Imani Vincent, Staff Writer

Jeffrey Gates, Vice President for Student Affairs & Enrollment Management, sent an email on Jan.13 to the Utica College community announcing a moratorium on the use, possession, charging and storage of hoverboards in all buildings on campus. The reason for the ban is due to batteries in the boards bursting into flames while being charged.

The hoverboard has been made popular by many celebrities and media over the past year.

Marking the 26th year anniversary of Back to the Future 2 in 2015, when we all saw the first model of a hover board. Ironically, the year that Marty McFly and Dr. Emmett Brown went to was 2015, it was a huge rush to make hoverboards a reality

 Many celebrities can be seen riding hoverboards on a daily basis such as Chris brown, Jamie Foxx, and Justin Bieber. With the quick fame of the hoverboard, an expected steep price tag has come along with it. The price of it can range from $290 to north of $1,000. The price can be unaffordable for some, but for those who can afford it, tend to use it to a lot.

Freshman Nazim Phillip, an accounting major, owns a hoverboard.

Phillip said that before the ban, he used his hoverboard almost every day to get around campus.

“I used the hoverboard to get to classes and elsewhere, because I have patellar tendinitis and it helped me out a little cause I didn’t have to walk as much, but now I have no choice but to,” Phillip said.

He believes that instead of the overall ban of hoverboards on campus, there should be some type of restrictions on it.

Phillip bought his hover board from IO HAWK, which is the original manufacturer of the product. Since purchasing the product, he has not experienced any complication.

“No complications, but I heard of other people buying the cheap ones off of Chinese websites and that happened to them, so I’m guessing its all about the authenticity of the product,” Phillip said.

The problem doesn’t seem to be the hoverboard when it comes to the complications, but more so where the product is purchased. Cheaper brands have a higher tendency to have a complication.

In the past year when the hoverboard has been made most popular, the CPSC (Consumer Product Safety Commission) has declared at least 40 incidents of hoverboards in America either catching fire or exploding.

“I always wanted a hoverboard because it seemed like a cool way to get around,” sophomore Cameron White said. “The technology also interested me, I have never seen anything like that before, and that made me want one even more.”

With this new ban, it makes getting a hoverboard impractical because like White, he is at school more than home, so he says it will just be a waste of money.

According to Wayne Sullivan, the director of campus safety, the consequences to students who are caught with a hoverboard is immediate confiscation.