The Rice Thresher, Vol. 88, No. 9, Ed. 1 Friday, October 13, 2000 Page: 6 of 24
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—
RICE THRESHER NEWS FRIDAY, OCTOBER 13,2000
Students may be fined for stalled elevators
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RICE SPORTS CARNIVAL
Two students were warned that
they may be fined for elevator repair
costs after they were stuck in an
elevator for about two hours Satur-
day night.
Food and Housing Business Man-
ager Frank Rodriguez said students
who cause an elevator to stall by
jumping may face fines to cover the
$500 repair cost.
This decision follows the frequent
stalling of elevators at Brown and
Sid Richardson Colleges, including
two incidents in the left Sid elevator
in the past two weeks.
Rodriguez emphasized that
each case will be evaluated indi-
vidually, and if it is decided that
the students were not jumping or
were not otherwise responsible for
the elevator's malfunction, they will
not be fined.
Elevator repairmen are paid $ 120
perhour, Rodriguez said,and it costs
about $500 to have repairmen reset
the elevator.
On Saturday, Sid seniors Kyle
Voosen and Rajiv Bala entered the
elevator from the ground floor at
about 9:45 p.m. They pushed the
sixth-floor button and began mov-
ing upward. Shortly thereafter, the
elevator stopped and the control
panel lights went out.
'We can't be having this
sort of thing. I don't
want to end up
subsidizing people s
vandalism.'
—Frank Rodriguez
F&H Business Manager
When they realized that they
were stuck, they pressed the
"emergency" button on the panel
to call for assistance. Eventually, a
repairman arrived and talked with
them down through the elevator
shaft.
According to Bala and Voosen,
the repairman twice went up to the
roof to reset the elevator but failed to
get it working.
After about 30 minutes, Bala and
Voosen called for help again and
this time were told that a different
elevator repairman was on his way.
This second repairman succeeded
in resetting the elevator.
After taking a few rides up and
down in the elevator without getting
the doors to open, Bala and Voosen
were finally let out on the seventh
floor.
When Bala and Voosen exited
the elevator, the technician asked
them if they had been jumping in the
elevator. Bala said he had been bob-
bing slightly, but not jumping, and
that Voosen hadn't been moving at
all.
Two days later, Bala and Voosen
received an e-mail from Rodriguez
stating, "Please be aware that Food
and Housing is issuing fines for
[jumping in the elevator]. The cost
of getting an elevator technician out
to Rice to reset the elevator is usu-
ally around $500. I^et me know if you
have any questions."
Bala and Voosen both said they
were very upset over the possibility
of paying such a fine.
"I couldn't believe it — it didn't
make any sense to me that I should
be charged for being stuck in an
elevator for two hours," Bala said.
Voosen wrote a response letter
to Rodriguez in which he said he and
Bala were not jumping or walking
around in the elevator.
"Hearing people stuck in [the Sid
elevators] seems to have become a
part of daily life at Sid now, and you
can't keep charging students hun-
dreds of dollars for riding in an el-
evator when it decides to break," the
letter stated.
Rodriguez said he was not
charging Bala and Voosen but try-
ing to make them aware of the
cost.
Rodriguez said he sent out his
e-mail based on the information he
had received from the elevator
technician, who reported that
Voosen and Bala had been jump-
ing and thus caused the elevator to
stop.
He said he suggested to F&H
Director Mark Ditman a fine of $ 100
to show students that jumping in
the elevators will not be tolerated.
Rodriguez said he is now investi-
gating the incident in order to de-
termine the proper course of ac-
tion.
In the future, Rodriguez said,
there will be fines for causing eleva-
tors to get stuck due to jumping or
other types of horseplay. He
equated this activity to a form of
Esperanza planned
with 1950s theme
Esperanza 2000 is set to rock
around the clock (or at least from
10 p.m. to 2 a.m.) with a '50s
theme.
'Hie annual girl-ask-guy formal
dance will be held Nov. 4 on two
floors of the Crown I'laza Hotel in
the Texas Medical Center at 6701
Main St.
As always, the dance is spon-
sored by the Rice Program Coun-
cil.
