Campus tobacco policy reinforced
as project draws mixed reactions

January 19, 2012 by Haley Etchison 

As end of funding approaches, no new policy exists but campus conversation continues

(Campus administration decided to post ‘no smoking’ signs as a reminder that smoking is not allowed within 25 feet of a building entrance.)

University administration has taken steps to enforce existing policies on tobacco use, but there is no consensus among UNLV groups about a campus-wide tobacco ban and no new rules have been made.

Tobacco Free UNLV secured $450,000 in federal money in 2010 and aimed to see tobacco use banned at UNLV by 2012. Just before that benchmark arrived, signs appeared declaring that no smoking is allowed in Valerie Pida Plaza.

“I didn’t know about any of that,” said Tobacco Free UNLV Director Susan VanBeuge, “and I was kind of embarrassed because people started emailing me saying ‘thank you so much.’”

VanBeuge said that she received some negative feedback from individuals who thought Tobacco Free UNLV had been responsible for the postings, but that the messages were positive at a rate of 10-to-1.

“The Tobacco Free initiative cannot take credit for it,” she said, “but I would like to think we opened the conversation.”

The postings were the result of an administrative decision and they aimed to enforce existing law and policy: that no smoking is allowed within 25 feet of a building entrance.

After Tobacco Free UNLV began disseminating information to various constituent groups, the offices of facilities management, risk management and safety also investigated public opinion on the tobacco use on campus.

UNLV Media Affairs representative Megan Downs said that the decision was informed by that survey, which sent out independent of Tobacco Free UNLV.

“They tried to find the areas where people complained most about smoke interrupting their walk around campus, so they reinforced the signage in those specific high-traffic areas,” she said.

Downs said that university officials also moved ash trays that had been close to buildings. They are now located outside the 25-foot perimeter.

Tobacco Free UNLV does not have the power to draft policy — only university administrators can do that — but VanBeuge and her team did compile a draft policy which they presented to the president.

“In the best of all possible worlds, this is what Tobacco Free would like,” VanBeuge said.

Some campus groups have backed the project’s ideals.
On Dec. 5, the Faculty Senate approved a statement of the sense of the senate that outlined support for many the initiative’s goals and methods.

The statement asserted that “UNLV should enforce existing tobacco-related policies more consistently, develop smoke-free corridors and continue cessation services for all faculty, staff and students as steps towards a tobacco-free campus.”

Student representatives have not been as friendly to Tobacco Free UNLV’s ideas.

VanBeuge said she has been surprised by some negative student opinions because, at most colleges where tobacco use has been banned, the initiatives had student support.

“Most of these are pushed forward and started by students,” she said.

But even after CSUN health sciences senators organized a special luncheon for CSUN members in an effort to give VanBeuge and her colleagues a platform to discuss their work, the undergraduate student enate voted against supporting Tobacco Free UNLV.

The Graduate and Professional Student Association also decided against backing the project.

GPSA president Michael Gordon explained that though the members of the GPSA Council support Tobacco Free UNLV’s cessation programs, most were against a complete ban on tobacco use on campus because they saw it as impractical and a risk to productivity.

Many GPSA members thought that asking students who live in campus housing to leave campus to have a smoke would be silly and that at night, it could pose a safety risk.

But the greatest opposition within GPSA was against provisions that would keep UNLV from accepting research funding tied to a tobacco company.

“That would just add another layer of bureaucracy,” Gordon said.

He added that at as UNLV works to recover from five years of rapid cutbacks, the university should not limit resources for researchers.

“In the environment of budget cuts, we need all the outside funding we can get,” he said. “Especially if we want to be a tier-one research institution.”

Gordon said that if Tobacco Free UNLV had asked for GPSA support on each goal individually, the council’s decision may have been different.

Though the beginning of the new year has come and gone without a policy to ban tobacco use on campus, VanBeuge believes Tobacco Free UNLV has been successful in that it opened a healthy conversation about an important issue.

“We have raised the awareness on campus of tobacco and tobacco smoke and some of the dangers … of tobacco to individuals and to those who are having passive exposure,” she said.

Plus, she said, as she and other UNLV representatives have participated in statewide discussions about health policy, the project has often taken center stage.

“That increases the credentials of the university,” she said.

Fantasi Pridgon reports on health issues for The Rebel Yell. Contact her at fantasi.pridgon.ry@gmail.com. Contact Haley Etchison at news@unlvrebelyell.com.