Several Ball State buildings are getting new or renovated elevators this year, and students at the school's largest dorm wish their elevators were on the list, too.
The elevator work is included in construction projects at Studebaker East, Teachers College, and the Applied Technology building.
Jim Lowe, director of engineering, construction and operations, said that besides those renovations, new elevators were just installed at Kinghorn Hall. North Quad is next, he said.
But at LaFollette Complex on Sunday, senior elementary education major Emma Fisher said she wishes her dorm's elevators were on the list to be repaired – or at least cleaned.
"They are extremely unclean," she said, "They are not maintained very well."
Fisher pointed at an elevator near the entrance at Mysch/Hurst Hall.
"This one has not been working in the last five days, and I'm not sure they have repaired it yet," she said. "Another problem is the thing where you swipe your card doesn't read them sometimes, so you're sitting there swiping your card until it reads it."
But Fisher's worst experience in a LaFollette elevator was during her freshman year when she and a friend found themselves trapped inside one.
"We got stuck for like 10 minutes," she said. "It wasn't that bad - we didn't have to follow any instructions to make it work again - but it was a little scary."
Renovation of an elevator can include replacement of key parts such as cables, tracks, doors, and buttons.
Lowe said inspectors from Facilities Planning & Management check key safety aspects of the elevators monthly.
The school classifies some of the most common problems as "nuisance" issues – an elevator door that gets stuck because of dirt in the track.
In other cases, too many riders try to jam their way into an elevator at the same time.
"People have a tendency to overload the elevators or people get to moving around too much," Lowe said.
"When this happens we automatically stop the elevator to protect the people inside."
Ball State student Tasha Bates said she formerly lived in Johnson next to LaFollette and didn't like the elevators in her dorm.
"They were always having problems," she said. "I'm so glad I don't live there anymore."
Sharon Hernandez contributed to this report.
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