The Fabulous B-Sides, a Hous-
ton cover band, will play upstairs,
and a DJ will be spinning down-
stairs.
"It's not going to be like [The/
Wedding Singer," said RFC formals
chair Kay Southard, a Lovett Col-
lege sophomore. '"Die music will
be popular club music that people
like."
For the duration of the event,
shuttles will make a continuous
loop from the Sallyport to the ho-
tel.
This year, soda fountain glasses
will be distributed to students who
go to the dance.
Light snacks will be served,
most likely desserts, fruits and veg-
etables.
The formal is estimated to cost
NEWS IN BRIt
$22,000, a portion of which is
funded by the blanket tax paid
by undergraduate students.
Tickets will be $20 per person
in advance and $25 per person at
the door for the estimated 1,000
guests expected to attend the
event.
Southard, Will Rice College
sophomore Corey Devine and
Brown College junior Amie Jan
are the RPC formals chairs and
are in charge of the event.
— Mark I Mi
Preparations begin
for NeverNeverNOD'
Wiess College has begun
preparations for the 28th annual
Night of I)ecadence party, I hemed
"NeverNeverNOD."
NOD decorations will be built
in the Wiess Commons and will
depict areas of London and
"Neverland" in accordance with
the party's Peter Pan-hased theme.
"We wanted a lot of decorating
options, a lot of costume options,
something we could make inter-
esting and fun to look at," Wiess
Social Vice President Bria I^aSalle,
a junior, said.
The party will be held on Oct.
27 and will follow the recommen-
dations of last year's committee to
vandalism.
"We can't be having this sort of
thing," he said. "1 don't want to end
up subsidizing people's vandal-
ism."
The elevators at Sid were re-
vamped earlier this summer in a
$220,000 modernization project.
Mechanical Repairs Supervisor
Ronnie Cox said the new elevators
incorporate more safety features and
that the safety equipment is much
more sensitive than in the old eleva-
tors.
Jumping in the elevators can trig-
ger these sensors and cause the el-
evator to stop, Cox said.
' You can't keep
charging students
hundreds of dollars for
riding in an elevator
when it decides to
break.'
—Letter from Kyle Voosen,
Sid Richardson senior,
to Food and Housing
"A lot of (elevator] cable is in-
volved here," Cox said, noting that
Sid is as tall as a 14-story building. "If
there is jumping occurring in the
car, this causes the cable to stretch,
and it also causes slack which the
elevator reads as a problem with the
governor."
A governor is a safety device that
shuts down the elevator if the mo-
mentum produced is unsafe. Cox
said Facilities and Engineering has
and will continue to make adjust-
ments in the elevator sensors to
make them less sensitive.
He and other workers have tried
to make the elevator stop by dupli-
cating what students might do, and
they determined that it would take
"a pretty vigorous jumping" to stall
the elevator.
Cox also said there is a computer
that records data, including error
codes, from the elevator when ii gets
stuck so that technicians can deter-
mine the cause.
The last elevator malfunction at
Sid was Sept. 30, when five students
were trapped inside for about an
hour.
re-examine NOD by incorporat-
ing increased security measures.
"We really can't take any steps
back," IxiSalle said. "We have a lot
to maintain."
Two years ago, months of con-
troversy questioning the party's
sexually explicit nature threatened
the existence of the party.
A committee of the college
presidents and the Student Asso-
ciation president recommended
increased security and a ban on
sexually explicit decorations
from the party. The recommen-
dations were first followed by
organizers of the 1999 NOD.
This year, party organizers
have not received any negative
feedback from the administration,
according to I^Salle.
'The day of the NOD fight is
definitely over," she said.
"Whether we won or lost remains
to be seen. We're moving forward
from being sad about the changes
we've had to make."
Students can purchase ad-
vance tickets starting Oct. 23 at
Wiess. Tickets will also be avail-
able at the door on the night of
the party.
Non-Rice guests must purchase
tickets in advance and must be
accompanied to the party by a Rice
host. Tickets cost $6.
— iMura Derr
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Stoler, Brian. The Rice Thresher, Vol. 88, No. 9, Ed. 1 Friday, October 13, 2000, newspaper, October 13, 2000; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth443149/m1/6/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.