After some students raised concern about the amount of smokers near MSU buildings, student government groups are working to develop an enforcable solution.
Council of Graduate Students, or COGS, President Stefan Fletcher said the issue of potentially creating a smoke-free campus likely will come up at next month’s COGS meeting after medical students raised the issue, and the council will discuss creating a concept for the proposed policy.
Becky Allen, a health educator at Olin Health Center, said there are many campuses across the U.S. that have implemented a smoke-free policy, whether it bans smoking entirely or reduces it to designated areas.
Allen said 17 percent of students have smoked at least once in the past 30 days, according to Olin statistics.
According to the American Nonsmokers’ Rights Foundation, as of Jan. 2, 648 campuses across the country are entirely smoke-free. There are 19 colleges and universities in Michigan that are smoke-free, including the University of Michigan.
The Residence Halls Association, or RHA, brought up a similar issue last semester when representatives expressed concern with students smoking too close to doors of residence halls and other buildings.
Smokers are required to stand at least 25 feet away from doors by what some representatives said is a rarely-enforced ordinance.
RHA discussed forming a committee to address smoking on campus, but RHA Director of Health and Safety Zachary DeRade said RHA still is determining the best approach to take. The group plans to work with Residential and Hospitality Services to reach a solution.
Finance junior Fengzhu Shan said having specific smoking areas would be the best solution, allowing smokers a place to stand while not bothering other students.
She said enforcing the policy would be difficult, and some of her friends continue to smoke near university buildings.
“Even when we ask them not to smoke, they don’t listen to us,” she said.
Fletcher said there are certain difficulties in creating a smoke-free policy. The question is not whether to have the policy in place but how it can be enforced if it is implemented.
Communication junior Anthony Flores said too many people smoke on campus for the current 25-foot policy to be effectively enforced. But if the entire campus was smoke-free, people might come down harder on the issue, he said.
Allen said administrators need to be aware of the consequences of the potential policy before moving forward.
“It’s a matter of getting the key stakeholders at the table making the decision that’s best for everyone,” she said.
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