Skateboarders and BMX bikers, targets of a recently passed Freshman Council bill, said they are disappointed with the student government body’s legislation as well as the university’s neglect of their sport.
The bill, passed at the Council’s March 29 meeting, is an attempt to lower the noise pollution at Presidential Courtyard. As stated, the bill will enforce the quiet hours of 9 p.m. to 9 a.m. at Presidential Courtyard.
Management of the bill has been passed to the Department of University Housing. The bill’s sponsor, Kendall Downing, said Housing should control the situation.
“It will go to Housing, and they will have to figure out how to enforce it,” Downing said.
Along with giving responsibility to University Housing, the bill will also ban BMX bikes and skateboards after Presidential Courtyard is renovated. The renovation is part of the University of Tennessee Campus Master Plan, which seeks to revive the campus community and push for a more pleasant campus.
But skateboarders and BMX bikers said they feel the bill was a direct attack on their sport. Skateboarder Zachary Widgren, a freshman in studio art, said he knows skateboarding and BMX biking often create noise but that UT does not offer the proper facilities for the sports.
“You have to remember the fact that UT has not done anything for (skateboarders and BMX bikers). We have different facilities to house basketball, tennis, basically any sport you can think of,” Widgren said.
Widgren said he and his friends skate in the evening as a means of relieving the stress they experience during the day. The bill is unfair because he has to drive at least half an hour to reach the nearest skate park, he said.
“Why couldn’t they invest in possibly building something, even if it is a few ramps? If they did, then they could have bragging rights and pull in a more diverse group of students,” Widgren said.
Lee Bowie, a sophomore in graphic design and a fellow skater, said there is a stigma against skateboarders. A few isolated instances have caused massive retaliation against skaters, he said.
UT does not have a skateboarding or BMX biking club, and Widgren and Bowie said they do not have the time to start one.
“I would join a club if there was one. I always thought it would be cool,” Bowie said.
Currently, UT does not have a skateboard facility incorporated into its Campus Master Plan. The City of Knoxville does.
The Knoxville Skatepark will be located at Tyson Park, past Cumberland Avenue and beside the Metron Building UT recently purchased. The Tony Hawk Foundation is still in the process of fundraising for it.
The Knoxville Skatepark Web site says a total of $535,000 has been raised, and the plan is to bring the amount to $1 million. Some of the current fundraising for the park includes T-Shirt sales, contests, corporate sponsors and personal donations.
Once completed, the park will be the biggest of its kind in Knoxville and surrounding areas. The park will invite skaters from the UT campus and from all over the city to use its facilities during designated hours.
Widgren said he is excited about the park, but still wishes UT would build a small park on campus.
“There will be kids everywhere and it will close at 10 p.m., which is the normal time I skate,” Widgren said.
The park is set to break ground this summer.
