After several student government groups have discussed reforming smoking policies on campus, students give their opinions on the proposed policy. The potential policy could ban smoking on campus or reduce it to designated smoking zones.
Last summer, when medical student Danielle Harik attended a conference on osteopathic medicine, she was struck when member groups passed a resolution asking colleges to go smoke free.
Harik, the College of Osteopathic Medicine Student Government Association president, wondered why MSU had not already addressed the issue, and she approached the Council of Graduate Students, or COGS, with her thoughts.
After a discussion earlier this month of what a smoke-free policy would entail, the council voted in favor of continuing discussions toward creating a smoke-free campus. Other student government groups recently have passed similar legislation.
According to the American Nonsmokers’ Rights Foundation, as of Jan. 2, at least 648 campuses across the country are entirely smoke free, including 19 colleges and universities in Michigan.
The University of Michigan adopted a smoke-free policy in July 2011, and Harik said MSU is a little behind in engaging in these discussions.
However, concerns have risen on campus about potentially violating student rights if a smoke-free policy were enacted.
Political science and pre-law junior Kyle Thelen said he understands secondhand smoke is a big concern, but a full campus smoking ban would restrict student rights.
“If you’re outside and it’s a big area, you can walk away,” he said. “You’re not trapped with somebody, (and) it’s not like they’re sitting in a classroom smoking. There’s the outdoors everywhere. You can walk away.”
Current policies
MSU already has a smoke-free policy in all campus buildings, and smoking is prohibited within 25 feet of building entrances, but many students have expressed doubt that the current policies are enforced.
“If (MSU police) have to enforce the 25-foot rule on 579 buildings on campus, they would not be able to do anything else,” university physician Beth Alexander said.
Alexander, who spoke at the COGS meeting at which Harik presented, said her office has been working on the smoking issue for several years and she is glad to see students interested in joining the discussion.
Members of the Residence Halls Association, or RHA, first raised the issue of students smoking too close to doors last semester, despite the 25-foot university ordinance.
ASMSU, MSU’s undergraduate student government, also discussed this month working with the university to create smoking reforms on campus.
At the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, students, faculty and staff came together for several town hall discussions educating the university community before the smoke-free policy was enacted, said Kenneth Warner, Avedis Donabedian distinguished university professor of public health at the university.
Warner was the co-chair of a smoke-free committee that worked for about a year prior to the policy’s creation, focusing on how to implement it.
“Are there violations? Of course,” he said. “There is no perfect policy. … (But) there is nothing that causes more illness and more death than cigarette smoking. It is the antithesis of a healthy community.”
Harik said MSU shouldn’t create the policy only because other universities are adopting it, but it is an issue that many people feel passionately about.
“It’s not fair to me if I live my life not smoking,” she said. “I’m still going to be impacted by secondhand smoke, and it’s not my choice.”
A cultural shift
Warner said the committee decided not to have any legal enforcement of the policy, but to rely on people wanting to comply with it.
“I’ve heard people say it’s not working because people are still smoking on campus,” he said. “It’s very rare that you find any law of any consequence where you find 100 percent compliance.”
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Lena Gray, U-M Smoke-Free Environment Project Coordinator, said there are “hot spots” in Ann Arbor where cigarette butts are found more than in other locations, a result of smokers congregating in certain areas off campus.
Gray said the switch to a smoke-free campus should be an attitude change in people’s lifestyles.
“It’s still going to take time because it is a cultural change,” she said. “It’s not going to be an overnight change.”
At MSU, Alexander proposed making environmental changes rather than taking “draconian” measures to crack down on campus smoking.
“We have to deal with a whole bunch of implementation issues that really have to be talked about carefully,” she said.
Personal liberties
A portion of ASMSU’s conversations dealt with the limits of personal freedom some students feel the policy would impose.
Smoking outside the Main Library on Monday afternoon, graduate student Kyu Yub Lee said smokers have the right to choose to smoke as long as cigarettes are legally available.
“As a smoker, we have a right to smoke, but we have to respect nonsmokers,” he said.
Warner said he personally was concerned about student rights being infringed upon by the policy’s implementation, and he thought students would raise their concerns with the policy as well.
But at two town hall meetings the committee held in the discussion process, fewer than 25 students were present, he said.
“I was shocked — and shocked is an understatement — about the lack of concern that was expressed,” Warner said. “The lack of opposition was shocking to me.”
Alexander said the discussions at MSU often have taken a political approach, whether supporting individual rights or health concerns in East Lansing.
“I can’t control what the university does, but it would make much more sense to create an environment of health,” she said.
Lee compared smoking with traffic safety, saying although car accidents happen frequently with hazardous results, cars still are legal methods of transportation.
“We need to coordinate with each other to minimize accidents,” he said.
