Elevator’s Ups and Downs Leave College in a Bind

For years, Moorpark College students joked that anyone who entered the temperamental elevator in the school’s Humanities and Social Sciences Building did so at their own risk.

After all, students in wheelchairs were trapped inside it, screaming to be let out. Others found themselves riding up and down for 15 minutes, pushing buttons to no avail. Still others say the elevator’s errant doors closed on their backpacks, even their limbs.

After fracturing a wrist while trying to prevent the elevator doors from closing on her husband’s wheelchair, one woman last year sued the Ventura County Community College District for damages.

The district settled the suit out of court in October for an undisclosed amount. And while it was the only case of a reported injury, the district’s insurance company sent urgent appeals of “extreme concern.”

In response, the district in October finally ordered the unpredictable elevator shut down. Officials have been scrambling since to juggle classroom assignments to accommodate students with physical handicaps.

Following the closure, the district has debated whether to spend about $50,000 to remodel the existing elevator or add an enclosed wheelchair lift outside the elevator shaft--modifications that would temporarily solve the problems for wheelchair users, according to Ray Di Guilio, college vice president of administrative services. But they will continue to wait for state funds to permanently replace the broken elevator, estimated to cost $180,000.

Students, faculty members and some trustees say that after years of complaints and temporary fixes, they are appalled the college and district took so long to take the elevator out of commission.

“They should have fixed it a long time ago,” said Bill Heil, an accounting student forced to use the elevator because of a bad back. “They don’t know what they are doing.”

For three years, Heil has battled the elevator, pounding in frustration on its buttons when the doors wouldn’t open or trying to pry its powerful jaws off his backpack.

Though repair crews were often dispatched to deal with the haywire machine, within weeks the elevator would be acting up again, he said.

Its intermittent closure for repairs caused even greater problems for disabled students unable to use the stairs of the two-story building.

“I don’t know why the district had it on hold for so long,” said Alison Sych, who has more than once had the elevator close on her wheelchair’s footrest. “I wish they would stop worrying about their air-conditioned offices and fix the elevator so I can get on with my education.”

Even when functioning properly, the narrow elevator--which was installed in 1972 and predates the Americans with Disabilities Act--posed special problems for wheelchair users, said Jan Andriese, coordinator of the college’s Disabled Student Program.

At a campus well-equipped for disabled students, Andriese said she has puzzled over the district’s inaction in replacing the elevator.

“At Moorpark, our accessibility is excellent,” she said. “But there are a number of problems with that elevator. It is not appropriate for people in large wheelchairs, the door is not level with the floor, it shuts too soon and doesn’t open when it should. It has just become an increasingly bad problem and I don’t know why the district didn’t move more quickly or follow up” on complaints.

Interim Moorpark College President Darlene Pacheco said the school has tried repeatedly to fix the bum elevator, but to no avail.

“Have you ever had a car that works funny and you take it in and it works OK?” she asked. “It was one of those things.”

In addition, closing the elevator would have meant rearranging class schedules to accommodate disabled students who would no longer have access to second-floor rooms and offices, Pacheco said.

So instead of closing the elevator, the school responded first by plastering it with signs that read, “Caution. Elevator Doors Open and Close Erratically!” They were later joined by more signs advising students to seek help operating the elevator from a nearby instructor.

The state in 1992 allocated the estimated $180,000 to repair the elevator, but due to budget cuts and an oversight at the state level, the funds never materialized.

The district responded by “working around” the problem, trustee Timothy Hirschberg said. “It was a hazard and a liability that shouldn’t have been allowed to linger,” he added.

But it wasn’t until its insurance company wrote an urgent appeal to interim Chancellor Jim Walker in October that the district agreed to close the surly elevator and subsequently allocate the funds for a short-term fix.

Elton Hall, a Moorpark College instructor angry about the district’s slow response, said that when the state didn’t come through with the funds, the district should have.

“The district office has demonstrated a history of incompetence in dealing with emergency student needs,” Hall said. “Until they have their back against the wall, they are incredibly tightfisted when it comes to issues like this. Finally they had their back against the wall.”

Even with the elevator closed, the college’s problems are far from over.

Already, administrators have displaced 22 classes trying to move class sections with wheelchair users or students with broken bones or sprained ankles to first-floor rooms.

“You can’t imagine the nightmare of shuffling around that many classes,” Pacheco said.

But the worst is yet to come, according Steven Pollock, an instructor whose office is in the building.

“Just wait until the skiing season begins,” he said.