A rumor has spread throughout social media and across the California State University, Stanislaus campus about the possibility of a campus wide long-boarding ban.

This has been a concern to many who not only use skateboarding as a viable means of transportation on campus, but also students who respect the idea of skateboarding being an unobtrusive and green form of getting from place to place.

“I don’t see what the big deal is about long-boarding on campus,” Andrea Delgado (junior, Sociology) said. “I think the idea itself is pretty ridiculous. If they ban long-boards then they should ban scooters as well because there really is not that much of a difference as far as transportation is concerned.”

After contacting the University Police Department (UPD), we discovered there are no official plans to ban long-boarding on campus. Lieutenant Strode, UPD officer, talked about long-board use on campus and how the surrounding community has an effect.

“Over the years I’ve found that we haven’t had large issues with our students coming on campus with long-boards, skateboards or bicycles, and it continues to be a green method of transportation that students use, especially when parking is impacted,” Lieutenant Strode said.

Students were not the only individuals at CSU Stanislaus who expressed their dissent for the seemingly unexpected proposal. Professor Scott Kasper, who teaches Group Discussion Processes at CSU Stanislaus and has a doctorate in organizational development, commented on the situation.

“Is there some kind of bias,” Dr. Kasper said. “When you think of a skateboarder, what sort of mental models go along with people that are skateboarders? Kids smoking weed, being rebellious, defiant etc. These are some of the things we associate to, so there’s an image to people that skateboard.”

He did however, show empathy as to why the idea of a long-boarding ban would be present on campus.

“There’s the larger question of, have there been injuries,” Dr. Kasper said. “If it’s a danger question then how have they been able to zero that into specifically people riding long-boards or skateboards? If it’s a safety issue then let’s address all of it. Let’s address not just the skateboards, because its a piece of it, they can be dangerous, but there’s scooters and there’s bikes out there. So really there probably should be some rules that apply to all three. So let’s deal with the real core of the issue rather than singling out a group of people that like to cruise it.”Dr. Kasper is passionate about this subject as he has been an avid skateboarder for well over thirty years.

Lieutenant Strode also discussed issues the university does encounter with bicyles and skateboards.

“Generally speaking, when we have issues with bicycles and skateboards on the university, it’s not our students that are involved in those activities,” Lieutenant Strode said.

“It tends to be people from the surrounding community, particularly younger people who come and do the typical things the average person would realize is wrong, such as damaging property. Overall, I don’t have a problem with students long-boarding on campus as a method of transportation to get from point A to point B, and I don’t necessarily see that that’s going to change in the near future.”