On Jan. 27, freshman Nish Patel uploaded a petition to change.org to raise campus awareness about a broken elevator in Drexel University’s Race Street Residences.
Patel drafted the petition and accompanying graphics with fellow first-years Lalitha Vedula and Vansh Moody in hopes they can pressure Drexel leadership into repairing the inoperational elevator. Currently, the petition has over 250 signatures.
When Professor Kenneth Bingham tasked his English 102 students with tackling a passion project of theirs, Patel thought of the elevator, which had been broken his whole time at Drexel. His mission, though, has already spread beyond the assignment.
“The initiative came from a class project, but it’s become more than that,” Patel said.
The eleven-floor dorm hosts nearly 500 students. With only two out of three elevators in the building working, students experience delays navigating the residence. The inconveniences of the broken elevator particularly affect students in the building with mobility issues, who have no other options except to endure long wait times and crowded cars.
Many students feel the cost of dorm living is too high for maintenance issues to go unresolved. During the current academic year, a bed space at Race costs $3,905 each quarter, in addition to steep tuition.
Patel, Vedula and Moody plan to take the issue further in the coming weeks. They hope their research into the problems associated with the lack of an elevator, combined with hundreds of petition signatures, will convince the faculty to prioritize the repair.
“At the very least, we will demand they remove the ‘Temporarily Out of Service’ sign and formally declare the elevator out of service, but the goal truly is to get the elevator fixed without too much hassle,” said Patel.