Q. What are your expectations on Nov. 19?
Hahn: A healthier place. The signs will be up. We’ll be getting the word out. There will be a lot of activities on the horizon.
It’s not going to end, it’s going to start on Nov. 19.
You were asking me before, aren’t you worried that people aren’t going to comply?
The reality is when you do policy change, people don’t change overnight. I would predict that the majority of students, faculty and staff will comply.
I think it’s human nature that people follow the rules. Now, there will be people that will violate; we know that. They did in the (Medical) Center and by and large we’ve had really good results at the Med. Center. It took a while, you know it’s been a year. People by and large have complied.
People are at the perimeter because that’s where they should be. By and large there’s not much violation. We’re doing compliance tests right now and we’ve had very little violators.
We’re basically counting the cigarette butts and that’s the best way to tell if someone is violating. And where we’re seeing the butts is at the perimeter, right where they should be and that’s what we will see here too.
I’m an optimist and I think most people will comply. There will be some and I think once they’re told the first time they probably will stop. We view compliance as everyone’s business, that’s why we’re doing training here now.
We are training student leaders, supervisors, staff and faculty. We are giving them the scripting they need so they know what words to use. People will be approached if they’re using tobacco and they will be asked in a kind, firm way to follow policy and I have every hope that they will.
Beatty: I hesitate when you ask that question because nothing magical will happen on the 19th, except the policy goes into effect. If you watch societal and cultural changes that happen in this country, they take time.
Given the fact that such a small amount of folks on campus are users in any form, I don’t think you’re going to see anything jump out at us.
A good example I always use is drunk driving. You won’t remember this, but I remember when it was en vogue to drink and drive. It took a cultural shift.
People said that No. 1: it was a health hazard—people were getting killed. And No. 2: it certainly affected a lot of lives. No. 3: we had to do something about it so there was an education and an enforcement push. It takes time.
So on the 19th there will be some events around, but the work really starts after that and it will evolve into a campus that accepts the policy and is truly a tobacco-free campus.
Q. Was there ever any discussion about possibly handing out fines to students?
Hahn: When we looked at what other universities do, that is not considered best practice. I think there’s one place that does. I believe it’s Grand Valley in Michigan that does that. But as far as I know, others don’t. They create this culture of compliance. I always talk about it as a three-legged stool – good signage, education and training, and access to treatment and managing symptoms. That’s what the literature says you do to create this culture of compliance.
Beatty: The discussion was how do we make the policy work as effectively as we can, and there was a discussion about certain ways of ensuring compliance.
One of those discussed early on was just that: citations of these offenses. But the group, the large group, the task force decided that was not the most effective way to do that.
It’s a habit, a health issue. (Would) use of force or actually giving a citation change my mind? Well actually it doesn’t. So, a decision was made to create this culture of compliance where people feel comfortable and create an environment for people to make a change instead of issuing citations.
And I can equate this to the fact that being a police officer for 34 years and looking at enforcement and also being compliant as a person.
Being on a college campus, we’re dealing with 18, 19 and 20-year-old young people who are just getting their lives a direction and order. So if you start writing tickets, misdemeanor citations, those tend to lead to other things because encounters with police officers evolve into something else and then you create a record for an 18, 19-year-old over a habit that they didn’t really have control over.
You’ve got to weigh that out. Is that an effective way to do things? Probably not, because those things mark an individual for life. You probably don’t realize it, but if you have a convicted felony, a misdemeanor violation, it significantly decreases your chance of getting a job.
So why would a university, who’s educating young people to be the best they can be in life create that environment for them?
We brought in somebody from Miami University in Ohio. He gave his story and gave us his suggestions and basically told us that their enrollment is higher than ever.
Some people I think (think) “gee are students not coming there because you’re tobacco-free?†It’s actually just the opposite, people like it and they tend to attract people because of it. We talked to a lot of people around the country. We were on calls with people in California, Indiana and Michigan, and Arkansas shared tools, kits and materials. So we didn’t have to reinvent the wheel.
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