Tobacco Policy passed by ASUSU
A resolution supporting a complete ban of tobacco on campus, including the selling of tobacco in the QuickStop, was passed by the ASUSU Executive Council on Tuesday, and unanimously by the Academic Senate on Monday.
Ryan Barfuss, the prevention specialist for the Student Wellness Center, said tobacco policies are a hot topic here. Utah used to lead the way in tobacco prevention, but has recently fallen behind because some people feel their morality is being legislated, Barfuss said. Now, in 2008, there are 105 campuses that are smoke free.
“We are not the only ones looking for relief from tobacco,” Barfuss said. “People think we are only pushing this because of our moral and our religions, but this is not a moral thing, it is a health thing.”
One of the hesitations the legislative body had in passing the policy was the fear of alienating the students who smoke. Bryan Olsen, student advocate, said he feels that excluding any group of people, including the smokers, is going against the idea of creating an inclusive campus. While Kevin Abernethy, Academic Senate president, said he feels allowing the smokers to smoke whereever they want on campus is actually excluding more people than it is including.
“What about the people who have asthma? They didn’t choose to wake up and have asthma,” Abernethy said. “If people choose to smoke, they are choosing to do it. There are people who have to run past the (Taggart Student Center) because of the smoke, and there are definitely more pregnant women on campus than there are smokers. We are excluding a lot of people who just can’t be around the smokers.”
Jescee Bennett, one of the tobacco program managers for the Bear River Health Department, said in recent studies it has been proven there is no safe level of second hand smoke. There is a myth in Cache Valley that breathing the air in the valley during the winter is worse than smoking cigarettes, but air pollution emitted by cigarettes is 10 times worse than the pollution emitted by car exhaust. One study done in Finland showed there was more pollution around the areas where people were smoking then there was in places with high concentration of vehicles and exhaust, she said.
“The right to smoke is not a protected right,” Bennett said. “Smoking is not an immutable characteristic, you were not born a smoker. The American with Disabilities Act makes it so anyone that has some type of breathing disease on campus has the legal right to sue if they feel like they have experienced some harm from smoke.”
Sonny Bryant, diversity and organizations vice president, said he feels the policy goes to an extreme by banning smoking from everywhere on campus. He said he feels the students who smoke are being singled out, not really because of their habit, rather where they are smoking. He said he feels if the areas where students can smoke are outlined and they are told where they can smoke, it will eliminate some of the problems students are having with the smokers. Bryant suggested amending the resolution to say smokers could only smoke in certain areas, but the resolution was voted down by the council.
Abernethy said he understand that a compromise will probably take place before the resolution goes into effect, but that certain amendments would not have fixed the problem students are having with the smoking. A concern brought up by Spencer Nasser, engineering senator, was if the school did decide to designate spots that were open for smoking, which part of campus would have to put up with it?
“Where do you put (the smoking areas)? Who gets that lucky bid?” Nasser said. “What an awesome opportunity to help students quit, what an awesome thing for us right now, today, to make a huge impact on students forever at Utah State University.”
Abernethy said even though the resolution was passed by both the Academic Senate and the Executive Council, it will not go into effect tomorrow or the near future, as it still has to be passed by other bodies such as the Faculty Senate. The resolution passed Tuesday night states students are in support of a smoking ban.
-debrajoy.h@aggiemail.usu.edu