Filthy, gross elevators and unreliable maintenance on them have recently plagued Long Beach City College’s Liberal Arts Campus (LAC).
The student parking structure elevators are regularly filthy with trash, dirty floors and in the spring semester, even the packaging for a sex toy sat unmoved for weeks.
This laziness from LBCC maintenance staff, who could easily clean the elevators once a week, creates an unnecessary feeling of neglect for the students, many of whom have to use these elevators every day.
When asked for information on the school’s elevator cleaning and maintenance schedule both the Facilities Service Desk and LBCC Associate Director Stacey Toda refused or failed to provide any details.
This raises questions as to why this seemingly harmless information is not accessible to students and if the school is hiding something by remaining tight-lipped.
The first week of the fall semester, an outside elevator was not functioning with no signage indicating this, continuing a history of unresponsive and malfunctioning elevators in the newly built M Building.
This presents a larger problem where disabled students who cannot use stairs had no indication that the M Building’s outside elevator was out of order and were not shown the respect of any kind of sign telling them where they could go instead.
After one week of fall semester, the exterior M building elevator is still inoperable on Aug. 29. First semester students sometimes wait for minutes only to realize the door will not open. (Cain Carbajal)
Long Beach City College advertises itself as a place that is accepting and accommodating for all disabled students, but not thinking of them when one of their primary methods of transportation is down does not reflect this sentiment.
The M Building was only completed over the quarantine during the COVID-19 pandemic and yet the elevators have been a recurring issue, often going out of order and even shutting down with students inside.
By not addressing these problems, the school appears to show a fundamental lack of care for the cleanliness of areas frequented by students.
The most important impressions are the first and the last and by having an elevator in the main parking structure look disgusting shows a lack of respect to students arriving and leaving campus.
Students who want cleaner elevators and more signage when they aren’t working can make their voices known with the online non-academic complaint forms to let the school know they want change.
UPDATE: LBCC Associate Director Stacey Toda emailed the Viking at the wrong email address but did provide information. “The elevators are serviced by the Grounds staff on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.”