EDITORIAL: Smoking policy destined for failure
This week, Central Michigan University issued a news release announcing ownership over the open air.
To help facilitate “a healthy environment for learning, living and working,” university officials announced campus would become “tobacco free” beginning July 1. The new policy will eliminate the use of any tobacco products at CMU, including chewing tobacco and electronic cigarettes.
Although the new rule has its fair share of pros and cons, the central fallacy appears in the enforcement of the policy.
Relying on the campus community to police itself, the university cites a “good neighbor initiative” where students using tobacco will be respectfully reminded of the new policy. What this means, according to the release, is that students and staff will both share the responsibility of enforcing the policy, as well as adhering to it.
Smokers beware: Failure to comply with the respectful reminder might result in another respectful reminder – and that’s about it.
Presently, CMU hopes to ensure smokers follow the policy only because it exists.
By asking faculty and students to enforce the rules themselves, it’s only putting a burden on non-smoking staff members – the only people who will reasonably abide by the “good neighbor” initiative.
We asked Associate Vice President of Human Resources Lori Hella about the enforcement, and she said that it would pose challenges but it’s still worth doing.
“We want this to be a culture that supports health, so we support having a policy making that statement,” she said.
And that’s all the policy appears to be – a statement of support.
The current smoke-free policy requires that smokers stay 25 feet from any entrance to any building, and it’s a policy that is clearly ignored everyday. Even smoking receptacles are located within the 25-foot perimeter at a handful of buildings.
Regardless of how members of the campus community view the policy change, without any realistic enforcement techniques, the policy is destined for failure.
But there is good news for smokers: Those who wish to continue smoking can either travel outside of campus to enjoy their tobacco or sit in their car with the windows rolled up. No “designated smoking areas” have been established.
The policy appears to be in place only to improve the public image of the university, not to realistically apply it to the campus community. By calling campus “smoke free,” it looks appealing on the surface, but without enforcement, nothing is likely to change.
