College has its ups and downs. Especially if elevators are involved.

With elevators in eight residence halls on campus, many students have memorable elevator moments even ones they would rather forget.

Mayra Martinez, a sophomore in the College of Arts & Sciences, lives on the 10th floor of Schroeder Hall. While many students complain that Schroeder, which has 650 sophomore residents, only has two elevators, Martinez just wishes the elevators were clean.

“I was locked out of my room once and had no shoes on,” she said. “I had to get the lockout key (from the front desk) and stepped in pee. Someone peed in the elevator!”

What students have no control over are elevator malfunctions, which may come at the worst possible times.

“A girl once e-mailed our entire psych class for notes because she said she got stuck in an elevator for an hour and couldn’t make it to class,” said Cassie Rouse, a junior in the College of Health Sciences.

Broken down elevators are not a rarity, and being stuck in an elevator is never fun.

Nick Elliot, a freshman in the College of Health Sciences, had a memorable elevator ride — or stop — during Freshman Preview last summer.

A crammed Abbotsford Hall elevator broke down during a tour of the dorm.

“They said it would be about an hour and a half before it could be fixed,” Elliot said. “It was about 80 degrees in there with all of the body heat. People were getting annoyed and angry.”

In fact, one woman became so irritated she was complaining of being claustrophobic. Two men in the elevator decided to pry the doors open as far as possible, which was enough to let everyone slide out of the bottom parting of the doors, Elliot said.

“Then we got yelled at by DPS for not following protocol,” Elliot said.

Elevator problems are more common in older buildings, but even residents in McCabe Hall, the sophomore residence hall that opened last fall, have some complaints.

“The elevator is brand new and shiny, but the elevator doors just close pretty swiftly,” said Hanna Prince, a sophomore in the College of Arts & Sciences.

In order to stop an elevator, one can usually wave a hand or stand in front of the door, Prince said. But that does not always work in McCabe’s only elevator.

“If it’s past a certain point it won’t register as much,” Prince said. “So once I got body-checked by the door into the frame of the elevator. It was kind of embarrassing.”

What is worse than being body-checked by an elevator is being squished by one.

“The McCabe elevator door closes really fast and hard, so it will momentarily squish people,” Prince said. “But it’s funny to see other people squeal when they’re about to get squished.”

Facility managers at the residence halls were unable to comment on the state of the elevators.