By Jack Bowman

According to updated certificates placed throughout Maryland’s campus, all of the University’s  elevators  have been inspected for safety in the last year, fulfilling a requirement from the state 

But as several buildings and garages experience outages and issues, some students still have concerns. 

“It always feels a little weird taking one,” senior art student Xavier Joyner said of the elevators on campus. “It always feels like it might fall or something like that.” 

The Mowatt Lane Garage elevator, which suffered an outage in October, stands out to Joyner as particularly concerning. 

“That’s the worst one I’ve ever seen in my life,” Joyner said. “It just doesn’t feel right.”

Other students see the elevator problems as more of a practical issue than one of safety. 

“Within the business school, especially, it’s a common occurrence where the elevators just stop and pause for a long time, so it’s not as efficient,” senior information systems student Christina Zhang said. 

Both Joyner and Zhang said that, regardless of the date of the safety inspections, UMD should spend more on elevator maintenance. 

“This school makes so much money,” Joyner said. “I feel like it shouldn’t take that much out of their pocket to just check up on [the elevators].” 

Until late October, many of the elevators on campus had expired inspection certificates. When contacted for comment, the University’s Facilities Management department said that “all UMD elevator inspections are up to date,” and that the updated inspections were in the process of being posted. 

According to Facilities Management, the inspections are performed by a third-party elevator inspection service. 

“I can see how it can be a concern,” Zhang said. “[Maintenance is] spending money on other areas. They should definitely invest it into being able to properly maintain the elevators.”

According to Joyner, elevator safety has been a problem on campus throughout the duration of his time at the University.

“They’re always old-looking, they look decrepit and things like that,” Joyner said. “I’ve gotten so used to it just being not safe that, I mean, I use it anyway.”