By Hannah Fierle, Rahja Watson, Lenise Murphy, Destiny Merren, and Emily Linder

6/28/18

Hannah Fierle
Defaced Fire Escape Sign

This summer, high school students from across the Pittsburgh area came together to work at Point Park University for a Journalism Workshop. They all had many different ideas and questions, but one question puzzled them all. Why is there no button to the sixth floor in the main lobby elevators of Thayer Hall? Why is a button to the floor only on the elevators opposite that leads to the rest of the dorms? A group of the students decided to venture to figure out why.

The girls began their investigation in the lobby with the building’s desk attendant, Doug. Doug told them “I had no idea about any of this until you brought it up”. He also said that nobody had asked him to keep the sixth floor a secret, and that he was unaware that the button shortage was even present in the hall. To dig deeper, the group decided to get to the sixth floor the only way they knew how. The stairs.

The students took a different step route than the usual and five flights of steps later, found themselves in an engineering, science and physics floor. Why would they hide an educational center? Why are the main elevators not designed to go up there? They were unable to get answers to these questions.  

Taking a different stair route, the group came to the sixth floor of dorms. The sixth was labeled on the wall as “The Happiest Floor on Earth” with Disney’s iconic Mickey Mouse to accompany it. As they ventured down the hall, they discovered that both of the emergency exit plan signs had been chipped away at. There was also a door that was propped open leading to steps, but it had a sign on it that read “Per University security protocol, this door is not to be tampered with or propped open at any time. Any violation of this protocol may result in a fine or further disciplinary action”. The door was also open with nobody there, so the sign was being violated. Why this floor in particular? The sign was not seen on any of the other floors. The group was never given any solid answers.

In conclusion, the reason that there is no sixth floor elevator button remains a mystery. Is there something the school is trying to hide? Is the engineering hall doing a secret project? Maybe there is just no use for it. For the time being, nobody really knows. For now, the adventures who dare to find out will have to take the steps.