Skateboarders are rolling around all over campus and I’m all for it,but the school is not. According to the Standards of Student Conduct, skateboarding is prohibited on campus, but that rule has been ignored by many students who either are unaware of the rule or know the rules and simply doesn’t care. I read the campus rules, I understand the rule on skateboarding and I’ll be only be playing myself for a fool to not use my skateboard to make life easier.
Long Beach City College is a huge campus and it’s not easy to navigate around especially when you’re on a time crunch. Its common for me to see students kick and push skateboards and long boards all around campus. As a person who lugs around a skateboard to school, I can speak for every other student by saying that owning a skateboard as a LBCC student is not only an investment; it’s a necessity. Take a look at the LBCC map, the school is broken into two separate campuses with about 5 miles in between, I’m talking two separate zip codes. The Viking shuttle has a few stops in between both campuses. The shuttle helps get between both campuses and to each side of the street at the Liberal Arts campus, but you’re limited to that. Any student with a class schedule in different subject areas, is most likely going to have their classes spread out. In college, professors could care less what your excuse is for being late and could care less about how you got to class. I can speak from experience when I say I’ve been locked out of class, denied to take a quiz, and shunned by professors for being late. Any opportunity, I have to cut corners with an outcome in my favor, will be fully taken advantage of. Any responsible college student understands the value of managing your time, and skating is how I save time.
For me, it’s unrealistic to get a hot meal, use the restroom, speak to the instructor after class, and make it to my next class without the help of some wheels.
My productivity is significantly higher on a skateboard than trying to speed walk or run with textbooks. I know that I can breeze through the campus in a timely manner and get more things done on a skateboard.
I can understand the opposing argument that skateboarding on campus can become a huge liability if anyone is injured on campus but I honestly don’t think that is a strong enough argument. I believe that there is a mutual common sense that skaters and walkers know to stay in their own lanes, and the campus is large enough to do so. For the most part, we at Long Beach City College are mature adults with the best interest in mind when we skate around. I’m not going to be doing nosegrinds down the rails and pop-shuvits all over the campus causing a ruckus. I know LBCC is not a skatepark, I just need to kick and push throughout the campus.
If a solution was to be made to accommodate both the skaters and walkers I would propose the idea to create bike lanes on campus which would be a safe way to separate the traffic. The bike lanes would be painted off to the side of the walkways on campus for any recreational wheel related travel (skate, hoverboard, scooter, bike, rollerblades, roller-backpacks etc). I believe that the trust that students will use the lanes will be based off the honors system.
If you are a part of the walkers who argue that you can get everything done and go to classes on time without the help of a skateboard good for you, you’ll be a blur as I zip past you. I know what works best for me. If LBCC ever decides to scale down to a single building school house, I will leave my skateboard at home, but until then my wheels are going to glide all over the campus. Happy skating!