2008 Woodie Awards
An elevated calling
Tirza Austin
Issue date: 4/8/08 Section: News
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Dodging the cake from last week's food fight and the ever-present pools of vomit to save errant ID cards, flip-flops and - perhaps more often than you'd think - a piece of underwear.
This trio are responsible for maintaining the university's 176 elevators (144 academic, 32 residential), a job that demands a highly technical set of skills and a stomach for Animal House antics, or at least their aftermath. They keep the cars running, retrieve items that slip between the cracks and occasionally save a trapped student. A look at the work of these backstage university players offers a window into a sometimes dirty, surprising and - somewhat shockingly - richly rewarding world.
"My favorite thing about the shift is being able to learn something new," said Culp, a veteran electrician who came to elevators late in life but has taken up the trade with fervor. "I'm at the age where everything is the same old thing. I'm seeing something new, and I have the opportunity to learn something."
Culp blushes while he describes plucking the underwear that ends up hanging from elevator cables, a consequence of the drafts inside the shaft blowing laundry around.
But there's more to keeping the campus elevators running smoothly than clearing out the lingerie.
With new government restrictions in place, elevator technicians are required to attend four-year programs and pass an exit exam to start working, though Culp and Burch were exempted under a grandfather clause.
"We go to school for elevators," Harley explained.
The team will be responsible in the coming months for helping to install new technologies meant to improve the safety of the campus' elevators.
After a student at Ohio State University died of an elevator-related accident in October 2006, Culp is working with Residential Affairs to install rope grippers and infrared detectors in elevators in the high-rise dorms to modernize the elevators most frequently used by students.
The initiative, which began a couple weeks ago, should take about six months to complete. Though the university has never had a serious accident under Culp's watch, he said the modernization is a proactive measure to make sure the incident doesn't happen here.
The new sensors in the doors can tell when a person is standing in the doorway without bumping the person. The rope grippers are a last defense to hold cars in place.
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Mike Fekula
posted 4/08/08 @ 9:30 AM EST
I am glad the Diamondback did an article about these workers. They have been helpful to us at the School of Languages, Literatures, & Cultures at Jimenez Hall, which is one of the older buildings on campus. (Continued…)
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