By Emily Duncan, Staff Writer
Maintenance is taking a handle on several broken doors in Oklahoma United Methodist Hall.
Door handles on the east and west doors have been missing for more than seven weeks due to vandalism, said Jeff Castleberry, director of facilities.
Impatient students or students without ID cards to Oklahoma United Methodist Hall have forced these doors open and ripped the handles off, said Mark Anthony, assistant director of facilities.
“Part of the problem is the way the door handle is designed and the electronic locks on the doors,” Anthony said. “If someone comes up and pulls on the handle too hard its snaps the screws off on the handle.”
Officials said they were made aware of the situation earlier this month when a student inquired about the situation.
“No work orders were submitted by housing or the RAs, so we didn’t know anything about it,” Castleberry said.
Michele Henson, dance pedagogy freshman, doesn’t live in the dorm but immediately noticed the east door handle was missing when she went to visit friends.
“I heard the door unlock, reached to open it and there was no handle to open the door,” she said. “I was confused. But because it was automatic, I didn’t find it to be a problem.”
Installing automatic doors all over campus would be the solution to the problem, but a lack of funding isn’t allowing for this, Castleberry said.
Instead a new type of handle that is more durable is being installed on all dorm doors.
Special order handles could take three to four weeks to come in and can cost anywhere from $50 to $200.
Continually fixing this problem becomes quite expensive and monotonous, Castleberry said.
“My main concern is that students aren’t respecting the building itself,” he said. “The police and facilities have someone here 24 hours, so if students are having trouble getting in there is always help.”
Castleberry said he encourages students to enter work orders when they notice a problem. Work orders can be submitted at www.schooldude.com.
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