The Traveler

Issue date: 2/4/09 Section: News

Media Credit: Edward Humphrys Many students have continued smoking on campus despite the tobacco ban.

The "voice of the on-campus student" has spoken, and it said the tobacco ban implemented last July should be changed to allow for designated smoking areas near residence halls, RIC officials said.

The first student group on campus to take an official stance on the current tobacco policy, the Residents' Interhall Congress debated a bill Monday to amend the policy so students could smoke on campus, but only in certain areas. All of these areas would be more than 25 feet from buildings, in compliance with Fayetteville city ordinances, according to the bill.

The amendment was designed to promote the safety of students who use tobacco products and could potentially have to leave campus, said RIC president pro-tempore William Hogan, who also wrote the amendment.

Hogan noted that although no statistics show that crimes at the UA occur more frequently in darkened areas, nationwide, crimes are more likely to occur where there is less light.

In addition to protecting on-campus students, Hogan said he felt the amendment was needed because the current policy is unenforced, something that reflects poorly on the university.

"It is extremely hypocritical not to enforce the policy," Hogan said. People hear that the campus is tobacco-free, but when they are on campus, it is littered with cigarette butts, he said.

While students who use tobacco products are not currently in danger of having to leave campus because the policy is unenforced, the eventual enforcement of the policy would endanger on-campus students, he said.

"At the end of four years, the policy still asks 4,000 students to leave campus," Hogan said.

However, the RIC's passage of the amendment does not change the policy, it only suggests that it be changed and explains that the RIC would only support the policy as specified in the amendment.

"It is not explicitly stated, but implicitly stated that RIC does not support anything else," Hogan said.

Several campus organizations and administrators will receive copies of the newly passed legislation, detailing the RIC's official stance on the issue, and petitioning them to take a similar stance, Hogan said. The chancellor, Campus Council, the Associated Student Government and the executive director of University Housing will all receive copies, along with officials at the Pat Walker Health Center, according to the bill.

While the final fate of the amendment is in the hands of university administrators, the fact that student groups are beginning to voice their opinion on the issue is a good thing, said Becky Howard, assistant director of University Housing and RIC sponsor.

"Anything implemented takes seeing it in action to get it to work," Howard said.

Copies of the bill will be sent to the appropriate officials within two weeks, according to the bill.

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