<p>Tulane</a> Senate bans tobacco - The Tulane Hullabaloo : News</p>
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The Tulane University Senate unanimously approved the proposed tobacco and smoke-free community policy during its meeting on Monday. The policy, which bans all tobacco products on all Tulane campuses, is set to take effect in three phases, with an education and marketing stage, issued warnings stage and final enforcement stage spanning the next 18 months.
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A breath of fresh air.</p>
<p>Excellent!</p>
<p>as a student, i strongly disagree with this ban. I am very against smoking and will never do it myself, but i don’t think students should be denied basic rights. It won’t change air quality if a student is smoking on campus versus smoking a foot past the boundaries of campus. Additionally, tulane employs many people from the tulane community. These employees are often middle aged and may have longstanding addictions. There short breaks from work may not allow them enough time to walk off campus just to smoke. tulane really needs to rethink this. A poll done by the Hullabaloo asked students their opinion of the ban: 58 people disagreed and only 38 agreed.</p>
<p>One might question your definition of “basic rights.”</p>
<p>Vitrac is correct, smoking is far from a “basic right”. If it were, smoking bans by local governments, which are common in the Northeast, would have been declared unconstitutional. And it will change the air quality in places like the entrance to the LBC, outside of PJ’s etc. that are in the interior of the campus. I would argue I have a greater right to not be poisoned when traversing public space and therefore smoking should be limited to private properties that choose to allow it, such as residences or bars if the owners opt for it.</p>
<p>These addicted workers certainly have a right to smoke in their own homes and, until either New Orleans or Louisiana passes a public smoking ban, in public places as well. But on private property that forbids it? No.</p>
<p>It’s funny that on some campuses they want to ban all soda products and water bottles, yet somehow smoking is considered acceptable on campus, funny irony.</p>
<p>FYI. [Tulane</a> University - Smoking ban on campus calls for smoking cessation plan](<a href=“http://tulane.edu/news/newwave/043013_smoking_cessation.cfm]Tulane”>http://tulane.edu/news/newwave/043013_smoking_cessation.cfm)</p>
<p>Absolutely ridiculous.</p>
<p>First few times TU students are robbed off campus I wonder how the administration feels…</p>
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<p>Then don’t put the smoking areas there.</p>
<p>Put the smoking areas on the extreme ends of campus; don’t ban smoking entirely. Why do kids who pay 10k plus to live in the bubble have to walk off campus at midnight, 2 am, whenever, to smoke a cigarette? You know everyone’s probably going to go by Audubon blvd first, because it’s actually quite nice and not sketchy. But then the wealthy families won’t like that.</p>
<p>Where’s everyone going to go? Claiborne? Loyola? In the neighborhoods surrounding Tulane?</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s going to be a very effective plan. Most people probably won’t even acknowledge it to be honest, because of how ridiculous it is. I wouldn’t walk all the way into a residential neighborhood to light a cigarette. I’d be much more inclined to walk to some remote part of campus itself, however, knowing that the Tulane bubble is protecting me.</p>
<p>I think they should, one, actually enforce the designated smoking areas. No one actually does, which I think is a problem. And then, two, get rid of the designated areas in the middle of campus (the one by the willow PJs, the one by Bruff, the one in-between Butler and Mayer, etc.). Finally, only have designated smoking areas in places like behind the parking garage, or in front of Newcomb, or maybe behind monroe/the law school. These are areas no one really travels through that much, especially at night, leaving the bars…</p>
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Maybe, just maybe, you’ll stop smoking???</p>
<p>Well, FWIW Tulane is hardly alone in this. [Colleges</a> and Universities - no-smoke.org](<a href=“http://www.no-smoke.org/goingsmokefree.php?id=447]Colleges”>Colleges - American Nonsmokers' Rights Foundation | no-smoke.org) and to take some highlights from this and other news highlights:</p>
<p>**1,159 campuses are 100% smoke-free as of April 5, 2013. This is more than double from just two years prior.</p>
<p>Illinois is likely to pass a bill that bans smoking on all state-supported campuses</p>
<p>All of the schools in the University System of Maryland will be smoke-free by the start of next school year, as will be George Washington and American universities in the District.</p>
<p>Studies show that smoking bans do reduce the percentage of students that smoke as a habit. At Indiana U where a smoking ban went into effect January 2008, smoking levels have dropped by over 22% while at nearby Purdue, which has not changed its policy of limited smoking areas, usage has actually risen slightly (6%).</p>
<p>The US Department of Heath and Human Services (HHS) proposed a regulation that all colleges ban smoking and those that don’t could lose federal grants.**</p>
<p>The point being that this is hardly isolated to Tulane and that it appears to be the inevitable direction regarding this issue. There were actually a lot more articles on the topic than I would have ever guessed, and in major publications like TIME, USA Today, Huffington Post, etc. I rather agree with smchls that if the rules about smoking in restricted areas had been enforced, and especially if those areas had been limited to very low traffic spots, this might not have come about yet, although I still think it would have eventually based on what I am reading. But it certainly is easier to enforce a total ban, plus apparently experience has shown that signage and the “pressure” of a total ban is far more effective than a partial ban.</p>
<p>I know you don’t like it smchls, but it really appears this is a pretty strong movement in this direction.</p>