They’re not lining up to snag the latest iPhone or limited-edition sneakers — these students just want to catch an elevator to class.
Constantly broken and overcrowded lifts at one Baruch College building have forced people to line up all the way out of the Lexington Avenue facility and sometimes even down the block.
Doubling as traffic-control agents, security guards at the East Side facility are now tasked with herding students into six stuffed elevators for the painfully slow ride of up to 15 stories — if the lifts are actually functioning that day.
Unable to tolerate the delays, many students end up using the stairs to get to their destinations — with some conquering Everest-worthy climbs to reach their desks.
“I fall asleep in my classes because I’m winded from going up 14 flights,” said Richard Rochment, 19 of Queens.
“If you’re late to class and you need to use the elevator, then no luck since it’s always crowded. There are so many students at Baruch, if there was an emergency and they had to leave, they wouldn’t be able to,” Rochment said.
“The whole situation is disrupting my life.”
Fellow student Eden Gonzalez is also feeling the pain.
“This is a circus,” griped Gonzalez, who said she routinely has to climbs the stairs up to seventh and 13th floors because of the elevator impasse. “The line was out to Lexington today and people are out of breath from climbing all the time.”
And students say the lobby bedlam is becoming difficult to endure.
“The elevators stop on every floor and it takes one elevator eight minutes to go all the way to the top,” said student Emily Weiss. “There are six elevators and sometimes three of them are shut down, and everyone has class at the same time so that is how the lines get so long.”
Weiss said she has witnessed 100 Baruch students waiting for just two available elevators.
Others are grousing that irritated professors are cutting in line to get to class on time — while penalizing late students.
But more forgiving instructors are giving 15-minute grace periods to their panting protégés.
A Baruch spokeswoman said Tuesday the lifts will eventually be replaced by brand new ones — but she was unable to give any timeline for the completion of the project.
“As a public institution, we do not have funding to relocate the building’s occupants and activities while construction is underway so this is a “live” renovation,” she said.
“The college and CUNY are closely monitoring the project and working with the construction manager to mitigate the impact to students and college activities as much as possible.”