Written by Amber Emery and Ryan Tarinelli
A difference of 11 votes is enough community support to move forward with the implementation of a tobacco ban on the University of Idaho campus, according to the UI Tobacco Task Force.
A November 2012 survey polled 985 UI community members about their support for a tobacco-free campus policy. The results were split — 51 percent of community members supported the ban, while 49 percent voted against the change in policy.
Despite splintered support from faculty, staff and students, the Tobacco Task Force has recently started planning and implementing the proposed tobacco-free campus policy.
The implementation phase includes community outreach, cessation education and the eventual removal of cigarette canisters on the UI campus.
Student support for the ban, future enforcement of the policy and communication efforts by the task force are the main concerns raised by stakeholders throughout the process.
“It’s been a weird process in that there was never one avenue for students to truly represent this voice,” said Nate Fisher, ASUI president. “It seems like it has kind of been asked in a couple different forms, but something that was never really definitive.”
But according to task force member Helen Brown, the task force has not yet heard significant-enough opposition to require further input from the UI community. Brown is a faculty member in the Department of Movement Sciences and teaches a class where the idea for a change to the tobacco policy partially originated.
“I think what happens in these kind of situations is that there is a very silent support,” Brown said. “There is a majority of silent supporters.”
Student support?
Brown said the November 2012 survey conducted by students in her course is an indication of student support for the policy.
Although the survey showed a slim majority in support of the tobacco ban, the survey report also showed 62 percent of respondents favored prohibiting only smoking rather than all tobacco products.
Fisher said the survey does not represent conclusive student support for the ban and he would like to see more input from the student body before moving forward with the policy.
“The findings were 51 percent, but my guess is that there is still a margin of error within that,” he said. “I think that any statistician would probably say that that’s not necessarily something that is incredibly concrete.”
He said there does seem to be legitimate student support for a smoking ban on campus or other changes to the tobacco policies, such as designated smoking areas.
Brown said the survey is statistically valid and the results of the survey were positive considering the task force had not done any education efforts about the benefits of a tobacco-free campus. She said most schools have a year-long educational campaign on the positives of a tobacco ban before initially surveying students.
Brown’s students conducted in-person surveys at the Student Recreation Center and in classrooms, according to the survey report. Surveys were also given to all Resident Assistants in residence halls to conduct with their respective residents.
In addition to the in-person surveys, the student group emailed the survey to 2,000 randomly selected students. Out of the 985 people who completed the survey, 4 percent were faculty, 7 percent were staff and 87 percent were students.
In a previous interview, Brown said an ASUI ballot question in spring 2013 showed similar support and a majority of students were in favor of a tobacco ban.
“ASUI, on one of their ballot initiatives, they added the questions and had very similar results,” she said.
Yet the ASUI ballot results showed only 14 percent of students voted in support of a tobacco ban while 46 percent of students voted in support of a smoke ban and 40 percent supported no change to the tobacco policy, Fisher said. He said 1,602 students participated in the vote.
Fisher said a fall 2012 convenience poll also did not show large student support for the tobacco ban. He said 27 to 37 percent of voting students supported a tobacco ban and 41 to 49 percent of students supported a smoking ban. The poll has not been proven statistically valid, Fisher said, and a large difference in results accounts for statistical errors within the study.
While the ASUI spring 2013 ballot has not been confirmed as statistically valid either, Fisher said only a minority of students want a tobacco ban. Like the student-led survey in 2012, he said there seems to be a significant amount of students who support only a smoke-free policy.
Across the border
While the legitimacy of student support is questioned at UI, Washington State University is having a similar conversation with a different process.
A spring ASWSU election ballot question showed 59.5 percent of undergraduate students voted for the ban. And while the survey showed a significant undergraduate majority, WSU’s task force is gathering additional input from faculty, staff and graduate students through an email poll to receive further input from stakeholders.
Despite the additional input at WSU, Brown said the task force has enough support from students, faculty and staff to move forward with a tobacco ban.
“We think it’s the right thing to do, we’ve done the data, we’ve done the research, and now let’s protect the health and safety of our students,” she said.
Brown said the task force has also met with groups on campus in opposition to the ban and held a public orientation event last week. She said the orientation was open to the public to ask questions about the task force and the tobacco-free policy.
Brown said only one person attended, UI Athletic Director Rob Spear, who voiced support for the tobacco-free policy.
Faculty Senate weighs in
At a September UI Faculty Senate meeting, the task force presented their implementation plans and offered to answer questions. Yet, at the close of the presentation, many members still had lingering concerns and doubts about the enforcement of the policy, and the tobacco-free policy as a whole.
“If we can’t enforce 25 feet from a walkway or door … how are we going to enforce this?” said Cody Earl, the Faculty Senate student representative for the Student Bar Association.
Patricia Hartzell, a member of the task force and former Faculty Senate chair, said there would not be an overt effort to enforce the policy, but students, staff and faculty seen blatantly breaking the policy could face consequences. She said faculty or staff that violate the policy could receive punishments from their supervisor. As for students, Hartzell said repeat offenders would be referred to the Dean of Students Office for reprimand and could face punishments similar to a minor in possession violation of the Student Code of Conduct.
Yet, Brown does not anticipate a problem with enforcement.
With a communication campaign, she said many of the other institutions the task force looked at for guidance did not face enforcement problems.
“Once it was in place, enforcement wasn’t an issue,” Brown said. “With signage, with education, it became the norm.”
Earl also asked the task force why it was moving forward with a tobacco ban instead of a smoking ban, which he said seemed to have more support from the UI community.
In response, Hartzell said many other universities across the nation have implemented tobacco bans on their campus and she is confident a majority of students, faculty and staff support the tobacco-free policy.
To Fisher, who was in attendance at the meeting, the task force appeared to dodge important questions about the implementation of a tobacco ban.
“There were a lot of questions, and throughout that meeting it seemed to me that the task force did have an objective to make campus tobacco-free and weren’t as willing to answer questions,” Fisher said.
Some other members of Faculty Senate thought the ban would adversely affect international students — many of whom come from countries where smoking is a social activity that connects members of a community.
Tuschhoff said the task force is working with the International Programs Office to find a way to dissuade international students from smoking, possibly through peer pressure from other international students.
Ryan Tarinelli and Amber Emery can be reached at [email protected]