East Hall elevator troubles

Throughout fall semester, dorm residents and visitors of UAA’s East Hall have had to deal with a broken elevator and, for some living on upper floors, a climb up several flights of stairs. The elevator first broke down in late August, and has remained out of service since.

Upon entering the lobby, an unaware visitor might assume that the dorm hall doesn’t even have an elevator, as the entrance is hidden behind a nondescript, locked door. Upon closer inspection, a handwritten note can be seen taped to the door explaining that the elevator is out of order. According to the note, “The replacement part is being made and the elevator will be fixed as soon as possible.”

East Hall resident Elle Smith says that the university has supplied all inhabitants of her floor with a $50 credit to the UAA bookstore as an acknowledgment of the challenges associated with the broken elevator. While showing me the stairwell that students must rely on, Smith said that the money is not much, but nevertheless she is “glad for the opportunity to get her steps in.”

To discover the reason for the out-of-service elevator and what exactly was being done for the affected students, I contacted UAA Residence Life – where I learned that this story goes much deeper than expected.

David Weaver, UAA’s executive director for Campus Services, reached out to discuss the cause of the prolonged elevator outage. Weaver said that on Aug. 30 the hydraulic lift jack experienced an uncommon malfunction. This malfunction caused oil to leak out of the elevator shaft and into the ground.  In the 90s, when the hall was built,  there were no required standards to have a  protective membrane between the elevator pit and the ground.

This recent leak has sparked concerns that oil might find its way into nearby Chester Creek. The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation performed a study that determined that only 6 to 6 ½ gallons of oil leaked from the elevator shaft —49% to 53% of which has been recovered— and there was no threat posed to Chester Creek.

The issue was reported to Otis Elevator Company, who had earlier this year secured a contract with the university to upgrade the dorm hall elevators in a modernization plan that was supposed to begin in East Hall over the coming Christmas break. Otis determined that the elevator is not safe to use because of the hydraulic leak, and that the replacement part will take several months to be made. 

Weaver is hopeful that the part will be ready within the next 10 to 12 weeks and that the elevator will be operational with its new upgrades sometime next semester. The new upgrades include plans to bring the elevator pit up to modern building codes that will include a PVC liner to mitigate future environmental impacts if a similar situation were to occur.

In the meantime, Weaver has worked to ensure that students living in East Hall are aware of the situation by holding an informational forum, and that they maintain the quality of life expected when moving into the dorms. He made sure that there were no students with disabilities on the upper floors and all residents were given the option to move to West Hall, though nobody took this opportunity. In addition, a ground-floor residential suite has been converted into a bike storage room, and all students from the second to fourth floors were provided with the aforementioned UAA bookstore vouchers totaling $9,000 in value.

Additional accommodations are being made for students who have expressed unhappiness with the recompense. These accommodations are in the process of being determined, but will likely include additional payouts.

For the time being, East Hall residents will find themselves braving the walk up the stairs. However, they can rest assured that work is being done to change this reality.