Elevator interruptions are becoming more common around the Baruch College campus and students are reporting that the school administration is not doing enough.

“The traffic and available elevator space is ludicrous on campus,” Sean St. James, a political science major, said. “The ratio of students to elevator space is substantial and action is needed immediately. There are times where I find myself having to climb ten or more flights of stairs to get to class on time due to the incompetence of the elevator system.”

Daniel Wang, a first-year student planning on majoring in Accounting, stated the administration should plan to fix elevators in a timely manner.

“I tend to take the local elevators a lot more and those elevators sometimes take forever upwards of 10 minutes of waiting just for a single elevator,” Wang said.

In the weekly newsletters that The Office of Student Life sends out, they write about reminders, events, programs and services that benefit students. They also include updates about the renovation projects that Baruch is undergoing.

However, their recent emails have skipped over the persistent elevator problems on campus. The most recent update they gave students was on Friday, Jan. 27.

In late January, elevators in the Newman Vertical Campus were offline and one of six was not in service in the 17 Field Building. They also alerted students of their elevator modernization project where phase one is expected to conclude sometime in spring 2023.

Their statement outlined that the project’s first phase aimed to address the increase in traffic flow, including new code-compliant elevator controls and additional openings and stops.

In phase two of the construction process, campus facilities and operations will plan to send individual updates informing occupants of elevator closures.

Additionally, the most recent campus operations notice email was sent out on Jan. 6 alerting that elevators would be offline since fewer people were on campus during the winter session.

Shayna Hanig, a journalism and communication double major, appreciated this decision. “When class is not in session serious upgrades need to be made to the elevators,” she said.

In an email to students Tom Gaimaro, the director of Campus Planning, Design and Construction promised to provide updates.

“Large-scale construction can have unforeseen complications; we will communicate as promptly as possible to keep you informed as situations evolve,” he said.

While students said they appreciate the campus-wide notices, some students said they think that current updates are not enough.

Simran Kaur, a finance second-year student, said that in the Lawrence and Eris Field Building , it seems like two or three elevators are working out of the six.

“The administration should send an email out on any sort of updates with the elevators and make the main range of the elevators a must,” she stated.

In a form distributed by the Ticker, students agreed. Students thought that continuous emails with the most-updated information should not just be sent out periodically to match with big-scale projects. With the most updated information sent to their phones, they said they could better prepare and come to campus with enough time, especially during peak times.

Students reported that elevator disruptions and breakdowns have caused them to be late to class and have been extending their overall commute time.

While students have experienced elevator disruptions across campus many thought that they were the worst in the Lexington building.

Matthew Ojeda, a junior, suggested that the school hire individuals to work on the elevators.

“The administration should bring in outside elevator professional operators to completely fix the elevator with new parts or replace the entire set of elevators in each building,” he said.