Smoking policy violates go unpunished

By Allison Bethurem

The Collegian

Every Tuesday and Thursday, Beth Durbin gets out of class, sits on the curved bench outside of the Mckee Fisk building and takes a quick cigarette break before heading to her next class.

She sits among others, chatting on their cell phones or staring up into the trees daydreaming. All are vigorously smoking in the few minutes they have to spare.

These students, however, are all unknowingly breaking Fresno State’s 3-year-old smoking policy which limits smoking to designated areas and at least 20 feet from any building.

“I had no idea there was a smoking policy,” said Durbin, a fifth-year woman’s studies major. “I usually just smoke wherever, and I see other people doing the same. I just figure as long as I am doing it outside, I am OK.”

Durbin, like many students and faculty, looks past the designated areas marked with visible signs to smoke where they please.

The policy created to stop this behavior, however, is being ignored and has generated almost no citations of violators, said Robert Hernandez, director of judicial affairs.

“There has been no one reported to me,” Hernandez said. “I don’t know if people are just ignorant or have a disregard for the policy, but they still do it and are not fined.”

In 2003, an eight-member committee of employees and students formed by Fresno State President John D. Welty created a “Smoke Free Campus Policy.”

Fresno State’s administration stemmed the policy from an act created by the California State University Board of Trustees. The board extended the minimum distance a smoking person must be from any CSU campus building to 20 feet.

A person smoking a cigarette must maintain a distance of 20 feet from a CSU campus building.

“The current policy reflects campus interests in going a step beyond those requirements,” said Jeannine Raymond, director of human resources at Fresno State and committee head of the policy.

The committee cited the United States Surgeon General’s 1996 findings that second-hand smoke smoking is a cause of disease, including lung cancer. It also sites the Environmental Protection Agency’s findings that classify second-hand smoke as a Group A carcinogen, a substance known to cause cancer in humans.

The policy, which went into full enforcement in April 2003, was created to ensure a healthy environment for anyone on the Fresno State campus, Raymond said.

“Our intent is not to be heavy handed,” Raymond said in a memorandum given to all campus managers in August 2004. “But to promote a policy that is intended to foster a healthy working and learning environment for all of our employees, students and visitors.”

The ban, which originally restricted smoking to 13 designated areas, has now grown to 25 designated areas.

Individuals can still be seen smoking on campus in non-designated locations.

“There have been more areas added to the policy to make it more efficient,” said Steven Martinez, director of environmental health and safety. “But, the thing is, is that people are either really good at adhering to the designated areas or they just completely ignore the policy.”

Robert Hernandez said although he has had no citations reported to him, he has spoken to students on campus he sees are breaking the policy.

“I usually go up to them and ask them if they know about the policy,” Hernandez said. “I make sure they are aware of it, and if they’re not, I make them come back to my office and give them a copy of it.”

Enforcing the policy is tough for campus departments, Jeannine Raymond said.

“Our challenge will be the on-going enforcement of the policy,” Raymond said. “From time to time people do forget, and visitors and newcomers may also need to be made aware of the University’s policy.”

Making stricter regulations and harsher punishments is not working to enforce this policy, but education and advertising will be a future goal to spread word across campus, Raymond said.

“There has been new signage added to areas where smokers were inappropriately congregating,” Raymond said. “We have been more aggressive about advertising in those designated areas. Within the past year, though, it was decided that it was better to educate rather than cite.”

One step Fresno State is taking to educate students and faculty, as well as clear the air of unwanted pollutants, is accommodating smokers who wish to stop the habit.

The Fresno State Health Center offers an array of pamphlets, counseling, pharmecutical aids, like the patch and nicotine gum, and a number to a 24-hour hotline to aid those who wish to quit.

“Surveys that we have made show that 11 percent of Fresno State students smoke cigarettes,” said Sam Gitchel, the social norms project director at the Health Center. “We strongly advocate that 11 percent to quit for all of our well being, not just theirs. They can come to the health center and pick up a variety of things to help them on their journey.”

There are also plans to take the policy into the digital realm - the only way to reach many students, Hernandez said.

“We want to get this policy across to students and the only way left is to take it to the computers,” Hernandez said. “We want to e-mail it to all students, even try to put it up on MySpace or Facebook. Even a podcast, whatever students will adhere to, we will try to do.”

A walk through campus on a sunny spring day shows a few single smokers, all adhering to the smoking policy stationed next to the labeled trash can and ash tray.

For some, the policy is not that hard to follow and is easy enough for everyone to follow.

“I have always used the designated areas to smoke in,” said a technician working at Fresno State for 20 years, who declined to state her name. “It really is not that difficult to find the trash can, and put your cigarette butt out in the ash tray. The people who don’t follow the policy just make us all look bad.”

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