Jump to full article: Fox News, 2009-06-04
Author: Andrew Staub
Intro: The teachers at Pennsylvania's state colleges and universities have succeeded in doing what their students couldn't: overrule a statewide ban on smoking on campus.
Some students in the Keystone State raised a ruckus last September when the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education banned smoking throughout its 14 campuses, including all outdoor areas.
But the students' outcry went largely unheeded -- until their professors chimed in.
The Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties (APSCUF), the union that represents the 6,000 faculty members and coaches in the state school system, objected to the smoking ban -- and last month the state's Labor Relations Board overturned it, ruling that the education board had failed to negotiate with with the union.
The labor board ordered the education board to rescind the smoking ban for union members and to "cease and desist" from refusing to negotiate with the union. . . .
That leaves schools such as Clarion, West Chester and Kutztown Universities, among others, with tenuous holds on their smoking bans -- much to the delight of smokers like 21-year-old Clarion student Steven Dugan.
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