In Aug. 2021, Hurricane Ida damaged several parts of Nicholls State University’s campus including the elevators in Ellender Memorial Library.

The elevators are not yet repaired but are estimated to be repaired in May 2023. The cost of the elevator repairs will be covered by the university’s insurance and students will not be paying for any of the repairs.

Mark Love, the library director of Nicholls, said that the original date that the elevators were to be repaired is late April or early May.

All of the elevator’s parts need to be replaced. Part of the delay is due to the university needing approval from its insurance and the state. “I would expect the elevators to be done by later in spring or certainly by the summer,” said Love.

Love explained there were some leaks in the ceiling of the second and third floor of the library. The roof is a contributing factor to the leaks on the second and third floor. The leaks need to be repaired before the elevators can be fixed.

The Ellender Memorial Library has three elevators. The cost of the two passenger elevators is $141,000 to fix both. The third freight elevator is estimated to cost $81,000 to repair.

“They’re about to start working on the roof here,” Love stated. “Should be next week. If they start on that now, it will take them a month to complete.”

The flooring also needs to be replaced. According to Love, the flooring and the elevator repairs should happen around the same time.

Sometimes projects on college campuses can be funded by the legislature or by private donations. Love explained that student fees aren’t often used to cover repairs and that these repairs will be covered by insurance.

Students who are not able to access the upper floors of the library can contact library staff to bring needed materials to them.

“There’s a sign on the elevators there now,” said Love. “They can call the number that’s there and staff in the library will retrieve materials if there’s books or other materials that they need on the upper floors.”

“We can retrieve them by bringing them down to students. That’s basically all we can do at this point until those elevators are repaired because we only have access to the upper floors through stairs.”