Email
Password
(Forgot Password?)
Even on a UK men's basketball game day, the usual chants of students were altered in response to the tobacco-ban—"C-I-G-S, CIGS, CIGS, CIGS!"
Under clouds of smoke, more than 100 smokers and non-smokers gathered to protest the campus-wide tobacco ban UK implemented Thursday by continuously using tobacco products in front of Patterson Office Tower and on the Student Center patio.
The ban prohibits the use of cigarettes, pipes, cigars and chewing tobacco, and extends to all properties owned by the university in Fayette County.
“What are they going to do? Tell me that I can’t smoke?” said Robbie Moore
Jump to full article »
Smoking was officially snuffed out Thursday at the University of Kentucky with the start of a strict tobacco-free policy everywhere on the sprawling campus in the heart of burley tobacco country.
The ban includes outdoor areas and applies to chew, pipes, cigars and snuff as well as cigarettes.
Kentucky is the nation's leading producer of burley tobacco, an ingredient in cigarettes, and will keep plenty of ties to tobacco, even with the ban.
Its College of Agriculture offers production advice to tobacco growers and the school is home to a research center that is seeking new commercial uses for tobacco.
The new policy was welcomed by nonsmoker Kelly Stilz, a senior from Louisville.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Crestview Hills City Council will be asking Kenton, Campbell and Boone fiscal courts to pass a smoking ban in indoor public places.
The council passed a resolution urging the fiscal courts to enact the ban at the regular meeting Thursday Nov. 12. The resolution passed 4-3 with a tie break vote cast by Mayor Paul Meier.
The city plans to send the resolution to all three fiscal courts.
"It's the right thing to do for the public," Meier said. "Drinking is legal; drinking and driving is not legal. Yes, you have a right to smoke, but you don't have a right to smoke if it's going to harm someone else."
Council member Thomas Moser cast one of the three dissenting votes on council.
When legislators return to Frankfort in January for a new legislative session, they face a daunting task: how to pay for the state's essential services while revenue continues to decline.
Although official estimates won't be released until next month, initial projections show a $161 million shortfall for this fiscal year, which began in July. And the picture for the next two years doesn't get much better. There could be as much as a $1 billion shortfall for the next two years if the state keeps spending at its current rate of $9.1 billion a year.
While speaking to business leaders in Louisville last week, Gov. Steve Beshear said he has not ruled out any solution -- including another increase in the cigarette tax. . . .
Yet legislators and even Beshear said last week a cigarette tax increase is unlikely to be approved during the upcoming legislative session, despite the known health benefits and the state's desperate need for cash.
Crestview Hills could urge the Northern Kentucky fiscal courts to pass a smoking ban.
At a public forum held Tuesday Nov. 10, the city's economic and zoning committee heard testimony from speakers on both sides of the issue.
The committee was looking specifically for information on the economic effects of a ban, but discussion also touched on personal rights and health issues.
At the end of the meeting, the committee voted 4-2 to recommend to city council to send letters to the Kenton, Boone and Campbell fiscal courts about the smoking ban, asking them to "keep it on the front burner," said council member Frank Sommerkamp Jr.
After nearly a year of laying the groundwork to enforce its new policy, UK will officially become a tobacco-free campus on Nov. 19 -- the day of the American Cancer Society's Great American Smokeout.
The University of Kentucky will spend $25,000 to $30,000 on more than 100 signs declaring UK a "Tobacco-Free Campus."
However, many of the signs already placed contain a misplaced hyphen in lettering in a red Ghostbusters-like circle.
Bob Wiseman, vice president of facilities management, said officials noticed the hyphen problem this week and will correct it easily without adding to the cost.
Crestview Hills city council met Thursday night.
Some want to snuff out cigarettes in Northern Kentucky.
This Thursday night, in a very close vote, one Northern Kentucky city council says it supports an indoor smoking ban inside public buildings.
If this ban passes at the county level, many restaurants in the Crestview Hills Town Center will be affected.
The vote was close. Tied at 3 to 3 actually, with the tie breaking “yes” coming from the mayor of Crestview Hills.
Crestview Hills City Council decided to support an ordinance, urging Kenton, Boone and Campbell counties to prohibit smoking inside public buildings.