Senior interior design major Sylvia Hull feels her life is in danger after she discovered that several campus elevators permits are over two months expired.

Elevators in several buildings around campus such as Mendocino and Tahoe halls, the River Front Center and the University Union all have expired elevator permits.

“I’m never going to look at an elevator the same. I will be check the licenses every time I get on,” Hull said.

Facilities Services Manager Mark Leisz said the on-campus elevators are annually inspected by the California Department of Industrial Relations. Leisz requested an inspection in November and the state inspector completed them in January during the winter break. The inspection took several weeks to complete.

“If there are any serious issues, safety concerns at the time of inspection, the elevator will be taken out of service at the time of inspection,” Leisz said. “We have processed all of the paper work and the new permits have started to come in to our office and we will be posting them as they come in.”

Leisz added that to ensure the campus’s safety, the elevators are maintained on a monthly basis.

Principal safety engineer for the State of California Al Tafazoli is responsible for conducting elevator inspections and issuing new licenses every year.

Tafazoli said that the process of obtaining elevator licenses involve several steps. The company applying for a new license has to call for an inspection from the state. The state then sends an inspector to make sure everything is working properly and that there are no maintenance problems. After the university pays the fees, the state sends the new licenses for the year.

Tafazoli said that if any elevator doesn’t comply with the inspection or if the company does not pay the fees, it is no longer available to the public.

He also said that it is the school’s responsibility to replace the elevators tags; the state’s job is accomplished when all the elevators are inspected.

California law states that an elevator needs to be inspected once a year to enforce regulations.

Sac State is one of the universities with the most elevators on campus, which Tafazoli said makes the inspection process take longer. Inspecting every elevator on the Sac State campus can take more than three weeks to complete.

Senior English major Ariana Rubalcava is still alarmed because she thinks some of the elevators may not have been inspected since she sees nothing to prove her wrong.

Tafazoli thinks of the elevator like a car. Anyone driving a car with expired license should not be on the road and the elevator should also not be used with an expired license.

Junior communications major Lorena Lopez was very surprised when she found out the elevators she uses on campus have expired licenses. She could not believe Sac State would forget about such a large issue since students use the elevators every day to get to their classes.

“It makes the school look bad, because we pay a lot of money,” Lopez said.

Senior Spanish major Isabel Landin doesn’t use the elevators often, but is still concerned.

“I feel worried because if there is a problem with the elevator and it hasn’t been detected because there has not been an inspection then I’m worried,” Landin said.

Karina Yepez can be reached at [email protected].