No more cigarette butts, no more smoke breaks, no more dip cans — tobacco is no longer allowed on UK’s campus.
The ban begins Thursday, and affects all university-owned properties in Fayette County. Products not allowed include cigarettes (traditional and electronic), chewing tobacco, pipes, cigars, snuff, snus and hookah.
With a new Web site that includes the tobacco-free policy, a map of campus boundaries and treatment resources, UK is working toward creating “a healthy environment.â€
“We know that when access to tobacco is limited … people do quit,†said Ellen Hahn, co-chair of the Tobacco-Free Campus Task Force, in an October interview. “They won’t quit right away. It will encourage people to take the steps to quitting. They’ll cut down, though, and that can’t be bad.â€
UK Physical Plant workers collect the smoking posts and old trashcans from around UK's campus on Wednesday night. Photo by Adam Wolffbrandt | Staff
Anthany Beatty, the other co-chair of the Tobacco-Free Campus Task Force, said heavy enforcement does the opposite of helping others change their habits.
“It’s about changing the habit and getting the help and making a safe environment for everyone,†Beatty said. “The most effective way to do that is to do all the things you can in a positive approach to lead people to make the change, not force them to.â€
Hahn said student leaders, supervisors, faculty and staff have been trained to enforce the ban by “scripting.â€
If a faculty or staff member violates the policy, they will be subject to consequences under the Human Resources Policies and Procedures. Students should be reported to either the deans of their respective colleges, or the Office of Residence Life. Visitors who do not comply will be asked to leave campus.
While UK is implementing the tobacco-free policy, other Kentucky schools are as well. The University of Louisville will take part in a ban in June 2010, and Bellarmine University will implement their ban in January 2010.
Hahn said the ban is about more than the right to use tobacco.
“If we’re truly an institution where we want to make others’ lives better and create a population that’s going to give back to Kentucky and be the next leaders of Kentucky, we need to go back to the reason why we’re doing it — to create a healthy environment,” she said.
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Smoking bans started so that nonsmokers wouldn’t have to be subjected to secondhand smoke. That’s not what’s going on here. This has nothing to do with health or science and everything to do with a moral crusade. The anti-tobacco extremists are on dead-set on the road to complete prohibition–and we all know how well prohibition works, right?
Just who do these people think they are? The arrogant paternalism is astounding. And it’s going to backfire.
WTF? The whole point of “electronic cigarettes” is that they don’t contain any tobacco! No smoke (first or second-hand), just flavored vapor that dissipates instantly. I’ve been using one for a week and my former 20+ year, pack-a-day Marloboro Red habit has been painlessly reduced to zero.
Do these people actually understand what it is they’ve just banned?
You know, I am all for the ban but I think they should have left the cigarette butt receptacles until after finals and winter break. This is not going to be a one day, immediate change on campus. It will take time and people will still “sneak” their tobacco products on campus and use them, especially with finals coming up after the Thanksgiving break. The only difference is that now we will have increased litter or garbage bin fires. Also, I don’t see the point in reporting students to their deans for a personal health choice. If they desire to take on the consequences of smoking…that’s their personal business. They can also give fake names or student rival names. That method of dissuasion will not be effective.
As a non-smoker I still have to say this is about image more than health. Something isn’t quite right about it, I never got any second hand smoke from someone chewing tobacco, and if smoking areas were designated I would have enough intelligence to keep out of them if I didn’t want to breathe smoke. This ban is about image.
All those that are expecting riots and protests and the heavy hand of the University to come crashing down keep dreaming. This ban as taken place and over time which the University has plenty of ( I’m out of here in two years) it wont even be a thought in your mind. The incoming freshmen will already be brain washed so the University only has to wait out a few years. As for staff you will have to make a choice between your job and you smokes.
“Hahn said the ban is about more than the right to use tobacco.
“If we’re truly an institution where we want to make others’ lives better and create a population that’s going to give back to Kentucky and be the next leaders of Kentucky, we need to go back to the reason why we’re doing it — to create a healthy environment,†she said.”
So this naive young person who has yet to step out into the great big world seems to think that she is helping to create a healthy environment. Possibly, in a physical sense, but absolutely not in a societal sense!! She is following like a dazed lamb and helping to loose our grasp on the freedoms
that our forefathers fought so valiantly to earn for us. It’s a terrible shame that our society is forgetting that America was considered a “promised land” for so many because of the freedoms we allowed our citizens. Now, day by day, those freedoms are being taken away from us. We are no longer free to choose and free to act; instead, we are told how we must live. Shame on you!
Wow, this is more than just a smoking ban, it is a complete ban on nicotine! And in Kentucky? Wow, pretty extreme. What’s next, a ban on caffeine?
Students are not dumb they will switch to e-cigarettes as they gain popularity
Ben Filas: “So this naive young person who has yet to step out into the great big world seems to think that she is helping to create a healthy environment. … She is following like a dazed lamb and helping to loose our grasp on the freedoms that our forefathers fought so valiantly to earn for us.”
Actually Hahn is an older lady who is the main supporter and contributer to the ban. She’s one of the main people on campus who started the ban.