just pulled us all out,” Stoffels said. “We were in there for like an hour and a half, hour and forty minutes.”
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After the students were safely out of the elevator, the cause of the malfunction was revealed to be a broken second brake. Since then, the elevator has been fixed and seems to be operating normally. While incidents such as this one are out of the ordinary, they do still occur. Since July of 2012 the office of Facilities, Operations and Maintenance has recorded 119 service calls for elevators on campus, according to Suzanne Seigneur, communications and outreach coordinator for Campus Planning and Facilities. Boise State has 84 elevators currently in operation, all of which require regular inspections and maintenance to keep them in compliance with state and federal safety standards. According to Seigneur, that task is contracted to ThyssenKrupp Elevator (TKE). “Safety is our number one job and part of the reason we contract out is so that we’re hiring an expert, who is a certified technician, who comes in and takes a look at all the elevators,” Seigneur said. Those 84 elevators keep a TKE technician busy working nearly full-time for the university. Each elevator is placed on an inspection schedule based on how heavily it’s used. Elevators with high usage, such as those in the Education building, are inspected weekly. Elevators in buildings with medium usage—Liberal Arts, for example—are inspected monthly. Elevators that receive little use are inspected bi-
monthly, such as the ones in the Extended Studies Center. According to Seigneur, inspections involve a top to bottom inspection of the elevator car, including operator controls inside the elevator, emergency lights, the car door opening device, landing alignment, door sequencing, brakes, all fluid levels, and many other parts. “We do our maintenance according to state and federal standards. Every elevator is also pulled off-line and thoroughly inspected every five years,” Seigneur said. “There are some times when an elevator needs to be replaced, typically when parts no longer can be obtained readily.” The elevators in the Administration Building will soon be replaced, during the end of May and beginning of June, Seigneur also said. Boise State spends $64,500 per year on the standard maintenance contract for all elevators on campus, with funds from the Facilities annual operating budget. The departments where the elevators are located also contribute funds towards elevator maintenance. Any unexpected service calls, such as removing an individual from a stuck elevator or repairing a broken elevator, are not included in the budget. With all the inspections, maintenance and funding elevators receive, why does the office of Facilities, Operations and Maintenance still receive an average of ten service calls a month? According to Seigneur, most elevator malfunc-
tions are caused by users. “Facilities doesn’t experience many mechanical issues with the elevators,” Seigneur said. “Most of the incidences when they do have them are human-caused. It’s most often a case of the elevator doors out of alignment. Most of the time this happens when individuals see the door closing and are quick to push the door back or obstruct the door with a hand or foot.” Seigneur recommended that riders instead press the door open button to stop the door from closing. Pranks, such as placing a coin in the track of the elevator doors, can prevent doors from opening properly. Overloading the elevators with too many people could also potentially cause breakdowns. In 2000, Rice University administration threatened fines for students causing malfunctions by jumping up and down while the elevators were in motion, according to the Rice Thresher student newspaper. Similarly childish behavior could also cause elevators to stall at Boise State. For those few unlucky students who do get stuck in elevators on campus, the ordeal usually isn’t too traumatic. As Laray Stoffels pointed out, she hasn’t exclusively switched to stairs. “Nothing really happened. We didn’t go crashing down or anything, so it wasn’t that scary,” Stoffels said. “Every time I get in that elevator it kind of freaks me out but I’m not going to avoid elevators completely.”
If you are stuck in an elevator on campus: 1) Don’t panic
Modern elevators are engineered in such a way that it is almost impossible for the car to plummet to the bottom of the elevator shaft, so there’s no need to worry about that happening. Elevators are also not airtight so there is no possibility of running out of air. Take deep breaths if you begin to feel claustrophobic
2) Push the emergency call button
This will connect you to campus dispatch. They will contact maintenance to come and get you out.
3) Be patient
Depending on how severely the elevator is stuck, it may take some time to get you and the other passengers out.
4) DO NOT try and get out on your own
The elevator could unexpectedly move or you could fall down the shaft and be severely injured. The safest place for you to be is inside the elevator car.
Information courtesy of the Elevator Escalator Safety Foundation www.eesf.org.
Last year’s Breaking News Editor Suzanne Craig chronicles her adventures abroad while studying in Sweden. Studying abroad is a great experience in itself, but having something to remember it with is equally important. For one, it lets you remember and even keep in touch with all those friends you made. For another, it gives you something material to wave in your little sister’s face to make her jealous. Some of the most popular are various methods of journaling. There’s the physical option, useful for those artistic types who can keep sketches next to the appropriate passages. It also makes for a scrapbook type of memoranda, with ticket stubs and receipts. The tech option is a blog. This is an easy way to keep up with all those “keep in touch, send us postcards” requests too. Going broke due to postage is not a particularly storyworthy way to go. There are tons of options, but one of the easiest is Google’s Blogger, pretty intuitive and included in a standard Google account. Being able to include pictures is a big bonus on this method. Both of these are ways to capture the whole experience, with as much attention to daily life as you want. There are also a few more unique options for keeping track of travels. One is a map. The one I use is pretty basic, just country outlines and a few major cities. The lack of details makes it easy to read any notations made, indicating cities traveled to and a brief blurb on the whys. Another way, which requires someone back home cooperating, is postcards. Landscape shots are all well and good when you have a spectacular camera and enthusiasm for photography, but for cheapcamera owners, postcards are better. Save the photos for people you meet and truly unique shots. Most places which sell postcards also sell the appropriate postage. Just make sure to indicate you are mailing it to America, because sometimes that has different postage than another European country. Writing out trip details gives the opportunity to record the amusing tidbits often forgotten by the time you get to a computer or to your journal.
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