What Goes Up...

In this high-speed digital age, Harvard facilities might be expected to be in line with the latest technology. Not so. The New Quincy elevator provides some students with a daily blast from the past. The elevator was installed in 1959 upon New Quincys construction and in the past 42 years has undergone no substantive changes. Now, according to Mark E. Lee 01, the Quincy House Committee Chair, the age of the elevator is showing through. Since October, Quincy students have been trapped in the elevator on two separate occasions. Now a telephone has been installed in the elevator so that students who get stuck inside can call out for help.

Reactions to this solution are mixed. Installing an emergency telephone obviously does not remedy the underlying problem: the elevator keeps breaking down. New Quincy resident Engi Wassef 02 complains that she is never surprised when the elevator is out of commission, since it doesnt work more than it does work. Lee defends the reasoning behind the phone, saying that whenever they fix the elevator, they fix it as best they can without replacing the elevator itself. The phone, he justifies, is a measure to make sure [students] arent stuck there for any length of time.

Questions still remain about this telephone: how fast the reaction time will be, whether it will still work during an elevator failure, and how those who respond will help the person trapped inside. The Quincy House Office was not available for comment, and the Quincy House Superintendent, Ronnie Levesque, declined to discuss elevator issues further.

For now, many New Quincy students resort to taking the stairs instead of braving the perils of the elevator. Others stay committed to the elevator but remain wary of its reliability. Chris P. Lambert 03 remarks, You still dont want to get trapped in there. Its kinda weird that they would close [the elevator] down to install an emergency phone. Its like they know youre going to get trapped. Committee House Chair Mark E. Lee 01 sums up sentiment by saying, Hopefully no one will get stuck again, but thats what they said after the first person was trapped too.