Not going into the Halachik ramifications of Shabbos elevators (which makes me want to side with the DHCR if the students are truly all healthy and young) I believe many Shabbos elevators in high rise buildings only stop at every second floor. That would presumably cut the extra wait time in half and should be a fair compromise. If there are disabled shomer Shabbos residents, modifications can be made. But I don’t think this is the real issue here. The old-timers apparently don’t want young students and are trying to make them “uncomfortable”, using the all too common tactic of “legal” discrimination.
