Imagine standing on the eighth floor for 4 minutes and 26 seconds, waiting for an elevator. It finally comes and you have to stop at every floor on the way down. You look at you watch and see that you are now late for class, because you didn’t anticipate one of the elevators not functioning properly. The delays would not bother you as much except that this is the second time this week that an elevator has quit working, and it’s only Wednesday. This happens to many people in Richardson Towers. Why should we have two elevators, if one is not going to work? Bret Maher, also a freshman, says that the elevators function properly on average two days a week. The rest of the time, one of the elevators is stuck on a floor. He also said that whichever floor the elevator is stuck on, has to deal with loud noises and beeping coming from the elevator. Another student, a sophomore, said, “The elevators never worked last year for us. We had to ride one elevator like a bunch of sardines the majority of the time.”I believe that, in order for us to fix the elevators, we must remain within a budget for maintenance, delays must be limited while fixing the elevators, and it must be a permanent fix. We must stay within a budget for obvious reasons: we can’t spend money we don’t have. The delays must be limited, because that defeats the whole purpose of fixing the elevators, although some delays for a short period time would be tolerated, if the fix were permanent. The fix must be permanent, because right now there are maintenance men working on the elevators three or four times a week. They must be paid and if the elevators were fixed, those men could be used elsewhere.My first solution is to install bungee cords in place of elevators. At first it seemed like a good idea, but then I realized that the cost would be enormous, because insurance would be necessary, and also someone would have to supervise the cords. Also, re...
