Tobacco.org

Nonbinding UT vote to question smoking  

A student-led initiative wants to make the University of Toledo a smoke-free campus.

A vote of students and faculty and staff on the main campus starts today to see if there is support for such a change.

"We want people to have a voice," said Krystal Weaver, president of the Undergraduate Student Government. "There are those who say they have a right to smoke and those who say, 'It's my right not to smoke and to not be around it.'"

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SGA votes against restricting campus smoking 

Freshman legislator Zach Cohen, far right, sponsored the smoking bill the SGA voted down last night.

The SGA rejected a resolution that would have increased the distance people must stand from buildings while smoking at a meeting last night.

This bill comes at a time when the University Senate is reviewing a campus-wide smoking ban, which would completely eliminate the need for a non-smoking radius.

The nearly 30-minute debate surrounding the issue turned to ways to improve enforcement of the existing 15-foot policy before increasing the no-smoke zone to 25 feet around building entrances and windows. The issue culminated in a 19-11 vote in which Student Government Association legislators showed a sweeping preference for focusing on the policy at hand before recommending an amendment.

“People aren’t following the policy that exists,” South Hill legislator Kevin Ford said. “What I’m wondering is, why should we expand the provisions of a failing policy? It’s like promoting someone who isn’t doing their job.”

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VIDEOL: Some UK students protest smoking ban  

You're no longer allowed to smoke anywhere at the University of Kentucky.

A campus-wide smoking ban went into effect Thursday but not everyone's happy about it.

This afternoon UK students along with some others are speaking out against the ban at the free speech area near the Student Center.

UK's smoking ban includes all tobacco products.

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• Universities of Louisville, Kentucky smoking bans go into effect Thursday 

Starting Thursday, Kentucky’s two largest universities are declaring themselves smoke-free, drastically restricting cigarette smoking to create healthier campuses.

The University of Kentucky is banning all tobacco products anywhere on campus, while the University of Louisville is restricting smoking to designated outside areas, with plans for a complete campus ban by next November.

To kick off the ban, information and support booths will be set up in front of the Student Activity Center on the Belknap Campus and the Kornhauser Library on the Health Science Campus from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. And U of L is providing free nicotine patches or gum to students and employees who take part in smoking cessation classes.

Even so, some U of L students are complaining that those preparations have been too hurried, especially when compared with the 11 months of groundwork at UK.

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Tenn. ranks 44th in overall health  

Tennessee ranked 44th among states in overall health, but 45th in smoking and 47th in obesity, both of which cause costly preventable diseases, said "America's Health Rankings." . . .

Today's Great American Smokeout challenges people to quit smoking for just one day (with the expectation that more smoke-free days will follow). Local efforts will target both smokers and nonsmokers, said Tyler Peterson, chair of the University of Tennessee Colleges Against Cancer.

The organization's executive committee will be on the campus's pedestrian walkway today with an exhibit tagged "Aren't you sick of walking through smoke?" and marked with smoke machines and chalk outlines of bodies to represent cancer deaths, he said.

The group will have information on cancers and will give out candy to passers-by - Dum Dums for smokers, Smarties for nonsmokers.

But their serious message is "how to quit,"

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U of L Smoking Ban Begins Thursday 

The University of Louisville begins its program to go smoke free this week.

Starting Thursday, students will only be allowed to smoke in designated areas of its Belknap and Shelby campuses. Those areas will gradually be reduced until smoking is banned entirely in one year.

The University of Kentucky is wrapping up a similar program this week.

Some students at U of L have complained that the school has not followed through on its promise to provide resources to help smokers quit. Anti-smoking program director Patricia Benson says nicotine patches and gum are already available, and classes will be offered.

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Getting Burned for Putting the Heat on Tobacco ($$) 

When professors raised questions about University of Florida students working as researchers on behalf of tobacco companies, they themselves came under tough scrutiny (see related article).

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SCF campus may move to go tobacco-free  

BRADENTON -- The local community college campus may be going smoke-free.

Lars Hafner, president of State College of Florida, told board members Monday that students had been talking to him about the possibility of a tobacco-free campus.

At SCF's Venice campus, students recently held a forum about the matter, he told the board.

"Down in Venice, they've started to aggressively pursue that," he said. "It's a student-driven initiative."

If student groups formally seek a change in the college's policies, it would fall to the Board of Trustees to decide the issue, Hafner said. If the board voted to ban tobacco, it would apply to the Bradenton campus as well as those in Lakewood Ranch and Venice, he said.

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Fernandez: NMC campus is now a smoke-free zone  

More than a month since the passage of a law that bans smoking in public places, the Northern Marianas College assured the public yesterday that the campus is now a smoke-free zone and is drafting policy that would address student violators.

College president Dr. Carmen Fernandez said the institution is compliant with Public Law 16-46, and that smoking is no longer allowed anywhere on NMC property.

