By: Laurel O'Keefe Assistant News Editor
A campus wide prohibition on hoverboards and their chargers was issued at the start of the spring semester in response to “concerns raised by the Consumer Product Safety Commission and the NY State Fire Marshal,” according to a memo released by Assistant Vice President and Dean of Students Sofia Pertuz.
The memo, released on Jan. 24, restricts the use of “hoverboards, self-balancing scooters, battery-operated scooters, hands-free Segways, electric-powered skateboards and similar devices and their chargers” on Hofstra’s campus.
“We kept seeing a lot of hoverboard accidents and all of these issues with hoverboards all over different campuses. We discussed [the issues] with our Public Safety Director and the Director of Resident Life, Beth McGuire … who drafted a message and helped us pull together the resources to point students to where the safety issues are,” Pertuz said.
Shelby Sandstrom, a freshman accounting major, accepted the ban with open arms. “I got the email and was very excited to hear that they decided to take action against hoverboards,” she said. “I’ve been run over by one before on campus because people are always on their phones when they use them. They’re not watching where they’re going.”
Along with the memo of the ban was a link to the Consumer Products Safety Commission’s website meant to explain where the safety issues and concerns with hoverboards stem from. “I sent that website from the Consumer Products Safety Commission which is saying that they’re not well regulated and they’re definitely not safe,” Pertuz said.
The lack of regulation of the motorized devices has caused multiple models and their chargers to catch fire, a defect that has largely been blamed on the lithium-ion batteries that power the devices. Multiple cases of injuries to users and pedestrians have been reported as a result.
Sandstrom, who has sold the machines as a retail associate at GameStop, has witnessed the lack of knowledge about the composition of hoverboards. “I don’t think people understand how unrestricted they are. I think that if you’re going to have a hoverboard you should have to take a course on how to use them. I don’t want to be looking over my shoulder every time I walk somewhere looking out for some idiot on a toy.”
As for enforcing the ban, hoverboards will be treated like any other prohibited item.
“[The ban] will be enforced by Public Safety, just like anything else. Any student can call any issue to Public Safety,” Pertuz said.
Chargers and hoverboards will also be confiscated during regular resident hall health and safety searches, and students can be fined for being in possession of the item.
Ava Pietruszewski, a senior television production major, disagrees with the conditions of the restriction on hoverboards. “In terms of convenience for students and fining students for having them, I think it’s a little bit ridiculous,” she said. “I don’t think that they’re so dangerous that students shouldn’t be allowed to use them.”
The ban came just in time to prevent students, who may have been gifted the popular item for the holidays, from bringing them to campus.
“We saw more of the hoverboards during the end of the fall semester,” Pertuz said. “We figured during the holiday break many people might have gotten them as gifts and considered bringing them to campus, so we thought sending the message out before the spring semester came was a good idea.”
According to Pertuz, the ban has seemed effective so far as no issues regarding hoverboards have been reported.
She said, “We haven’t confiscated any that I know of, and I haven’t seen one myself. I haven’t seen a report from Public Safety that said anything about confronting the issue.”