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Smoking policy to begin in fall semester

With less than two months until the implementation of SIUC's new smoking policy, some of the details remain foggy.

Beginning in the fall semester, the new policy will prohibit smoking within 25 feet of all University building entrances and completely ban smoking in residence halls. The Student Center will also cease the sale of all tobacco products.

Prior to the new smoking policy, smoking was allowed in designated residence halls and anywhere outdoors.

University Housing Director Ed Jones said the idea for the new policy began last fall and was initially planned to be slowly phased in, but due to a request from the Public Policy Institute, the process was sped up.

According to John Jackson, the chair of the committee appointed to examine the issue, the new policy is positive and will bring a "significant change" to the University.

Jones said the policy was created to remain consistent with the Open Flame Policy, which prohibits candles in residence halls to prevent fires. Jones said the health of students was the primary motivation.

Although the basic idea of the smoking policy is set up, certain rules and regulations have not yet been publicly announced.

The question of where ashtrays will be re-located to and how and who will enforce the policy is currently unknown.

SIUC Police Capt. Todd Sigler said the Department of Public Safety has not been contacted about enforcing the new policy.

Beth Scally, assistant director of University Housing and residence life, said the Residence Hall Association has been working for the past six months to set up rules and regulations regarding the new policy.

Scally said she is not planning to have Residence Hall employees police the area for violators because she believes they will be "pretty easy to catch" in the dormitories.

Jones previously said violators of the new smoking policy would be warned on a first offense, but repeated offenders could be documented as violating University policy and dealt with to University laws. In addition, he said once students learn of the new policy, they have the right to ask smokers to move away from entrances.

But according to Jackson, Chancellor Walter Wendler still has to decide on how to implement and enforce the new policy. Jackson said it is his understanding the policy will be enforced by an "honor code."

Scally said the Residence Hall Association believes discipline should be educational, not punitive, and representatives are still discussing potential methods of punishing violators.

She said instead of ticketing students, they are thinking about making violators watch anti-smoking videos or clean up tobacco-related debris in order for them to learn a lesson from the new policy.

And since students living in the Residence Halls will no longer be able to smoke in dormitory rooms, they are planning on building a "creative sanction."

Scally said the Residence Hall Association is planning to watch where students congregate to smoke and to later build gazebos or smoking huts to provide students a covered area to smoke.

According to Scott Pike, superintendent of building maintenance for the physical plant, the current clean up cost of tobacco-related litter on campus and in the residence halls is estimated at $85,000 a year.

Pike said the projected savings from cleaning up tobacco-related liter would be a slight gain, but the revenue lost at the Student Center due to the policy's ban of selling tobacco products would offset the gain.

According to T.J Rutherford, Student Center director, the annual revenue from the sale of tobacco products is estimated at $52,000.

Although the Residence Hall Association has seemed to create a plan, the University has not worked out all of the details relating to the new smoking policy. Jones said all of the details would be figured out before the policy is implemented in the fall semester.