Smoking ban
Year in review
BY KRISTEN KREBS
STATESMAN STAFF WRITER
ISSUE: 78/30
On July 9, 2007, the UMD campus community received an e-mail from Chancellor Kathryn Martin that said UMD would be a smoke-free facility starting Sept. 1, 2007. University housing facilities were excluded from the smoking ban until May 19, 2008, due to the fact that students had already signed residence hall contracts for the 2007-2008 school year. According to the contracts, students are allowed to smoke outside housing facilities, at least 25 feet from away from any entrances, windows or air supply vents.
This difference in smoke provisions between the campus and the housing facilities was listed as the only exception to the smoking policy. The ban is “community enforced;” anyone who witnesses a violator has the ability to enforce the smoke-free policy by referring the smoker to a higher power, according to Conduct Code coordinator Kathy Skelton. “It seems like a weak system of enforcement,” said Alex Warden, a UMD freshman who smokes. When asked how likely he would be to turn in a smoker who violated the policy, he said, “I think relying on students, who are here to go to class and go home, isn’t a legitimate way to go about it.”
Skelton works with students who violate the university’s code of conduct. “There have been no reports filed with me,” Skelton said in regards to the smoking ban. According to Skelton, a tip was referred to her office about where people were smoking, but no names were attached. Skelton’s prospective ideas for sanctioning violators include verbal warnings for first time offenders and research papers on smoking for people who are referred to her more than once.
Yet, the question remains, who is going to refer violators? “The campus police should be doing something about it, you’d think,” said UMD freshman Gayle Johnson, a non-smoker. “If they knew there was someone there to do something about it, they wouldn’t do it.”
According to university police Lt. Anne Peterson, the office of general council, human resources, facilities management and both the chancellor’s and vice chancellor’s offices were involved in determining the appropriate way to respond to the ban. These organizations decided together that enforcing the ban would be everyone’s responsibility not just law enforcement.
Peterson knows that people are still smoking. “Our intent is to be polite and not escalate it into a big scene,” said Peterson. “It’s not worth it.” According to Peterson, university police are not able to write out tickets for violators. The ban is a campus ordinance, which does not fall under city or state ordinances. Implementation looks the same for next year when the smoking ban will take effect on UMD housing grounds.
Assistant director of housing Scott Sherin said that the housing smoking ban is going to be community enforced. “It’s impractical to have it any other way,” Sherin said. “Our staff as a resource cannot take on the responsibility.”
According to Sherin, residence life staff will enforce the policy only after it becomes a problem. Sherin also said violations will result in behavior contracts, which are essentially written warnings. Several violations will result in work service hours.
