Elevator from 1
The Lower Swatara Fire Department
filed a report stating that Swanson
entered the penthouse with them and
operated the breakers until the door
opened.
Alesky said he appreciated any help
his department received in the emergency
situation, but expressed concern for
Swanson. Students without proper
rescue training should not be put into
dangerous situations, Alesky said.
Because of the electrical components and
high voltage in the penthouse area,
Alesky and Maintenance personnel said
Swanson placed himself in danger when
he entered the area.
Missi St. Cyr, a graduate student at
PSH, and several other students left the
Lion's Den just minutes after their
classmates boarded the elevator. They
realized their instructor and classmates
were trapped when they could still hear
voices inside the elevator five minutes
after the passengers boarded, and notified
Lion's Den personnel who called Police
Services.
"I was trying to finish my dinner;
that's what saved me," said St. Cyr.
"Anyone want to take the elevator
up?" asked Ammon as he exited the
elevator at 7:30 p.m. "We'll walk!" he
stated, and his class followed him up the
stairs.
General Elevator Company inspects
the elevator every month and is
responsible for maintaining it. A
representative of the company responded
to an inspection call by PSH
Maintenance on March 28 and said he did
not know why the elevator
malfunctioned. He said that possibly
one of the occupants pressed the stop
button by accident.
The General Elevator Company
representative said the emergency key
box did contain a key when the company
inspected the elevator. He reported
vandalism as the cause for the missing
Groundbreaking Ceremony
Richard Chiavetta
Capital Times Staff
A groundbreaking ceremony marked a
new addition to the Mechanical
Engineering Technology laboratory on
March 19.
key and said the company could not have
known the key was missing.
Regulations require only one emergency
key on the main floor of the building,
and there is no need for one on every
floor because the elevator automatically
descends to the first floor if the detector
senses smoke in the case of a fire, he
stated.
Mike Ray, work management
coordinator of Maintenance, said they
updated many components of the
elevator within the past six months.
Maintenance oversaw the installation of
new break shoes and new cables, the
rewinding of the motor, and several drop
tests. Ray said the updating did not
include the switch gear and electrical
components located in the penthouse
area. "It's (elevator) a piece of
equipment like a car...and does get a lot
of human use--probably more than it
should," Ray said. He did not know
what caused the malfunction on March
27, but wants everyone to be aware of
the campus telephone in the elevator. In
the case of an emergency, trapped
passengers can call Campus Police at
(6232). The number is listed on the
inside of the telephone compartment.
Hal Brandt, Chief Elevator Inspector
of the Department of Labor and Industry
said maintaining the emergency keys is
difficult because of frequent vandalism.
In the case of the Olmsted emergency
box--since the glass was not broken
prior to the incident--a vandal would
have unscrewed the bolts that hold the
glass encasing in place, remove the key
and then replace the glass case.
"Probably some type of electrical
malfunction" caused the incident, Brandt
said. "We think the proper way to
handle a situation like this is to call the
elevator company and maintenance."
The department's office records show
that PSH's insurance company,
Pennsylvania Manufacturers
Association, inspects the elevator every
quarter. They inspected the elevator in
Senator John Shumaker, a member of
the Senate Education Committee and
Penn State Harrisburg Board of
Directors, and Dr. Ruth Leventhal,
Provost and Dean attended to celebrate
the occasion.
Leventhal
welcomed students,
CAMPUS
September of 1989 and again on January
25, 1990 and found no violations either
time. Brandt said the inspection
procedure includes checking the existence
and proper location of the emergency
keys.
"No one should have access to the
key except elevator inspectors and
elevator maintenance or other authorized
personnel," Brandt said. This includes
emergency situations, he said, because
only certain people know how to use the
key properly.
"Next time I have a big test that I
haven't studied for, I'm going to use the
elevator," said Huan Nguyen, a
humanities student present during both
incidents.
In 1984 PSH converted the elevator
to a passenger elevator, which was
originally only used for freight. In
January, of 1985 the Department of
Labor and Industry inspected and
Small from 1
"He did a lot of things that went
above and beyond what he had to do for
us," said Judy DeMooy, who has taken a
number of classes with Small.
An open letter, signed only "The
Concerned Students," was circulated
under the title, the Underground Capital
Times--Vol. 1. It said, "We are
somewhat dumbfounded and terribly
upset at the whole affair.... A good
number of those students are in those
courses largely because of a particular
professor teaching the course.... Now
that has changed and with it the
atmosphere of the class."
The change in faculty with six weeks
left in the semester has also presented
some unusual situations for the students
in Small's classes.
"There are a lot of students that were
confused by the departure of Dr. Small,"
DeMooy said. "He worked closely with a
number of students."
"Those students deserve to have their
classes completed and the faculty has
faculty, staff and local donors who made
the addition possible.
Clifford Jones, President of the
Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and
Industry, thanked the donors and spoke
about the importance of PSH
engineering graduates in the area.
James Wagner, Associate Vice-
President of Business Operations for
April 4, 1990, CAPITAL TIMES
Photo by: Richard Chiavetta
Relieved Students exit elevator
approved the conversion.
Colin Rockwell, a PSH student
patrol officer on duty March 27, said
Police Services received the call and
proceeded to call the rescue squad.
Lower Swatara and Middletown fire
departments responded to the call and a
technical serviceman from Maintenance
arrived shortly after the incident to decide
if the elevator would then be safe to use.
The elevator did not operate that evening
again, but was in full operation the
following day and functioned properly
until Saturday--4 days later.
Three Campus Policemen responded
to the call on March 31 and called Dick
Shaffer, campus electrician to inspect the
electrical components after they reset the
elevator circuit.
PSH possesses three emergency keys
to the elevator: one on first floor
Olmsted, one in Police Services, and one
in Maintenance.
picked up the slack," Lesniak said.
The classes Small taught,
Physiology of Psychology, Psychology
of Learning, and Action Research are
now being taught by Thomas Bowers,
Rosemary Robbins, and Michael Becker,
respectively. The three teachers have
picked up Small's work load in addition
to their own.
"I can understand the students'
dilemma," Bower said, "and I will take
into consideration their situation at the
end of the term. For now we're trying to
follow through with the course work as
closely to Small's plan as possible."
Some of the course work will be
difficult to follow up with because
Small did special projects and gave more
individual attention to students.
Small earned a 8.5., M.S., and PhD.
in Psychology from Catholic University
of America. He was appointed at Penn
State Harrisburg in 1988.
Lesniak said the replacement process
to fill Small's vacancy by next fall has
already begun.
PSU also attended.
The speakers said the lab addition was
necessary to keep PSH MET students
academically competitive.