Skateboarders might soon have a place to skate without being harassed and told to leave areas of Ohio State’s campus.
Bruce Maurer, associate director of Outdoor Facilities, said that most of the administration on campus would like to see a designated skate park because of the damage caused by skateboarders.
“Nothing is happening currently, but it is on our to-do list,” Maurer said. “We know there is a need for a skate park.”
Maurer said that there is a tentative site in the works on west campus.
“We have a plan to realign the basketball courts, and have 18,000 square feet for a skate park,” Maurer said. “This would be a great opportunity to renovate that site.”
Maurer said that there is a grant opportunity through the Tony Hawk foundation to finance a skate park.
“If students would push for this, it would help out,” Maurer said. “Student involvement is very important.”
For more than five years, skateboarders at OSU have been under the microscope because of a rule that was passed by the OSU Board of Trustees.
In December 1998, the Board of Trustees carried out a rule meant to restrict the areas on campus for skateboarders. This rule does not fully prohibit skateboarding on campus, but it does limit the sport in most areas of campus.
Parking garages, walls, steps and inside of buildings are just a few of the many places where skateboarding is prohibited.
The Board of Trustees says there has not been any change in the rules prohibiting skateboarding since 1998.
The rule also offers the university’s Division of Transportation and Parking Services to confiscate and impound skateboards.
Rick Amweg, assistant chief of OSU police, abides by the rules limiting and impounding skateboards.
“We take enforcement action based on the board of trustee rule,” Amweg said.
Students caught skateboarding where they should not are notified that they are in a restricted area and are told to leave.
“We make a record of the contact so we know who has been caught,” Amweg said. “We step up the enforcement the second time around.”
Campus police do not rule out keeping the offender’s board.
One of the main reasons for the Board of Trustees’ rule is the damage around campus.
Kevin Wagner, director of Physical Facilities Roads and Grounds, said that skateboarding on campus happens all the time.
“It’s hard to catch everyone because it happens so often,” Wagner said. “Skateboarders will grind their boards into the concrete and tear up benches and hand rails.”
Wagner said that Physical Facilities does not replace all damages.
“We can’t afford to replace everything. We replace a lot of benches, around 20 to 30 a year, and there are about two to three broken handrails every year as well,” Wagner said.
“We power brush the sidewalks and clean them, but the damage is too severe,” Wagner said.
Physical Facilities Marketing and Communication director, Dave Sweet, director of Physical Facilities Marketing and Communication, also says that they cannot replace everything.
“A big problem is the discoloration of handrails, and there has been a lot of damage to trees,” Sweet said.
“I would estimate that there is about $5,000 to $10,000 in damages every year,” Wagner said. “This is just part of being an urban campus.”
A lot of the people that Wagner catches are not even OSU students.
“Fifty percent of the people I catch around campus are not even part of the student body,” he said.
Wagner says he does not think that a designated skateboarding area would stop the problem.
“I think that the problem would be reduced, but would not go away,” Wagner said. “Arrogance comes with it. They (skateboarders) think that they can board wherever they want.
“We want to make this campus look the best that we can,” he said. “We (Physical Facilities) track so many things here that I don’t expect to catch them all.”
