By Eric E. Clingan
Arizona Daily Wildcat
February 25, 1998

Skateboarders tear up the university

Two bumper stickers that can only rarely be spotted on the same car are, "Skateboarding Is Not a Crime," and "My Son Made the Honor Roll at (Fill-in-the-Blank) High School." When this juvenile obsession (which should have subsided with one's affinity for comic books and G.I. Joe action figures) continues into adulthood, the University of Arizona, its students and our money are at considerable risk

Have you seen the Harvill Building lately? Have you really stopped and looked at the pavement, the benches, the building itself? Upon closer examination, one is likely to note, with accompanying disgust, the cracking curbsides, the exposed second layer of sidewalk and the skateboard-beaten benchs.

From there, take a walk to the library. Admittedly, you're not likely to find skateboarders in this area - unless it's closed. However, their nightly presence is well-noted. Broken benches, chipping tiles and loose stones are among the remnants of this reckless band.

Across the street, inside the area of what was once a fountain, central on the mall, the decrepit crumbs of cracking concrete are all that spring forward these days. This is unquestionably the direct result of continuous attacks by groups of four or five 180-pound tubs of testosterone, smashing their weight and their wheels against its trembling sides and corners.

Then there is the Memorial Student Union, the university's central focus of controversy last semester. Seldom mentioned in the debate over the funding of a new union was the necessity for immediate funds to repair the wreck of benches, cement ledges and steps which one must now treacherously negotiate upon entry to the building. This jumble of chipped rocks is the sole result of rock-headed juveniles crashing their childish toys without regard to the resultant mess and eventual cost likely to be inflicted on us all in the form of future fees and tuition increases.

Still, non-skateboarders share some of the blame for this state of affairs. How often have we witnessed behavior strikingly similar to that mentioned above? How many of us either ignored it or acknowledged it but stopped short of reporting it? Still, as a check of local statutes confirms, "Skateboarding is not a crime." The same check reveals that vandalism, trespassing, reckless endangerment and destruction of property are all still solidly against the law. As students and as citizens, we share with each other the civic duty and moral obligation to report these rough-'n'-tumble rednecks of recklessness to the proper authorities. In turn, UAPD should more than double its efforts to restrict access to skateboarders from areas where signs clearly prohibit them.

Eric E. Clingan is senior majoring political science.