Fernandez said that, soon after the enactment of the anti-smoking law, she issued a memorandum to all employees to inform them of the law's application on campus. She said she expects all students, faculty, and staff to comply with the measure.

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SIMS: Students can make own decisions, do not need administration’s policy  

I have to admit that I am personally embarrassed by UK President Lee Todd’s proposed tobacco ban. Obviously, it’s no secret that I am vehemently against the ban but it’s not because I smoke (I don’t) or that I support “Big Tobacco.” As I have explained to several individuals, I don’t really have a dog in the fight. . . .

beyond being embarrassing for the governed, it deliberately limits our freedom of choice. Using tobacco and where we use tobacco (assuming we followed the compromise of outside smoking sections) is a choice that is ours; not the administration’s. To me, it doesn’t make much sense that we elect individuals so that they can make laws to protect us from ourselves. Or in the case of the paternal administration, we don’t even have a say in the matter. It’s just a good thing we have Papa Todd and Mama Hahn to take care of us since we aren’t smart enough to know any better.

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EDITORIAL: Tobacco ban helps UK, state’s health for future 

But with the ban, UK is no longer looking to the past, but to the future.

In four or five years, only a relatively small number will remember what it was like to use tobacco on this campus. In that time, this year’s freshman class, the last one to see tobacco use at UK, will be on the way out. The fresh faces that will come after them will never know what they missed.

Nor will they care.

UK is responsible for the greater community. As the state's flagship unversity with so many resources and such a far-reaching influence, it must be a leader in the tobacco-free movement.

The university and the state have obvious deep ties to the controversial crop. . . .

Going tobacco-free is possibly the best decision UK has made all year.

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[POLL] To smoke or not to smoke: Ban forces students to risk or quit 

Beginning Thursday, students living on campus will have to find other places to smoke beyond the residential campus courtyards. Photo Illustration by Adam Wolffbrandt * Staff

From planning to quit to sneaking outside their dorms, student smokers on UK’s campus are figuring out how they will deal with the impending tobacco ban.

The ban, which begins Thursday, will prohibit any tobacco on campus. However, enforcement for the ban will be mostly student and campus leader-dependent.

“It’s not about enforcement or forcing someone to do something … it’s about changing the habit and getting the help and making a safe environment for everyone,” said Ellen Hahn, co-chair of the Tobacco-Free Campus Task Force, in an October interview.

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Students vote on cigarette ban at Edinburgh university  

STUDENTS were today voting on whether to ban the sale of cigarettes at Edinburgh University.

A medical student tabled a motion for the annual general meeting of Edinburgh University Students Association which would stop EUSA shops from selling cigarettes and remove all cigarette machines on campus.

The motion would also require the students' association to promote services which provide support, information and advice to students who wish to give up smoking. S

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Fernandez: NMC campus is now a smoke-free zone  

More than a month since the passage of a law that bans smoking in public places, the Northern Marianas College assured the public yesterday that the campus is now a smoke-free zone and is drafting policy that would address student violators.

College president Dr. Carmen Fernandez said the institution is compliant with Public Law 16-46, and that smoking is no longer allowed anywhere on NMC property.

Fernandez said that, soon after the enactment of the anti-smoking law, she issued a memorandum to all employees to inform them of the law's application on campus. She said she expects all students, faculty, and staff to comply with the measure.

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Robert Soave: Smoking and students' rights 

Last week, the University held its first public forum to discuss implementation of the campuswide smoking ban. While not really answering questions like, “Whose idea was the smoking ban?”, the University clarified what will happen to students who violate the ban. . . .

I find myself wondering if the University set a date so far in the future in order to minimize complaints from students, most of whom will graduate before being affected by the ban.

Whether intentional or not, this tactic may be working. I’ve heard some people who aren’t thrilled with the idea of a ban say that they don’t care too much because it won’t ever affect them. But regardless of how many students this will impact, all members of the campus community have an obligation to voice their opposition to an unfair policy that sets a dangerous precedent against students’ rights. I'm not a smoker, and never have been. . . . I question how much money will be saved by banning an activity that only about 14 percent of employees and 16 percent of students engage in. Keep in mind that smokers won’t be forced to quit, they just won’t be able to smoke on campus. So instead of significantly reducing health care costs, all this ban will do is further inconvenience and alienate smokers.

The University is free to promote public health all it wants by offering programs to assist smokers who want to make the choice to quit. It can hand out pamphlets on the risks of smoking. It can offer discounted smoking cessation products, as it plans to under the ban. But the activity itself must remain a right of all students on campus.

I urge everyone to attend the next forum, which will take place at 5 p.m. on Nov. 19 in the Walgreen Center’s Stamps Auditorium on North Campus. Students and faculty must make it clear to the administration we aren’t comfortable on a campus that tramples the rights of individuals so easily.

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