By Rina Shamilov, News Editor
On November 9, 2021, the elevator in Beren campus Brookdale Residence Hall stopped on its way to the building’s lobby and trapped a SCW student again.
Lara Amar (SCW ‘23) was trapped in the elevator for almost thirty minutes as the New York Fire Department (FDNY) tried to open the elevator door. Amar told the YU Observer that she called elevator maintenance, but they did not come. Then, Amar’s friend “called elevator maintenance” from outside the building, “but they were coming from 7th Avenue and took a while so the security called the FDNY and they opened the elevator.” Amar described her experience as “annoying and very traumatizing.” She also added that a friend of hers said tehillim [psalms] for her while she cried in the elevator alone.
After Amar came out of the elevator, the security guards at Brookdale Residence Hall made her sign various forms about what had happened and asked if she wanted to see a doctor. Amar reported that she sustained no physical injuries but “needs some counseling after the experience.”
This is not the first time that the YU elevators have been malfunctioning. There have even been some free-falling elevator experiences reported.
Beren campus students have become accustomed to the frequent malfunctioning of the elevators on campus. Racheli Jian (SCW ‘25) shared with the YU Observer that “the elevators on Beren campus have become a sort of rite of passage. If you didn’t know about the elevator’s constant dysfunction before you came to YU, you definitely do now.”