Packed elevators and tiring trips up the stairs have become the norm in Lewis House this semester. Of the two elevators in the dorm, often only one elevator is working, resulting in long waits and many disgruntled students.

With 11 floors and almost 300 residents, students feel one elevator is not enough.
"Not only can we not effectively use the elevator in a timely fashion, but it makes me late for class," said junior JD Jacobson, a 10th floor resident. "Something needs to be done because for those of us in the top floors, it can take as long as 10 minutes to get to the ground level once we've stepped into the elevator."

Junior Trip Conrad, another Lewis resident, voiced similar complaints.

"I've had to wait up to 10 minutes for the elevator and have been late to class because of it," said Conrad. "It seems like it takes maintenance a week to fix one."

The time lag between the outage and the repair has frustrated other residents.

"I do not think the response has been adequate," Jacobson said.

Since Lewis stairwells close after 7 p.m., even lower floor residents have had to deal with the elevator delays. According to senior Lee Karlsson, a resident advisor for Lewis, the stairway hours are set to ensure resident safety. As in many other buildings, an alarm rings if students exit through the stair door after 7 p.m.

The resident advisors of Lewis are aware of the problem, as they also have to deal with the delays and crowded elevators.

"We proposed the idea of extending stairwell hours at the RA meeting," Karlsson said. However, students are looking for a more concrete response.

"The elevators need to be totally revamped. We probably need new ones if we can get them," Jacobson said.