Temporary Ban on Hoverboards Due to Safety Concerns

Dear Colleagues and Students,

Nothing is more important to us than the safety of our community—our students, faculty, staff, alumni, patients, visitors, and fans.

Over the past several months, a national dialogue has developed around hoverboards in light of safety concerns raised by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). The CPSC has issued a strong warning about hoverboards after batteries within the devices were reported to burst into flames — especially while being charged — resulting in a metal fire that can burn with intense heat.

Based upon recent fire incidents across the country, the warning from the CPSC, and University of Kentucky safety standards, all hoverboards and similar devices are temporarily banned on campus, effective immediately.

This ban prohibits the use, possession, or storage in residence halls, university apartments, Greek houses, academic buildings, all other campus buildings, campus grounds, and other off-campus properties controlled by the university.

All members of the UK community — students, faculty, staff, alumni, patients, visitors, and fans — must leave these devices at an off-campus location.

This ban represents a trend across the country. Several Southeastern Conference schools — including Arkansas, LSU, and Vanderbilt — have banned the devices. Numerous other campuses have also banned these devices, as discussed in a recent article in Inside Higher Ed. Major U.S. airlines have banned hoverboards on flights due to safety concerns as well. And on Dec. 14, 2015, Amazon.com stopped selling

hoverboards due to emerging safety concerns.

The ban will remain in effect until more information and better safety standards for all models of the equipment are in place to protect the UK community from the potential threat of fire. For students who already have hoverboards on campus and cannot get them home safely, UK has made arrangements to provide temporary storage. Contact the UK Fire Marshal’s office at (859) 257-6326.

As members of the UK family return to campus after the holiday season, I encourage all to remember that campus safety is a community responsibility. Everyone is asked to be aware of the fire risks and be mindful of the safety of others by not introducing potential hazards to our community.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Eric N. Monday

Executive Vice President for Finance & Administration