By Skylar Stock
Students are set to say farewell to the escalators on the west side of the University Student Union in August.
The infamous escalators at Long Beach State will be placed permanently out of commission in the beginning of the Fall 2025 semester after 27 years of service.
Instead, the escalator will be replaced with stairs, at a gradual incline. There will also be two additional elevators constructed, leaving four total elevators next to the USU to serve students.
“The escalators have become a sort of endearing part of the physical structure of the facility,” said Associated Students Inc. Communications Manager Shannon Couey. “I think the decision to move away from them…I think it’s going to make it much easier getting around from lower to upper campus.”
After approving the Future U project in 2023, the university will officially close all USU activity in August, as they start revamping the campus’s student hub.
According to Couey, this is the biggest project in the CSU system and will take up five acres of land.
“Initially, I personally advocated to keep the escalators, but with all things considered, students would benefit more from having a prettier set of stairs [and elevators], rather than expensive escalators,” Andre Achacon, ASI vice president of finance, said.
Years of discussions from stakeholders like the Bob Murphy Access Center and students on campus revealed that reliability and equitable access would best serve the student population.
“When it’s raining, or when there’s any minor weather inconvenience, they’re down,” said second-year psychology major Velina Valenzuela.
Valenzuela frequently makes the trek from lower to upper campus to get to the psychology building.
The escalator is out of service more than 50% of the time and maintenance is expensive, according to CSULB Capital Project Development Manager Melissa Soto.
When it rains or the escalators are down due to maintenance, they are blocked off with caution signs on the top or bottom of the escalator. On March 15, the escalators were closed over the weekend. Photo credit: Samuel Chacko
According to Achacon, the decision to retire the escalator ultimately came down to the escalator’s costly maintenance and accessibility issues. The Future U project is a chance to correct these problems.
Excluding the escalator from the finalized plans will save around $900,000 in renovation costs. The escalator also has an annual maintenance cost of $116,000 per year.
Couey said money usually spent to maintain the escalator is planned to be reinvested into student events and programming.
BMAC Director Mary Nguyen listened to students’ needs and said she realized the current system left many people isolated in their travel from lower to upper campus.
“If you had a mobility limitation, you would likely need to be utilizing the elevator in the USU – if the USU is open,” Nguyen said. “If it is not open, you would be looking at traveling along the perimeter of the campus, kind of by the parking lot and the road. And that can be really exhausting.”
Cooper Jones, a third-year fine arts major, currently deals with this dilemma.
“Right now I have to go through the Student Union, which is kind of out of the way sometimes, especially if I’m in a hurry to get to class,” Jones said. “Long Beach has a big disabled student population with, like, BMAC and everything. I think that probably the benefits [for renovation] outweigh the cons.”
The new elevators will be separate from the USU, allowing students access to upper campus at all times. Students will no longer need to rely on the USU’s scheduled open times and “slow” elevators.
“Meeting the ADA requirements…is the minimum, right? And we want to break through that feeling and really go above and beyond,” Nguyen said.
There is a fee increase of $255 per semester to fund the Future U project, according to Couey. This flat fee was decided by the Student Fee Advisory Committee.
“I hear the frustration from students. I know that they’re upset, but this decision wasn’t taken lightly,” Couey said. “[The Student Fee Advisory Committee’s] interest was really keeping that project increase as low as possible.”
The Future U project is planned to be fully completed in August 2028. More information on the construction and project can be found on the Future U page on ASI’s website.
