University officials are still in the beginning stages of installing emergency telephones in all of Penn State's 325 elevators.

The initiative is the result of code changes, and is not related to the December 2003 death of Katherine Ibanez in an Atherton Hall elevator shaft, said Maurine Claver, director of environmental health and safety.

Bruce Kline, assistant director for Penn State University Police, said the project will cost about $7,000 per elevator to renovate the communication system.

Since the project started last fall, about a dozen phones have been installed in elevators in Atherton Hall, Eastview Terrace and some buildings in East Halls, Kline said.

A "vast majority" of telephones have not been installed, and the process is expected to take several more years, Claver said. The university is also going beyond the current elevator safety code requirements to upgrade already existing telephones, she said.

"It's a proactive program on our part to enhance communications with people who are trapped," Claver said.

In response to the Ibanez's death, university officials have enhanced efforts to educate potential passengers about elevator safety, she said.

Penn State University Police Supervisor Dwight Smith said the procedure for handling calls from trapped elevator riders has changed in the last year, partly in response to Ibanez's death.

Ibanez died from blunt force trauma after falling 40 feet down an Atherton Hall elevator shaft after she slipped trying to exit the elevator, which was stuck between floors.

Although malfunctions are not a campus epidemic, it is not uncommon for University Police to respond to trapped residents calling for assistance from within a stalled dorm elevator, Smith said.

"That's part of the whole picture," Smith said. "It's not a direct response to [the death], but it certainly is something we don't want to ever have happen again."

Now, University Police document all calls to assist people stuck in elevators, he said.

Since Jan. 12, police have received about 12 such calls from locations on campus, most of them in the dorms. Two to three calls come in per week, Smith said.

"I don't know that it's any less common than it used to be, but we have now established a procedure," Smith said.

University Police responded to two separate calls Monday when three faculty members were caught in an elevator in the Health and Human Development East Building, and two students were helped from an elevator in Hastings Hall.

The Office of Physical Plant (OPP) maintains all of the elevators on campus, OPP spokesman Paul Ruskin said.

"Most of the elevators are the same age as the building," Ruskin said. "We have quite a few new ones and we have some that are fairly old."

Penn State's oldest elevators, in Borland Lab, date back to 1932, he added.

Smith said police officers are supposed to arrive on the scene within five minutes of receiving the call to reassure those inside the elevator that a technician will arrive to fix the problem, Smith said.

In most cases, the elevator has experienced electrical problems or riders are misusing the device, causing the elevator to come to a halt, Ruskin said.

After pushing the alarm button, anyone trapped inside should wait for the police and technician. Never attempt to exit the elevator, Ruskin said.

"It's a good opportunity to sit and do some reading while you're waiting," he said.