Weinstein Hall’s Forbidden Stairs

At New York University (NYU) in Weinstein hall, a door locked for security purposes prevents Freshmen living in the west tower from walking up to their rooms, creating frustration and backups on the elevators.

“During high peak traffic hours when classes end during weekdays, so around 1:00 or 2:00 pm, it can be pretty dense,” Ethan Katz, a senior physical and mechanical engineering major who has been working at Weinstein’s resource desk for two years said. “People give that annoyed sigh of just waiting especially when one of the elevators is not working. Aside from that, I’ve never seen anyone get really angry about it.”

Weinstein is the university’s oldest dorm and houses about 600 freshmen, according to the dorm’s website. Students that live in the east tower have full access to the stairs, which are located next to the elevators. The west tower stairs, however, are on the other side of the lobby. The door is in front of the stone entrance of Sidestein, the dorm’s convenience store, in a small side hallway tucked away behind an infamous ceiling-height turnstile feared by students.

The metal fortress is barred from the inside so that no one can enter, but students can take the stairs down from their rooms and leave.

Looking back on his days living in Weinstein as a freshman, Katz recalls being reprimanded for using the elevator to get to the second floor.

“In the first week when I had no clue about the stairs, I always thought it was odd that I couldn’t use them. I did get some snide comments from people saying under their breath, ‘aw, why isn’t this kid using the stairs?’” he said.

Particularly problematic times for students on the west tower are after fire drills when everyone floods in at once to return to their dorms, and after multiple classes get out at the same time.

“I remember being so annoyed that we all had to wait in a huge line for the elevator, although I think they let us use the stairs once or twice during a drill,” sophomore English education major Shauna O’Shea said.

However, this is not a unanimous observation. Katz said that the building staff always unlocks the stairwell during fire drills, and that it has done so for years.

The doors are also unlocked on Friday evening and Saturday during the day because of some student’s religious observances, which prohibits them from using technology during those times, according to a security guard who asked to remain anonymous.

University staff keeps the door locked mostly for safety reasons. Upstein and Sidestein, the two food venues in Weinstein’s lobby, are open to the general public, and students swipe into the dorms with their ID’s under the watchful eye of the security guard on duty.

“The building was constructed in 1963, and at that time security concerns were not the same as they are today,” Weinstein residence hall director Shannon Riley said.

Sitting on the left side of the lobby at a purple desk adorned with a cheesy “Welcome Home” sign, the guard would not be able to see who enters the stairs on the other side of the lobby. The general public, including potentially dangerous people would have access to the dorms.

“I probably would have taken the elevator even if they weren’t blocked off just because I was always tired after coming back from class,” O’Shea said. “Overall I understand why we couldn’t go up the stairs, since the guards couldn’t watch that entrance, and I am thankful that they took precautions to keep random people out.”