When Notre Dame students return to campus for spring classes in a few weeks, they’ve been asked to leave their electric scooters and skateboards at home.
The Notre Dame administration has never been a big fan of students zipping around the campus’s sometimes busy sidewalks on electric scooters.
When the city of South Bend contracted with a vendor to bring e-scooters in, Notre Dame, for safety reasons, required a geofence so they wouldn’t be operable on campus. But the university had continued letting students use their own devices.
That has now changed. Since Sunday, personal electric vehicles –- including skateboards, scooters, hoverboards, bikes -- are banned from campus.
In addition to the crash risks, their lithium batteries can pose a fire hazard when charging, the university says. Officials declined our interview request but shared an email recently sent to students, faculty and staff announcing the ban.
The email states, “We regret any inconveniences this new policy will create. However, we believe the health and safety of our campus community, and the pedestrian character of our campus, demand this step.”
The email adds that University President Father John Jenkins had asked that a group convene of students, faculty and staff to study the issue. The group ultimately recommended the vehicles be banned.
"As part of its work," the email states, "the working group reviewed data on PEV accidents and resulting injuries, examined PEV policies on other residential campuses, hosted two open listening sessions and invited written feedback from the Notre Dame community, receiving some 580 comments."
The university is offering free storage for the spring semester for students who couldn’t take their vehicles home over break.
