The University of Tampa’s Plant Hall houses one of the oldest elevator in the state of Florida, but unfortunately this honor doesn’t prevent any modern elevators problems.

Recently, several elevators have stopped functioning in both Stadium Center and Straz Hall.
Kevin Howell, Assistant Director of Safety and Security, reported two separate occasions in which elevators stopped with students on board.

On Jan. 22, in Straz Hall several students were stuck between floors one and two. Security reset the elevator, which returned to the first floor. Facilities Management called Otis Elevator, which is under contract to repair UT’s elevators.
In a more recent incident, students in Stadium Center on Jan. 27 found themselves trapped for approximately two hours.

Howell said that security’s override did not work.’ They had to call Facilities which has access to the main controls and even they could not bring the elevator down.
Finally, Otis elevator was called to do a complete override and the students were released.
Howell said Tampa Fire and Rescue were called just in case the problem was not resolved, but the students were taken care of and in complete communication with the rescuers.

UT has somewhere around 32 elevators on campus and a majority of them are working properly.

‘We haven’t had a lot of elevator issues,’ Howell said.
If any student does get stuck in an elevator, Howell said that the best thing to do is to use the phone in the elevator which directly connects to UT Safety and Security.

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