Quincy Elevators Turn 'Tempermental'

Last Thursday afternoon Zachary M. Subin ’03 found himself trapped in the New Quincy elevator for over 15 minutes.

According to several House residents, Subin’s experience isn’t an isolated incident.

House Superintendent Ronald W. Levesque said he hears of incidents with the elevator “once every two or three weeks.”And after Subin wrote about his experience on the House discussion list, several students responded, saying they had had similar experiences.

“The elevator seems like a real problem that is continual and nothing has happened about it,” Subin said.

Levesque said the elevator is 42 years old, and serves about 300 students.

“The elevators are temperamental and have a tendency not to work properly,” Levesque said. “But we try to address problems as soon as they come up.”

He said the elevators in the house are inspected regularly, although the certificate in the New Quincy elevator expired this past January. Levesque said it had been state-certified again last week before the incident, but that he had not yet replaced the documentation.

Subin said many Quincy residents wonder if the elevator should be replaced, or if students should be allowed to use the elevator reserved for the Masters, located next to the student elevator.

Levesque said there are no immediate plans to replace the elevator, but that his office is “looking into the situation and will take whatever action is necessary.”

Senior Tutor Maria Trumpler said the issue of elevator replacement or student use of the Masters’ elevator “has not been formally discussed.”

“We need a good assessment of the situation and more technical input at this point,” she said. “This is a more long-term question, and we need to explore our options.”

In the meantime, Subin said, some students don’t know that anything is wrong with the elevator.

“I remember walking past the elevator before and hearing the ringing [of the alarm] and thinking it was just something the elevator does,” Subin said.

On Thursday, Subin entered the elevator on the sixth floor and it started to descend, but then jerked to a halt.

He waited several minutes and when nothing happened, he pushed the alarm button, which made a loud ringing sound in the elevator shaft. But thinking that passersby might find the sound routine, he decided to begin to ring the bell in a SOS pattern to attract attention.

Subin said he then heard someone yelling that they would try to release him, and in another 10 minutes the elevator started to move abruptly and let him off on the first floor.

He did not see anyone from the maintenance staff when he exited the elevator, and despite his warnings four or five students walked onto the elevator directly after the incident.

Catarina Castruccio-Prince ’01 said she also had problems with the New Quincy elevator during the first week of classes this year.

“The elevator stopped halfway to the first floor, and I just sat and waited and flipped all of the buttons,” Prince said.

The elevator then went up to the sixth floor and stopped halfway so that the doors would not open, went on to the third floor and then the sixth again, Prince said.

After several minutes the doors finally opened, releasing her in the Quincy basement.

Prince went to the maintenance office and was told that someone would look into the incident.

But for now, Subin, for one, isn’t taking any chances.

“I’ve talked to other friends who have had problems with the elevator, opening halfway or depositing them on the wrong floor,” he said. “[I] take the stairs whenever I can.”