While students made their way into the Marshall Student Center (MSC) over the past year, they might have noticed signs in front of elevators reading they were under repair.

One of the most commonly used elevators, behind the information desk at the MSC, was recently completely shut off.

The motor on elevator one, on the left, “blew up” back in January, according to MSC Director Matthew Marshall. 

Marshall said no one was in the elevator, it just the motor “smelled like it was getting hot” and stopped working. 

To take off the motor, which makes cables move up and down, from the elevator cage, hatches had to be made on the roof of the MSC building, pulling the whole thing from the top. 

Marshall said when maintenance finally got the motor out, they realized there was also an issue with the encoder – which tells the elevator when it has reached a certain level in the correct position to open the doors.

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There are four elevators at the MSC, with three being for anyone visiting the building to ride on, and a service one, which is for staff only. Elevators one and two, because of their more consistent use, have been causing the most “headaches.”

Consistent issues like these have prompted the MSC administrators to start an independent replacement “master plan” for all the elevators in the building.  

“Due to the high use of our elevators, and due to the failure rate that was happening because of that, we realized a change needed to happen,” Marshall said.

Marshall said the first two elevators to be replaced are the ones by the service desk (1 and 2), starting in the fall. The second step is replacing the service elevator, which will be done over the summer 2025. Marshall said the fourth elevator, located on the right side of the building, will be replaced during fall of 2025. 

Out of the $3 million budget for the MSC for the fiscal year of 2023-24 provided by Student Activities and Services (A&S) fees, $26,000 is currently allocated for repairs in the elevators, Marshall said. 

The university operates under Educational and General (E&G) funds. The MSC has its “own budget” and reserves, according to Marshall.  

This independent reserve will allow all four elevators to be replaced.  

Related: 2023-24 A&S budget down $5 million from last fiscal year

“It was just getting to the point where we are in a position where we have the finances,” Marshall said. “So let’s get brand new motors so that we all don’t have to deal with these hiccups and headaches where they are always broken down.” 

Despite the elevators being the same ones from the MSC’s opening days in 2008, they all “follow code,” Marshall said. 

Due to the time it will take to replace all four motors and the consistency of movement in the building, elevator one already has a brand-new motor. All elevators are functional in the building at the time of publication. 

“It [new motor] will get us back to normal, because we have been kind of limping along, so to speak,” Marshall said. 

If everything works out with the company MSC is planning on working with, the replacement project is predicted to wrap up in December 2025, Marshall said.