By Jeremy Hill
Prepare to toss out your cartons and cans Bobcats. Beginning fall semester 2015, Ohio University’s campus will be tobacco-free.
The policy, called the “Smoke and Tobacco-Free Initiative,” prohibits the use of all tobacco products on OU’s Athens campus, including outdoor smoking. The university will educate campus on the ban this year and ban tobacco products at or before the start of the 2015-16 academic year.
The ban includes e-cigarettes, which some OU professors allow students to use in class and are not universally considered the same as smoking or chewing tobacco. E-cig users emit water vapor, not smoke, when they exhale but the full health effects of their use are unknown.
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Smoking is already not allowed in campus buildings, including residence halls. The ban would mean, for example, a cigarettee is acceptable on a Court St. sidewalk adjacent to campus, but out of bounds on the College Green.
OU’s policy will be enforced using "a community model,” according to the OU Board of Trustees’ agenda for their Friday meeting. The ban will be enforced on a peer-to-peer basis. Students and staff will be encouraged to remind anyone seen smoking on campus about the policy. But at least one Ohio university has had difficulty implementing this enforcement model with success.
Vice President of Student Affairs Ryan Lombardi said there will be consequences for repeat offenders but those have not been developed yet. He did say student suspensions or employee terminations are off the table, adding, “No one is interested in that outcome.”
“We will adopt a formal policy this academic year, and begin rolling out the education, marketing and other initiatives as the year progresses,” said Lombardi.
This fall, the university will begin placing signs around campus to raise awareness of the policy. Smoking cessation classes will also be offered. A budget for those programs is being developed, Lombardi said.
“The focus of the entire campaign will be on education and cessation support," he said. "We are taking our time on this transition, because we want to be sure that every individual on our campus has the ability to transition away from using tobacco on campus."
Three other public universities in Ohio, Cleveland State University, Miami University and Ohio State University, all went tobacco-free in less than 12 months. OU's timeframe is three years, begun in 2012.
A survey conducted by the university found that about two-thirds of faculty and students who responded were in favor of the policy.
Omar Kurdi, a student at OU, called the initiative “A step in the right direction and a success for public health and safety" on Twitter.
"Wish this had been implemented when I was still a student," wrote Erica Fissel, @e_fiss. "Nonsmokers' health shouldn't be compromised due to choices made by others."
Some students harbor more negative opinions. One Twitter user, @cultofthecat, who claimed to be a student, called the initiative “whack." Another, @TheRealP_O, suggested it would be “impossible to enforce.”
"It's crazy," tweeted Michael Firlotte, @Furlotie. "People want restaurants and airports to be smoke free but people can smoke outside there. Why not for campuses?"
The policy was developed in response to the Ohio Board of Regents’ recent unanimous vote to encourage all public universities in the state to implement tobacco bans. In Ohio, 19 universities besides OU, both public and private, have enacted similar bans. That includes Ohio State and Miami universities.
In 2008, Miami became one the nation’s first universities to become entirely smoke-free. The resolution was passed after a poll of Miami’s University Senate found that 62 percent of its members were in favor of a ban that included cessation programs for students and faculty.
Claire Wagner, director of media relations at Miami, said the policy has been successful but is not perfect.
“We’ve tried to strengthen enforcement by making it less passive," she said. "For instance, if you’re a supervisor, you have the responsibility to inform people that Miami is a smoke-free campus."
While the school's policy outlines disciplinary actions for breaking the ban, Miami has only had one instance of the policy leading to punishment, with a repeat offender, Wagner said. "Most people are polite and receptive," she said.
Ohio State went tobacco-free in 2013 as part of its goal to become “The healthiest university in the world.”
Both bans prohibit non-traditional smoking methods, including e-cigarettes, and extends to smokeless tobacco products. Ohio State’s policy recognizes that these products differ from cigarettes but states they have “a positive affect on smoking.”
Campus smoking bans have increased by nearly 2,000 percent nationally over the last six years, according to the Regents. In three states, smoking bans on college campuses are state-mandated.
jh082913@ohio.edu
