Editors commend administration for hoverboard ban

The hottest gift of the holiday season is perhaps too hot.

Hoverboards, or self balancing motorized scooters, hit the market last year and quickly became popular. But safety concerns caused many campuses around the nation including OCU to ban hoverboards.

University officials are right in banning the boards from campus until safety standards are developed. Even a small fire would compromise the structural integrity of some of the buildings on campus.

As more information on safety standards and materials used to manufacture hoverboards becomes available, perhaps the university will amend the ban to only affect specific models and brands of boards. Until then, it’s better to be safe than sorry.

It is unfortunate that students who purchased hoverboards before the university ban were given no warning. Some boards cost up to $1,000. If students would have known about the potential of the ban, they could have saved that money.

Also, now that the boards are banned, we’re not sure what students who have the boards are expected to do with them.

The United States Postal Service has restricted the shipping of Hoverboards “out of an abundance of caution and in line with major retailers and the airline industry,” according to the website, usps.com.

The United Parcel Service hasn’t banned the shipping of hoverboards but requires the sender to obtain a UPS Hazardous Materials Contract before shipping. UPS also mandates the board be in “like-new” condition and having the original packaging to be able to ship, according to the website, ups.com.

The concept for the board says something about our culture when we are too lazy to walk 10 minutes from one place to another. Instead, we hop on our electric scooters without handles and roll around.

It is too soon to know if hoverboards are a fad or the way of the future. It is still to be seen if walking is a thing of the past, but, in the meantime, enjoy the fresh air on your walk to class. After all, we still don’t understand all the hype about something that doesn’t even hover.