Spring Break
Campus Council discusses tobacco ban
Samantha Sigmon
Issue date: 4/4/08 Section: News
The campuswide tobacco ban, which goes into effect July 1, was the focus of the Campus Council meeting Wednesday.
Campus Council holds a biannual meeting of all governmental organizations on campus to discuss the events and news in each department.
Chair of the Campus Council, Janine Parry, who is also an associate professor of political science, called the meeting to order in Giffels Auditorium.
UA faculty never got a chance to discuss the new tobacco-free policy, said Jeannie Whayne, faculty Senate chairwoman.
Paul Bixby, staff Senate chairman, said the staff Senate voted in opposition to the tobacco ban.
The tobacco ban will be "one more bump toward recruiting people to work on campus," Bixby said. Recruiting already is difficult because of wages and the fact that staff members have to pay for parking. Making people leave campus to smoke will be another factor to deter others from working at the UA, he said.
ASG took a neutral stance on the ban, but it organized a town hall meeting Feb. 27 for students to voice their concerns about it.
Sam Hall, head of the Resident's Interhall Congress, reported that out of 1,900 votes from students on whether they supported the ban, 54 percent were opposed to it.
Campus Council members expressed concern that the ban is based only on voluntary compliance. The current smoking policy of being at least 25 feet away from entrances already doesn't work and isn't enforced, they said. They wondered about enforcement of the new ban.
"As a policy, there is no strong enforcement, no ramification, no guts to it. This is going to cause problems," Bixby said.
Angela Hand, member of the Tobacco Free Task Force, said the UA no-tobacco policy was based on the ban at Ozark Technical College.
In 1999, OTC adopted a resolution to make the campus tobacco-free by 2003, according to the school Web site. OTC used educational material and posters as the first part of its campaign against tobacco. Then, once the ban was in place, it was up to faculty, staff and students to notify smokers on campus that it was a smoke-free environment and kindly ask him to go off campus to smoke.
Campus Council holds a biannual meeting of all governmental organizations on campus to discuss the events and news in each department.
Chair of the Campus Council, Janine Parry, who is also an associate professor of political science, called the meeting to order in Giffels Auditorium.
UA faculty never got a chance to discuss the new tobacco-free policy, said Jeannie Whayne, faculty Senate chairwoman.
Paul Bixby, staff Senate chairman, said the staff Senate voted in opposition to the tobacco ban.
The tobacco ban will be "one more bump toward recruiting people to work on campus," Bixby said. Recruiting already is difficult because of wages and the fact that staff members have to pay for parking. Making people leave campus to smoke will be another factor to deter others from working at the UA, he said.
ASG took a neutral stance on the ban, but it organized a town hall meeting Feb. 27 for students to voice their concerns about it.
Sam Hall, head of the Resident's Interhall Congress, reported that out of 1,900 votes from students on whether they supported the ban, 54 percent were opposed to it.
Campus Council members expressed concern that the ban is based only on voluntary compliance. The current smoking policy of being at least 25 feet away from entrances already doesn't work and isn't enforced, they said. They wondered about enforcement of the new ban.
"As a policy, there is no strong enforcement, no ramification, no guts to it. This is going to cause problems," Bixby said.
Angela Hand, member of the Tobacco Free Task Force, said the UA no-tobacco policy was based on the ban at Ozark Technical College.
In 1999, OTC adopted a resolution to make the campus tobacco-free by 2003, according to the school Web site. OTC used educational material and posters as the first part of its campaign against tobacco. Then, once the ban was in place, it was up to faculty, staff and students to notify smokers on campus that it was a smoke-free environment and kindly ask him to go off campus to smoke.
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
Pete
posted 4/03/08 @ 10:59 PM CST
It's nice to see UA is actually moving into the 21st century when it comes to public smoking. I don't enjoy secondhand smoke and I don't enjoy seeing discarded butts littering the campus. (Continued…)
Trevor
posted 4/05/08 @ 11:24 AM CST
Does anybody really think the University will have trouble with staffing due to the smoking ban? Most people are non-smokers, and a smoke-free campus isn't going to deter non-smokers from employment or enrollment. (Continued…)
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