IU employees, provost weigh in on effectiveness of campus smoking ban

Josh Olsson, a housekeeper for the Indiana Memorial Union Biddle Hotel and Conference Center, took a cigarette break with fellow employees Tuesday on Seventh Street. He remembers when there was a specific smoking area near his work place, but because of the campus-wide smoking ban, employees are only allowed one smoking area – in front of the IMU on the circle drive.

Olsson said he sometimes breaks the rules of the ban and smokes on campus because he finds it difficult to smoke on city sidewalks where groups of pedestrians come in contact with his cigarette smoke. However, he said he finds it difficult to take the ban seriously because of the lack of enforcement.

“Nobody has said anything to me,” he said. “And I smoke in front of doorways all the time.”

Enforcement of the smoking ban was a concern when it was first implemented. However, it will take time for the ban to be completely successful, said Provost Karen Hanson in an e-mail.

She said there have been a few complaints from certain offices and buildings about smokers lighting up on campus, and some changes could be added to the enforcement of the ban. However, she said the ban will move along with cultural changes seen in cities, bars and restaurants.

“Everyone understood there would be some significant transitional issues,” Hanson said in the e-mail. “There are some changes I think the campus could make to improve implementation.”

The IU board of trustees put the ban into effect on all eight of IU’s campuses in the beginning of the 2008 spring semester. Former IU President Adam Herbert considered concerns a group of IU students had about the health of students and faculty on campus and decided to create a committee to consider the students’ idea of banning smoking on campus.

IU’s campuses make up eight of more than 130 college campuses nationwide that ban smoking both indoors and out, according to the American Nonsmokers’ Rights Foundation.

Hanson said in the e-mail that she was in charge of making exceptions to the ban. She said for the first semester of the enforcement of the ban, she allowed some spots outside of residence halls, away from entryways. She said she also made an exception for the IMU hotel and conference center. However, these smoking areas will phase out over the next few years, she said in the e-mail.

Students and faculty comply with the smoking ban by telling others politely that smoking is not allowed on campus, Hanson said in the e-mail. However, she said if students deliberately defy the ban, they can be asked for their IU student ID cards, and the Dean of Students can discipline them. IU faculty can be referred to the Dean of Faculties, and IU staff can be referred to Human Resources, she said in the e-mail.

IMU hotel and conference center housekeeper Connie Prow is not in favor of the ban and said she wouldn’t like it if the smoking areas around the IMU were removed or if the ban were strictly enforced.

“It sucks,” she said. “When they get all of their vehicles to stop emitting gas and businesses from polluting, I’ll consider quitting smoking.”