According to Longwood Dean of Students Jen Fraley, Longwood University’s Administration will look to change its electric scooters and personal transportation device policy before the end of the semester – addressing a large uptick in scooter usage last year and a number of incidents around campus. That said, Fraley ruled out any “sweeping changes” to the current policy.
“We started seeing a sort of explosion of personal transportation devices on campus, you know, sort of in the middle of last year,” Fraley said, adding, “We decided that in fall that we should take a look at our current policy to look at what we needed to do to create change, and to update this policy.”
The current “Bicycle, Skateboard, In-line Skates, and Scooter” policy was last updated and approved in 2012, and currently states that the “safe and reasonable” use of these personal transportation devices is permitted on campus. That said, it bans the use of them inside of buildings, bans users from wearing headphones during use, instructs users to give pedestrians and people with disabilities the right of way, among other limitations.
However, the enforcement and scope of this policy has been widely debated by students and faculty/staff members alike on platforms like Yik Yak. Therefore, earlier this month, The Rotunda sought out public opinion through a social media form. One student wrote, “People who ride electric scooters do not abide by yielding to pedestrians and there have been multiple times where I've had to move out of the way for my safety, because the people riding scooters are being careless.”
Others, also through Instagram, had varying opinions on usage. One student mentioned the benefits of having a variety of transportation types on campus, and another mentioned that devices like skateboards should have different regulations than scooters and bicycles.
While Fraley could not give specifics about the new-proposed policy, she gave insight on the development of potential changes. After concerns developed within Student Affairs, which oversees offices such as LUPD, Residential and Commuter Life, Fraternity and Sorority Life, CAPS, among others. Policy development then happens within the Community Standards Committee, “a multidisciplinary team has faculty, staff and students represented.”
“We met, as that group, with people on campus from around campus, but also did research on our own to look at what other Virginia state institutions were doing,” Fraley said. Following this, they heard from the office of Environmental Health & Safety among others.
Fraley also made clear that an outright ban on electric scooters and other personal transportation devices is not on the table. When asked, she said “No. Other schools in Virginia have done that, and we did not feel that that was necessary,” adding, “I hope that the new policy will alleviate safety concerns, but we're not going to be in the business of telling people that they cannot have things. We’re going to ask that people limit their usage of them in certain circumstances to preserve their safety.”
As for a timeline, Fraley said they are currently in a “waiting period” before presenting the policy change to the Board of Visitors, Longwood’s primary governing body. They have a proposal set to go to the Board in March. From there, they will look for feedback, comments, concerns, or any other suggested changes.
If approved, according to Fraley, “[Student Affairs’] plan would be to, to do a soft launch of the new policy provisions.” Fraley elaborated on this, saying “we’ll do a soft launch in April, because there's four weeks left in the semester, and then hard implementation June 1.”
As for implementation, Fraley said, “we're not going to make sweeping changes without informing people.” She also said that Student Affairs would look towards “community enforcement” of the policy with components from other offices such as LUPD. She also referenced – throughout the soft launch – an educational campaign for community members, saying “we’re well prepared to do that.”
Longwood University Front GatePhoto by Anthony Anderson
