Smoking policy shows no citations

Administrators say violations have been uncommon

By LABAN PELZ

Fresno State’s year-old smoking ordinance, though not completely complied with by students and staff, has generated almost no citations of violators and is a sound and effective policy, university administrators said.

“This type of policy is a challenge to enforce,” said Jeannine Raymond, director of human resources at Fresno State and head of the committee that created the policy.

“Like any other university policy,” she said, “you are expected to adhere to it.”

The ban, which limits smoking to 25 designated areas on campus, went into full effect Oct. 1, 2003. An advertisement period for the policy began April 1 of the same year, and a time where violators would only be warned started July 1. Raymond said the policy received an intentionally slow beginning because it “relies on people changing their behavior.”

What caused Fresno State’s administration to look into such a policy, Raymond said, was an act of the California State University board of trustees. The board had extended the minimum distance a smoking person must be from any CSU campus building to 20 feet and had also “opened the door for presidents to draft other policies that might be more restrictive, if they chose to.”

The “smoking task force” was made up of Raymond and a half dozen people familiar with smoking policies, individuals from such areas of the university as risk management and the campus health center.

The charge of the group, she said, was to draft a non-smoking policy and then take it to Fresno State’s faculty and students.

“What we looked at were policies from local agencies: Fresno Unified School District, community colleges, places that our students would be coming from. We also looked at healthcare agencies,” Raymond said, noting that Fresno State’s policy is no more restrictive than those of such organizations.

Though the smoking policy has been in effect for more than a year, individuals can still be seen smoking on campus in non-designated locations. Many of these are confronted by campus safety personnel or police who happen to be going through the area, and are then informed of the policy, said Director of Public Safety David Moll.

“[Safety personnel] do it all the time,” he said. “And they get mixed results. I personally have talked to a half dozen people [in violation].”

No records are kept of these occurrences, Moll said.

He said such instances consist of a friendly conversation and a provision of a campus map that indicates the designated smoking locations. No citations are given if the person stops smoking or moves to a designated location. He also said safety personnel will onlyenforce the policy “if they have time to deal with it.

“They could be on another assignment.”

Moll also said campus police tend not to deal with the issue, as their presence is valued more.

“We only have one or two police officers on duty during the day,” he said, “and their priority is not enforcing the smoking policy.”

While most smokers comply with requests from safety personnel or police to stop smoking in non-designated areas, Moll said there have been some disagreeable moments, and these are the instances that can send a violator through the university’s judicial process.

“I got chewed out the other day by a staff member,” he said. “He wasn’t real happy about the policy.”

Moll said he knows of only two such episodes, one of which made it to school administration.

“It was a faculty member,” he said. “That’s all that I know of.”

Both Moll and Vice President for Student Affairs Paul Oliaro agree that it is the job of all on campus to help enforce the policy. Oliaro said the approach should be a societal one.

“The committee expected that everyone would assume some responsibility for enforcement,” Oliaro said.

“If someone sees someone smoking where they shouldn’t be, ask them to stop.”

He said such action would probably resolve the situation in 99 out of a 100 cases. If it doesn’t, Oliaro said, the first individual should then contact public safety.

“The way it was designed was that everybody out there would be the eyes and the ears of the university,” Moll said.

Oliaro also agreed with Human Resources Director Jeannine Raymond that the smoking policy is difficult to impose. He said it works “because most people comply.

“The vast majority of people are civil. The vast majority want to do the right thing,” he said. “The policy is a good one. It’s consistent with most campuses around the country.”

Oliaro and Director of Judicial Affairs Robert Hernandez said no complaints of student violations have come to their attention.

Raymond, who would handle any cases involving violations by university staff members, said she also has received no such news.

Though not all comply with the policy, Raymond said students throughout the system are very supportive of non-smoking policies, though she did not specify whether these are students-at-large or simply representatives of student bodies.

She said she recently received a call from the University of Hawaii, where the president there wants to develop something similar.

“Fresno is leading the way,” Raymond said.