If the elevator system were to be improved, the wait time for thousands of students would be decreased significantly. I ride the elevator about four times a day. It takes me about 7 minutes on average to get from my tenth- floor room to my destination. Multiplied by the 1,049 resident capacity of Catlett Residence Hall, this wastes almost 490 hours of time every day, or 88,116 hours a school year (assuming a school year of 180 days.) If a person's time were valued at just $12.00 an hour, the elevators waste over 1 million dollars worth of people's time every school year.

I believe that University of Iowa students are some of the brightest in the country. Just imagine what we could do with another 88,000 hours worth of student's time every school year! That time could be spent working on a cure for cancer, practicing piano to make the modern Mozart, or planning a trip to promote global health equity. The possibilities are endless, but we will never find out what the results are if the time is spent wasted in front of the elevator.

There are a number of ways that the elevator system could be easily improved without a major overhaul, such as posting signs asking able- bodies persons to walk if their destination is within 2 floors, switching to a destination- based system, or designating specific elevators to service only upper and middle floors, as well as the bottom 3 floors. Although we might not know what the ideal solution is, we simply ask that somebody work on trying to find one.