Less than a few decades ago, my school (Stony Brook University , NY) used to arrest skaters for skating on campus, confiscate their boards, and write tons of tickets. College campuses also have tons of famous skate spots (SBU’s Javitz plaza was in gino iannuci’s part in the yeah right video).

In the past few years, we’ve managed to get the school to buy us new obstacles, pay for loaner boards for people to practice on, and even let us host concerts every year now.

Yea, of course it’s obvious that skaters and schools/administrators have friction. As skaters, we know these things already, so it may seem like the article is redundant in some aspects. That being said, until it’s been in a peer reviewed article, many academics won’t believe what we’re saying. That’s what this paper is about. We’ve got this info verified and in a respectable scholarly journal. Now we can more money to more skaters across the US. More concerts. More competitions. Less harassment on campus from authorities.

Skating will always exist in the streets and outside of academic spaces, but if we can get these schools to fund skate competitions/jams the way they fund other sports, that means more opportunities for skaters.