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Smoking policy results in signs, not fines |
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Thursday, 03 April 2008 |
by JEFF KOEHLER
Intern News Reporter
Appalachian State University Police do not plan to enforce the university’s new smoking policy, Student Government Association President Forrest Gilliam said.
At the most recent meeting of the University Task Force for the new policy, University Police said they were uninterested in enforcing the policy, Gilliam said.
He also said the Office of Student Conduct “wasn’t too excited about it.”
 Student Matt Barnhill takes a smoke break outside of Edwin Duncan Hall Tuesday. Photo by Jameykay Young
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“It’s a virtually unenforceable policy,” he said. “We’re going to fight against putting it in the Code of Conduct.”
Task force member and freshman undecided major Nate H. Cook said employees on campus would
still be held responsible for obeying the policy if their supervisors decide to enforce the policy.
Similarly, students in residence halls would have to obey the policy if their resident advisors felt it
necessary to reprimand students who disobey it.
Cook said the university was hoping the use of signs and positive enforcement would encourage
people to respect the new smoking policy.
Kim Carter, of the Institute for Health and Human Services at Appalachian State, is in charge of
managing money from the Health and Wellness Trust Fund for Tobacco Free Colleges Grant in order to
achieve this goal.
Carter said she was more interested in upholding the policy through the use of signage, information
campaigns and a student coalition of smokers and nonsmokers than attempting to enforce the policy
through fines and punishments.
“Instead of negative reinforcement, we’re trying to do positive reinforcement,” Carter said.
Carter also hopes to promote smoking cessation resources to students, and to change public
perceptions regarding smoking, such as the actual percentage of college students who smoke.
Carter also hopes to find volunteers who are currently smokers interested in quitting, whose progress
her program would then follow as they attempt to quit.
Dr. Lisa Curtin, a professor of psychology, co-authored the grant along with Kit Olson of the Wellness Center.
Curtin said the money from the grant comes from the N.C. Health and Wellness Trust Fund, which
receives its funding from tobacco settlements in the state of North Carolina.
“We’re not really interested in giving people tickets,” Curtin said. “We’re more interested in changing the
culture. I would prefer to reward people to respect the policy.”
She said the N.C. Health and Wellness Trust Fund does not support punishment-based policies.
Carter said other universities had experimented with policies that depended on fines and punishments
in the past, and such methods of reinforcement had not worked.
“In no way is this against smokers,” she said. “It’s an environmental health change for the campus.”
She said this environmental change concerns the impact of secondhand smoke on the health of
nonsmokers, making it a public health initiative.
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