Enforcing smoking ban remains struggle for University

Standing outside the main entrance to Ballantine Hall, junior Sean Flanagan took the final drag from a cigarette. As he exhaled a plume of smoke, he scraped the cigarette against a cement wall and dropped the butt on the ground.

Flanagan knows a tobacco-free policy is in place at IU, but he continues to smoke on campus every day.

“I’ve smoked everywhere on this campus,” Flanagan said. “I don’t really have an opinion of (the policy). If people really did have a problem with it, they would tell me. And if they do, I’ll move away.”

In February 2007, a mandate by the IU Board of Trustees banned the use and sale of tobacco products on all eight IU campuses. The mandate took effect Jan. 1, 2008.

According to the policy, which is available on the IU website, the University “is concerned about the toll that smoking and tobacco use has on the health and well-being of the university community.”

For that reason, the use or sale of tobacco products is prohibited on all property owned or leased by the University. While this includes all parking lots on campus, the policy does permit smoking in private vehicles “provided users make a reasonable effort to contain smoke and smoking materials inside the vehicle (e.g., keeping windows closed).”

Nearly four years since the policy was first initiated, Provost and Executive Vice President Karen Hanson said the University is still struggling to develop a way to enforce the mandate.

“Some proposals have been made, but there have been some complicated legal issues,” Hanson said.

As graduate student Jerrell Allen walked away from the Herman B Wells Library, an unlit cigarette hung from his lips.

He walked into the parking lot behind the library and lit the cigarette. Smoke unfurled around him.

He said he continues to smoke on campus because the tobacco ban doesn’t have any consequences. He said the ban is far from his mind when he lights up. Instead, he is only thinking about getting his nicotine fix.

“It’s not just because there isn’t like an administration that’s telling me not it do it,” Allen said. “But it’s a habit that’s really hard to let go of, actually.”

Although he continues to smoke on campus, he said there are specific areas he avoids, such as doorways, while smoking.

“But there are spots around that smokers kind of congregate, and people know not to walk through if they’re smoking,” Allen said. “So like there’s de facto smoking rules that I think have served the University well.”

He said breaking the nicotine addiction is tough, but he is trying to quit.

While the residence halls and the Indiana Memorial Union had exemptions from the rule the first year, additional exemptions are currently not in place.

Currently, there are not designated smoking areas on campus.    
It’s not as simple when sidewalks are thrown into the mix.

While several internal city streets are considered part of the campus, like parts of Seventh Street and Jordan Avenue, streets on the campus perimeter are not part of the campus for the purpose of this policy, Hanson said.

Hanson said the University hasn’t collected any reliable data of the number of people smoking on campus before and after the policy took effect. But she said it’s pretty obvious that some people are disregarding it.

Preventing tobacco use on campus, according to the policy, will “depend on the cooperation of all faculty, staff, and students not only to comply with the policy, but also to encourage others to comply, in order to promote a healthy environment in which to work, study and live.”

Flanagan said instructors and students have confronted him several times in the past and asked him not to smoke on campus.

He said he thinks these people think if they inhale second-hand smoke, they’ll get cancer, but people smoke freely around the world.

Several yards away, freshman Mandi Reynolds sat on the ground and leaned her back against the exterior of Ballantine Hall.

She said she opposes smoking on campus but said she is too shy to confront smokers about it.

“I’m allergic to it myself, so even being around it makes me sick,” Reynolds said. “It’s not really thoughtful of everyone else, especially for me because I can’t breathe around it. It gives me a lot of breathing problems, and sometimes I break out in a rash.”

Before Reynolds began college this semester, she said she didn’t know IU had a tobacco-free policy.

 After she learned about the policy, she remained supportive but wished students would comply.

She also pointed out dozens of cigarette butts laying on the ground where she
was sitting.

“I like the idea that they tried to do that, but I just don’t think a lot of kids really listen to it,” Reynolds said. “Or I don’t know if they even know of it. I’ve seen like maybe one thing about it walking around on campus.”