Students and staff at the University have been pushing for a smoke-free campus since last spring, and their desires may be realized in another year’s time.

The Smoke-Free Task Force, a seven-person committee made of faculty, staff and one student, will present a recommendation this week to University Vice President for Finance and Administration Frances Dyke that may propose a complete ban of cigarettes on University grounds. Dyke will then make her own proposal to University President Dave Frohnmayer, who will make the final decision.
The task force, created last term, will make its recommendation based in part on a health survey it sent to students, faculty and staff earlier this term. The survey’s results have not yet been released.
The Clean Air Project, a student group that has fought for a smoke-free campus for a year now, hopes the task force recommends a complete ban on cigarette smoking.
“We just want a smoking policy change,” CAP member Nikki Hewlett said. “With all this hype, something’s got to change.”
CAP’s activities this year include holding public smoke-free forums and picking up more than 15,000 cigarette butts in an hour and a half.
“It’s gross,” said Ramah Leith, a health educator at the University Health Center. “We’ve only gotten a fraction of them picked up.”
Leith said the CAP’s forum at the beginning of the month saw “really positive feedback.” Of the “several people” who showed up, only three came to voice opposition to the group’s smoke-free promotion.
“The amount of smokers on campus is a very small percentage in comparison to people who don’t smoke,” Hewlett said.
In a National College Health Assessment survey conducted last spring, only 4.4 percent of students reported that they were daily smokers. That’s why CAP’s members aren’t afraid of any student opposition a smoke-free recommendation would face.
“I think initially there would be some opposition,” Hewlett said. “I mean, just three years ago, we got cigarette sales banned from the EMU. At the time, everyone was talking about it and saying, ‘You can’t do that.’ Now, no one’s saying anything.”
However, after some initial opposition to the decision, “people would see this is the best thing for our campus aesthetically and for the students,” Hewlett said.
Paula Staight, director of health promotions at the health center, said several students with asthma and lung problems came to the CAP forum and said cigarette smoke on campus affected their breathing.
“One student having to hold their breath around campus is one too many,” Staight said, suggesting that indoor smoking bans aren’t enough to protect students’ health. “Even the outdoor area is part of a working space or living space.”
Smokers who have voiced opposition believe banning smoking on campus would infringe upon their rights. Staight disagreed.
“We’re not saying you can’t smoke; we’re just indicating where,” she said. “What other carcinogen would be able to swim around campus without regulation?”
The rules smoke-free supporters want to enforce already apply to alcohol. Students 21 years or older can legally drink alcohol, but the Department of Public Safety will cite them if they are under the influence, or in possession, of alcohol on campus.
If the Smoke-Free Task Force proposes a tobacco-free campus and University administration approves, “it wouldn’t happen immediately,” Staight said. The University would likely provide a one- to two-year window to let smokers get help quitting or plan times to smoke off campus.
“There’s a lot of work to be done to make it a clean transition,” Hewlett said.
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