With the campus’ recent affair with malfunctioning utilities, noticing any other faulty elevators, door or just about anything, comes easy. In fact, many students are taking the extra step by simply avoiding elevators for as long as their stay here on campus. No one wants their resting in peace to be the next headline across the Cal State Universities.
With that being said, the Hall of Science building’s front door was broken for quite a long time since the beginning of the semester. For a new building, it’s odd to see some of its parts already failing.
The broken door was covered in blue tape and caution tape to warn passerbys. A sign with a phone number directed towards any inquires was also there.
I decided to get to the bottom of “doorgate” for a story assigned by my editor for my Journalism 310 class. I called facilities, the number given on the poster and other sources that could have possibly provided any information.
After three days and a majority of a weekend calling a list of people and being passed around from facilities to God knows who, no one was able to provide information. In fact, no one even knew that the door was broken. A source I called even frantically told me he couldn’t give a comment because he had no idea about it, as if he was covering something up.
How could facilities not know that a door on campus is not functioning? How could the number on the poster give me no clues about the door’s status?
I came back on campus the next week, and the tapes around the door were gone. The door was finally fixed.
I even received a few callbacks from the people I called, but the story had to be dropped. The door is functioning now, so there’s no story to see here! I essentially had to give up.
I was outraged just thinking why they couldn’t given me any information. I really needed that story to reach the 15-story quota for my class. However, I feel like my door inquiry urged facilities to fix it, which I guess is a service for the campus.
Numerous questions surround my mind. Was the door really broken? Did I just waste hours calling the campus for nothing? Was it just another creative prank by art students to make people appreciate art, or in this case, doors?
Only one thing is for sure, I need to find another story to meet my quota.