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The University of Utah will take another look at a proposed campus skateboard ban, officials said Thursday.
The proposal to ban all recreational nonmotorized riding devices on campus — including bikes — won't come before the university's Board of Trustees later this month, said U. spokesman Keith Sterling. Instead, an executive committee for the school's Academic Senate will review it again on June 17. That meeting is closed to the public.
"I think the drafters of the policy wanted to respect the opinion of the full senate because it was such a closely divided vote," said Academic Senate president-elect Allyson Mower. The senate narrowly approved the proposal Monday after a tie-breaking vote from the senate president, with plans to review it again in the fall.
"We definitely want it to be a policy the whole campus can adhere to," Mower said.
Campus police say they need broader authority to clamp down on skateboarders who go up to the higher-elevation campus and careen down, a practice that left a professor seriously injured in a collision about 18 months ago. The policy as proposed at Academic Senate on Monday, though, prohibits all recreational riding on campus, including bikes — though it does allow commuting between classes, participation in university events and riding on the Bonneville Shoreline Trail.
The committee is expected to review possible changes to the new proposal. They may be taking another look at the separation between commuting and recreation, as well as the phase "strictly prohibited" in this line:
"... any recreational, athletic or other use of a non-motorized riding device on university premises unrelated to participation in university-related activities is strictly prohibited," except on Bonneville Shoreline Trail paths.
The policy wouldn't go to the trustees until after the committee reconsiders the language, she said.
Twitter: @lwhitehurst