Colleges tell students to leave their hoverboards at home

BOSTON -- One of the holiday's hottest presents is considered contraband at many U.S. colleges.

More than 30 universities have banned or restricted hoverboards on their campuses in recent weeks, saying the two-wheeled, motorized scooters are unsafe.

Beyond the risk of falls and collisions, colleges are citing warnings from federal authorities that some of the self-balancing gadgets have caught on fire.

Southeast Missouri State University officials are looking at whether to ban hoverboards campuswide. University policy already prohibits the use of "motorized vehicles" -- which includes hoverboards -- in residence halls.

"It's clear that these things are potentially dangerous," said Len Dolan, managing director of fire safety at Kean University in Union, New Jersey. The public school of 14,000 students issued a campuswide ban effective Monday, telling students in an email any hoverboards found on campus would be confiscated.

FILE - In this Oct. 5, 2015 file photo, Seattle Seahawks wide receiver B.J. Daniels rides through a hallway at CenturyLink Field on an electric self-balancing scooter commonly called a "hoverboard," as he arrives for an NFL football game against the Detroit Lions in Seattle. Since December 2015, several universities have banned or limited hoverboards on their campuses, saying the two-wheeled, motorized scooters are unsafe. Beyond the risk of falls and collisions, colleges are citing warnings from federal authorities that some of the self-balancing gadgets have caught on fire. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File)

"These things are just catching fire without warning, and we don't want that in any of our dorms," Dolan said.

Outright bans also have been issued at schools such as American University and George Washington University, both in Washington, D.C. Other schools said they will forbid the scooters in dorm rooms or campus buildings, a policy adopted at colleges including Louisiana State University, the University of Iowa and the University of Arkansas.

After banning hoverboards from dorms in December, officials at the University of Hartford in Connecticut are considering a full ban because of concerns over how to store them safely, said David Isgu, a school spokesman. Some of the reported fires have occurred while the boards were being charged, authorities say.

At Ohio State University and at Xavier University in Cincinnati, students were told they can bring a hoverboard only if it came with a seal showing it meets certain safety standards.

Schools have issued bans as recently as last week, when the University of Connecticut announced the devices aren't welcome on campus. The University of Alabama and the University of Kentucky declared bans as students prepared to return from break.

Hoverboard representative Brynn Gwynn holds a Hoverboard at CES International Thursday, Jan. 7, 2016, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

Bryce Colegrove, a sophomore at Shawnee State University in Ohio, got an email from his school Tuesday telling students to leave their hoverboards at home after the holidays. It was bad timing for Colegrove, who had received one as a gift from his girlfriend and plotted his new routes to class.

"Honestly, I was really disappointed," said Colegrove, 20. "I don't think it's right to ban them. I mean, it's a college campus; it's not a high school."

On Monday, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission reported it is investigating 28 fires in 19 states tied to the motorized scooters.

Southeast Missourian reporter Mark Bliss contributed to this report.