Proposal for 'tobacco-free' campus backed by senate

By Sarah R. Buchholz, Chronicle staff

hanges to the campus's smoking policy may be in the offing, prohibiting the sale or free distribution of tobacco products and any smoking in residence halls, partially covered areas, such as porches, walkways and bus shelters, breezeways, outdoor staircases and landings, and areas adjacent to building entrances.

     The Faculty Senate passed a motion to designate the campus "tobacco-free" at its Feb. 13 meeting. The policy will go into effect if the administration approves it or does not object to it within 20 days.

      Currently, only 10 of the 41 residence halls permit smoking, Jo-Anne Vanin, interim vice chancellor for Student Affairs and Campus Life, told the senate. Although rules governing smoking in those buildings has restricted it to designated lounges, some students have complained that the smoke makes its way down the halls to their rooms.

     "Every year students with asthma and allergies have been forced to either move to other areas of the residence halls or move out of the residence halls entirely because of the adverse irritation of secondary smoke," the special report of the senate's Health Council, presented at the meeting, reads. "Students who enter college as nonsmokers are 40 percent less likely to begin smoking if they live in smoke-free residence halls than are students who live in unrestricted housing.

      "Increasingly, UMass employees are requesting better enforcement of existing smoking regulations. Secondary smoke, which can be irritating and offensive to non-smokers, is drifting into windows and entranceways of buildings affecting places of work. The University has a legal and moral obligation to provide a safe living and working environment, free from the hazards of tobacco, to the members of the University community."

      The resolution requires that smoking be prohibited in residence halls as soon as possible and no later than the beginning of the fall 2004 semester.

      The measure also prohibits the tobacco advertisements in University and student-run publications and will not allow campus organizations to accept money or gifts from tobacco companies if they are given for the purpose of advertisement or the intention of generating loyalty to their products.

      It further calls for the University to strengthen on-campus tobacco-treatment programs for students, faculty and staff. With smoking banned on campus, the Health Council will focus on assisting and supporting campus community members who wish to quit smoking to be succeed at it, according to Robert Sinclair, chair of the Health Council.

     "There are existing funds, grants that are available for this," he said. "That's where the Health Council wants to put its attention."

      When asked about enforcement of both existing and proposed regulations, Sinclair said the same people who are responsible for enforcing existing policies would handle the proposed rules.

     He acknowledged that some areas where smoking already is prohibited-within 20 feet of any building entrance and on balconies, porches and roofs-have continued to be used by smokers.

      He later added that enforcement is as much up to individual smokers as to an external agency.

     "We have reasonable people here at the University, and the new regulations can [prompt] them to reconsider their behavior. I hope this is going to help create even more effective learning and living conditions on our campus."