Date: 2/27/23

To: President Vincent Boudreau

Cc: Professor Elizabeth von Uhl

From: Tyler Ortiz

Subject: Navigation and traversal in the North Academic Center building

I am reaching out to you today to discuss the ongoing issue of the out of service escalators and elevators in the NAC building. As a transfer student this semester at City College, I have had a copious number of issues involving transportation on campus. Walking into the NAC for the first time was extremely confusing: the signage was barely present, the room numbers were not obvious, and the first escalator in the main hall was out of order. That first day set a precedent for my expectations.

Each time I entered the NAC building, the building that houses all my courses, something was out of order. If I entered through the front doors and had to get to the seventh floor quickly, I would make my way to the elevator; I would push the button then wait and wait and wait but no elevator would arrive. I have had to wait over ten minutes on multiple occasions and have arrived late to class due to this issue. An alternative would be to take the escalators instead however, the escalators are no better. Making it up to the highest floor the escalators serve (the sixth floor) would have an individual climbing at least two flights of stairs due to out of order escalators. This issue has been ongoing for over a month now and is very frustrating to deal with.

The main issue that comes with the malfunctioning vertical transportation devices is that it leaves a negative impression on students. Arriving to this campus is hard enough for many of the students that commute daily, having to wait for an elevator or climb multiple flights of stairs to attend their class (especially if they have multiple classes in one day on different floors) demotivates and frustrates the student. This can lead to students losing the motivation to attend class and, in a worst case scenario, lead to students dropping out. As stated in an article in Phi Theta Kappa International journal, “a 2004 study of 226 schools in Houston, Texas, found that poor facility quality significantly reduced daily attendance and increased dropout rates.”[1] On top of this, some students or professors might have some disability that makes it very difficult for them to climb up stairs, which could negatively impact their attendance or make it so they cannot attend a certain class at all.

The solution to this problem would be proper maintenance on these transportation devices or at least a much clearer timeline for repairs. The replacement of the nine elevators in the NAC is a great step to fixing this problem, but completion is still far away. In the interim, some solutions can be implemented to ease the negative impact of the issue. Currently, students can scan a QR code located in various places throughout the building to check the status of the escalators and elevators. The issue with this implementation is that the QR code shows the issues affecting all buildings on campus and does not give a timeline for when we can expect repairs to be completed. To ease this, I propose using one of the screens in the main hall be used to display which elevators and escalators are out of service and which ones are operating normally. This could even be another page on the website that students can check out before they arrive on campus, so they know which entrance to use to arrive to their course as quickly as possible. Knowing whether to take the right-side escalators or left side escalators would save students a lot of time and energy.

Another solution that would alleviate the problem is to have some kind of display that tracks which floor the elevator is on so students are more aware of the amount of time they will be waiting for the elevator. This would give students more insight into how they can quickly navigate through the building, and they would spend less time waiting for an elevator that may never come.

Taking these steps would help to alleviate the frustrations that students are confronted with daily. These solutions would not outright solve the problem, but they would go a long way in making students and professors more comfortable in their environment. This comfort and ease of access would lead to more productive classes and less students arriving tardy to their courses or not showing up at all. Making infrastructure improvements that allow students to increase their academic performance will be beneficial to the college and the community as a whole.

[1] Filardo, M., Vincent, J. M., & Sullivan, K. (2019). How crumbling school facilities perpetuate inequality. Phi Delta Kappan, 100(8), 27–31. https://doi.org/10.1177/0031721719846885

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