Before this semester began, police, faculty and students met to discuss ways to enforce skateboarding regulations, Sgt Jonathan Ott said.

The district’s mission is to provide the entire student body with safe access, including the impaired students and faculty, Sgt. Ott added.

“Last spring Chief Mike Trevis spoke to Associated Students (Organization) to inform students about skateboarding on campus,” Rebecca Cobb, director of student development said. “There are consequences. It’s a violation of student conduct codes.”

If students are cited multiple times for skateboarding on campus, the campus police will then inform Cobb.

“If it’s excessive (and citations are unpaid) then they will end up going to court,” Cobb said.

In the past, faculty members have discussed designing signs with a slogan that will be displayed around campus, Cobb added.

“If it’s a problem, then we all need to start saying something,” Cobb said. “We (will start to) make the practice and the behavior uncomfortable.”

Police are noticing that certain semesters generate more of the illegal skateboarding traffic on campus.

The fall semester most likely generates the most skateboarding because of all the new students, Ott said.

Every semester police and faculty warn students about skateboarding on campus.

“It’s simply a risk management issue,” Ott said. “With (approximately) 18,000 students, we have a lot of pedestrian traffic.”

In the first two weeks of each semester, the police only advise students to not ride their skateboards on campus, Ott said.

“They (skateboarders) mistake it for permission to do it,” Ott said. “The congestion alone just makes it dangerous.”

Although new measures are continuing to be discussed, not everyone on campus agrees.

“I’m not messing up the concrete,” Josh Alvarado, 20, communication major said. “I’m not hurting anyone. I had a knee problem last spring. I was sitting on my skateboard and rolled over to a bush and they (police) gave me a ticket. I got a $140 ticket.”

The dollar amount of the citations is determined by Torrance courthouse, Sgt. Ott said.

If prices do rise on citations, it is the law makers who make those decisions, Ott said.

“I think that’s stupid,” Ric House, 21, psychology major said. “Why would you charge someone for skating on campus? It’s not like we’re going to do something crazy.”

There are plenty of disabled and impaired people on campus and “they may (accidentally) step into the skateboards way,” Ott added.

“I hear them zoom by,” Marietta Scott, 51, business major said. “I am legally blind. Regulations are regulations (and) they should get a citation.”

In the past, people have been injured because of skateboarding on campus, Ott said.

“Over the many years that I’ve been here, we’ve had several senior citizens ran into,” Sgt. Ott added

The college spends money to help the students not get cited, Ott said. The signs are not an “extended April fool’s joke.”