IU looks to improve ban on tobacco

Cigarette butts scattered on the sidewalks, students lighting up on their way to class and residence halls receiving smoking complaints might not seem like scenes from an officially tobacco-free campus.

A year after the smoking ban was implemented amid considerable controversy, IU Provost and Executive Vice President Karen Hanson said the results have not been as good as she’d hoped.

Because this policy has not been as effective as planned, Hanson said a committee of students from various campus organizations will meet to discuss new ways to enforce and improve the smoking ban. The tobacco-free policy idea started with a group of students, not administrators, so Hanson said she wants students to continue to be the ones implementing it.

“Students have ideas that might make it more effective,” Hanson said. “A student’s sense of issues here is particularly intelligent, and they have a lot to offer.”

Currently, students and personnel are encouraged to inform anyone they see smoking on campus of the designated smoking areas. If a student is found violating the tobacco policy, he or she can be sent by IU personnel to Dean of Students Dick McKaig.

One of the possible ideas to make enforcement stricter is handing out citations to those caught smoking, similar to a parking ticket. Hanson said making students pay a fine has worked at other
universities.

The IU Police Department is not expected to enforce the ban, but at the University of Iowa, which implemented its tobacco-free policy in July, police issue citations to smokers.

However, Iowa spokesperson Steve Parrott said police tend to ask smokers to move instead of giving them a fine. He said the ban has been successful.

“Overall, I think when you consider this a big change anywhere, we’ve gotten off to a good start,” Parrott said. “Most people seem to understand it’s for a good cause.”

Parrott also said Iowa put up signs to inform people of the ban and offered help for people who want to quit. IU also posted information about designated smoking areas, and the IU Health Center offers smoking cessation classes, Hanson said.

Though there are places where smoking is allowed on campus, some smokers such as senior Marc Momcilovich, don’t know where to go.

“If there’s a sign, I won’t smoke,” Momcilovich said. “But I don’t know where the designated smoking areas are on campus.”

Momcilovich also said he has noticed a decrease in the number of smokers since
IU implemented the ban.

While people continue to smoke on campus grounds, Hanson said she wants to change IU’s smoking culture, even though it might take a while.

“In hospitals now, people don’t expect to smoke, but 50 years ago, they did expect to smoke,” Hanson said. “Hospitals went tobacco-free. It may be a little while before universities are.”