Tobacco groups look to gain support for their proposals
While waiting for University of Idaho President Chuck Staben to make a decision regarding the proposed tobacco ban, both the Tobacco Task Force (TTF) and the Idaho Tobacco Compromise (ITC) are making actions to build support for their respective plans.
UI senior and TTF member Elicia Hunt said the task force recently received a gesture of support from an anonymous member of the community in the form of a $10,000 donation.
“Part of the money from that donation we used to have creative services make our info-graphics, which turned out really nice,” Hunt said.
The info-graphics, titled “Tobacco Free for U and I,” are filled with statistics about the benefits of a tobacco-free campus. Hunt said she hopes students have seen the communication around campus and are learning about the proposal.
The task force also sent out an endorsement letter through OrgSync to reach out to student organizations that may be in support of its policy for a tobacco ban. Hunt said as of now, the task force has received 19 responses from student organizations in favor of a tobacco-free campus.
Senior ITC member Erin Phipps said she was surprised TTF was given the opportunity to reach out to students through VandalMail when her group was never offered the same opportunity.
“There’s been an asymmetry of resources all the way through,” said Steven Peterson, business professor and member of ITC.
ITC has also been hard at work trying to gain support for a revised tobacco policy that would establish designated smoking areas on campus. A few weeks ago, the group posted information about its proposed policy on the Free Speech Wall of the Teaching and Learning Center. Senior ITC member Joseph Cook said the posted information included data from the task force’s official report from ASUI, which he said ironically supports ITC’s policy.
Along with the posted information, ITC also posted a petition for people to sign if they opposed the task force’s policy for a complete tobacco ban. Cook said within a week of the petition being posted, it received more than 100 signatures.
“Usually with those kinds of things if it incites more of a negative response they’re more likely to act or to comment,” Phipps said. “So I was kind of surprised by the majority of positive comments.”
Peterson said ITC doesn’t have many plans to continue its outreach activity during the summer, but members plan to continue collecting signatures to reach its goal of 1,000 people in support of designated smoking areas.
He said he just hopes Staben doesn’t make the decision to implement a full tobacco ban during the summer break.
“If students come back to a full tobacco ban I think that would be most unfortunate,” Peterson said.
As far as TTF goes, Hunt said members plan to continue educating people about the benefits of a tobacco-free campus as the university waits for Staben to make his decision. She said the task force has done an effective job so far in increasing awareness of the proposed tobacco-free policy. She said they’ve raised awareness from 54 percent in the fall to its current state of 86 percent, according to a survey the task force sent out at the beginning and end of the year.
“From our experience, surveying and stuff like that, we’ve gotten a pretty positive vibe,” said TTF member Heidi Anders.
Erin Bamer can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @ErinBamer