Herbert: Smoking will be banned on all IU campuses

When freshmen J. Chang and Jin Kim learned IU President Adam Herbert will tell the leaders of IU to ban smoking across campus, they responded with a string of profanities and a promise of defiance.\n"I would still smoke," Kim said.\n"How would they enforce it?" Chang said.\nThese views represent part of the challenge in Herbert's order, which he announced Friday at the board of trustees' meeting. Herbert said he will give the chancellors of each IU campus until Oct. 1 to submit a plan to eliminate smoking across the IU system.\n"This is about the health and well-being of students, faculty and staff at Indiana University," he said.\nThe president will also direct the chancellors to adopt programs to help smokers at IU kick the habit, he said.\nTrustees Sue Talbot and Phil Eskew applauded Herbert's announcement, saying that smoking is one of the biggest health problems facing Indiana.\n"It's the right thing to do," said Eskew, a Carmel, Ind.-based doctor.\nAt a trustees meeting Thursday, Eskew said he wanted to see smoking banned, though Herbert said the regulation has been in the works for several months.\nDean of Students Dick McKaig and Associate Vice President Daniel Rives be co-chairs of a committee assigned to propose ways to enforce a smoking ban on campus. \nThe committee is comprised of 11 students, faculty and staff members. One of the students, sophomore Donnie Morgan, sent a letter in November to Herbert asking for him to create a task force to potentially ban smoking on campus. \nMorgan is also the creator of the Facebook group "PLEASE ban smoking on IU's campus," which has 1,125 members and has garnered a lot of support from students.\nTrustee Vice President Patrick Shoulders expressed concern Friday that prohibiting smoking, particularly on a residential campus such as IU Bloomington, could be complex. He urged Herbert to consider the potential ramifications of a smoking ban before enacting one.\nIU-Purdue University Indianapolis and IU-East Richmond have both already banned smoking on their campuses.\nBut because Bloomington is a residential campus, the issue is more complicated.\nMcKaig said he is unsure whether a smoke-free campus would mean having smokers walk to the edge of the campus to smoke, or whether the ban would also apply to places such as the football tailgating fields.\nIn her report to the trustees, IU Student Association President Betsey Henke questioned the feasibility of such a ban. A 2003 rule prohibiting smoking within 30 feet of all buildings on campus is not enforced and is ignored by smokers, said Henke, an IU senior.\nMcKaig said he believed the smoking ban was feasible, though it is too early to tell whether IU will be able to enforce it.\n"The goal is to be smoke-free," he said. "These kinds of policies change over time."\nMcKaig said the committee will begin to work on the particulars of a ban at its first meeting Feb. 14.\nIU Police Department Capt. Jerry Minger said police do not enforce current smoking rules. He said violations are dealt with by the campus judicial system.\nHenke, who said she has never smoked a cigarette, also expressed concern about whether an outright ban on smoking infringes on the rights of smokers.\n"Beyond the feasibility and lack of resources, it's a question of how much governance the University should have on a student, a staff member and a faculty member," she said.\nHerbert said he was firm in his decision and intense opposition would not dissuade him from pushing to ban smoking.\nDespite some opposition from smokers, some students feel the smoking ban would be helpful.\nSophomore Elise Bonhivert said smoking is a problem in some areas on campus and is not a problem in others. For instance, she said, she encounters a lot of smokers when walking to class at Ballantine Hall.\nFreshman Krista Bergman said a smoking ban would be nice, but she questions \nthe feasibility. \n"It does bother me to walk behind smokers, but it is important to keep in mind that people do smoke and people sit outside and smoke all the time," she said. "Many students don't have the guts to tell other students they are disobeying the 30-feet rule, but if they could find a way to enforce anything, that would be great"