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Students protest smoking ban

By Tess Homan

November 14, 2012 at 8:53 pm

Students passed out free cigarettes and carried signs bearing slogans like, “Smoke, chew, it’s up to you,” Wednesday on the Tempe campus to protest the University-wide tobacco ban that will go into effect Aug. 1, 2013, according to a press release Thursday.

ASU Students for Liberty president Blaine Thiederman said his group organized with the Young Americans for Freedom to protest a policy that would infringe on student rights.

“This isn’t an issue of smoking so much as an issue of personal liberties,” said Thiederman, a nonsmoker. “One step toward infringing on our personal liberties is just the first step of many.”

People know the potential health consequences when they decide to smoke and should be free to make that choice, Thiederman said.

“Everyone wants to be happy, and only they know how to make themselves happy,” he said. “That’s the entire importance of liberty … People aren’t always healthy, and it’s because it makes them happy.”

While students should be allowed to smoke, Thiederman said people also have the right to breathe clean air and it is important to balance these seemingly dichotomous rights.

Keeping designated smoking areas around campus is the best way to balance both of these rights, Thiederman said.

Students for Liberty and Young Americans for Freedom have started a petition to repeal the tobacco-free policy.

Associate Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer Kevin Salcido said in an email that student concern about the tobacco ban can be directed to the Undergraduate Student Government, but the initiative is moving forward.

The movement toward a tobacco-free campus started as a student initiative led by the Health and Counseling Student Action Committee, which collected more than 3,000 signatures and was supported by the student government, Salcido said.

“Tobacco use is a documented public health hazard, and ASU is dedicated to providing a healthy environment for faculty, staff, students and visitors. … In addition, ASU regulates other behaviors while on campus such as the use of alcohol,” he said. “A tobacco-free campus would contribute to better health, increased productivity and decreased use of sick time.”

ASU Police will not be involved in enforcing the tobacco ban, Assistant Police Chief James Hardina said.

Freshman political science major and member of Students for Liberty Jared Howell hands out a cigarette after a student signs the proposition against the smoking ban on ASU campuses during the Students for Liberty anti-smoking ban protest near the MU on Wednesday afternoon. The ban is scheduled to go in effect next fall. (Photo by Murphy Bannerman)

“We don’t enforce any University policies,” Hardina said.

According to Thursday’s press release, ASU will use social enforcement to administer the ban, and students could receive sanctions through the University for repeatedly violating it.

Other tobacco-free universities have effectively used the social enforcement strategy, the press release said.

Business communication freshman Natalie Deluca said she supports a tobacco-free campus.

“It’s good to have a campus without smoking because (smokers) also are harming everyone around them,” she said.

Deluca said the University should help students quit smoking by providing support groups and education.

“Like any addiction, it’s bad for you and they should stop,” she said.

Political science senior Matt Adams said the smoking ban is an infringement on personal rights.

“(Smoking on campus) doesn’t bother anyone,” he said.

Adams said he plans to smoke on campus and will ignore the ban when it goes into effect next fall.

Updated at 10:30 a.m. Thursday

Reach the reporter at tnhoman@asu.edu

Source

ASU campuses going smoke-free next year

By Anne Ryman The Republic | azcentral.com Thu Nov 15, 2012 10:13 PM

Less than six months after the state’s largest community-college system banned tobacco, the state’s largest public university announced plans to be tobacco-free.

Arizona State University announced Thursday that it would have tobacco-free campuses beginning Aug. 1. Maricopa Community Colleges banned tobacco in July.

ASU’s widely anticipated decision has been in the works for months and applies to all university property, including events and parking lots at Sun Devil Stadium and ASU Gammage.

“This is a student-led initiative,” said Kevin Salcido, the university’s associate vice president of human resources. “Students pay the bills around here, so we try to be respectful of what they ask for.”

ASU, with four campuses and more than 73,000 students, now prohibits smoking indoors but allows smoking outside as long as people are at least 25feet from entrances. Under the new policy, smoking would be prohibited on all property owned or leased by ASU.

The ban isn’t sitting well with some students, who spent Wednesday passing out cigarettes in protest and collecting petition signatures against the policy. ASU Students for Liberty, a group that opposes the ban, is hoping to collect enough signatures to encourage ASU to set up designated smoking areas.

ASU senior Carlos Alfaro, 22, an executive-board member of the group, said many of the students he talked to on Wednesday were unaware of the planned tobacco ban.

ASU “did not have input from real students,” he said. “Most of them are against this ban because it’s ridiculous.”

The tobacco ban had the support of several student groups, including student government, and the University Senate, which represents faculty.

Smoke-free college campuses are increasingly common and follow a general trend of banning smoking in parks, beaches and other public places. This week, the Pima County Board of Supervisors voted to ban smoking and tobacco products from all county property, including parks, courthouses and county vehicles, as of Jan. 1.

As of early October, 608 colleges in the United States had banned tobacco or had announced plans to be tobacco-free, according to the American Nonsmokers’ Rights Foundation, a non-profit organization that provides education about the benefits of smoke-free air. The trend is being driven by an increasing body of research on the dangers of secondhand smoke and a movement to promote better health.

Critics say smoking bans can be difficult to enforce, and smokers will be forced to rush off campus between classes to smoke. University officials hope that the advance notice of the ban will give people time to quit smoking, if they choose.

The university plans to remove ashtrays from campus and post signs reminding people that campuses are tobacco-free once the ban goes into effect. Electronic cigarettes will still be permitted.

Salcido said the university plans a soft-enforcement approach to the new policy, under which university students and staff remind others about the ban if they see someone smoking. If students or employees repeatedly violate the policy, they could face discipline, although Salcido declined to say exactly what the punishment could be.

“I think our approach is going to be to enforce this with a very light touch as opposed to a heavy hand,” he said. “We want all our students to be successful here.”

ASU sophomore Justin Zeien, who doesn’t smoke, is looking forward to tobacco-free campuses.

“The biggest benefit for us non-smokers will be not having to inhale the second-hand smoke,” said the 19-year-old biochemistry major. “Our health shouldn’t be affected because other people have unhealthy habits.”

The state’s other two universities, University of Arizona and Northern Arizona University, have not announced campuswide smoking bans.

On Thursday, in a wide-ranging interview with The Arizona Republic, UA’s new president, Ann Weaver Hart said that while many students have expressed interest in a campuswide smoking ban, “that’s a long way from becoming a reality.”

Reach the reporter at 602-444-8072 or anne.ryman@arizonarepublic.