Editorial: Is a tobacco-free campus a long-shot?

Anti-tobacco policies are a growing trend on American college campuses. Many well-known campuses including the University of Michigan, American University, Clemson and Ohio State’s College of Medicine have instituted policies of their own.
In January 2008, the University of Toledo’s health science campus became tobacco-free while main campus restricted smoking to so-called ‘smoking huts’. UT moved forward with this policy and on Aug. 1, 2014, the UT’s board of trustees made all University of Toledo campuses ‘tobacco-free zones’.
Even though a UT Student Government survey found 60 percent support for the policy, student groups such as the Young Americans for Liberty resisted it. The policy has seen much resistance since it was enacted, both verbally as well as an outright ignoring of the rule.
It is clear that the policy’s objective is to promote the highest levels of health and well-being for everyone on campus. What is not clear though, is how the university intends to effectively enforce the policy and to ensure it is followed.

We must acknowledge that the existing anti-smoking services provided for students and faculty are great. These services include counselors at the Counseling and Wellness Centers, signage at vantage points across campus, maintaining a hotline for reporting violations and prohibiting the sale or advertisement of tobacco products on university properties.
What we question however is another aspect of its implementation – the one that requires people to bear shared-responsibilities in approaching violators in ‘respectful ways feasible’ to draw attention to these violations.
Lets face it, how does a person who finds smoking repugnant ‘respectfully’ tell another person ‘who supposedly knows the policy but chooses to violate it’ to stop smoking on campus? Besides, while not watering down the depth of UT’s sense of community, how much space does our internalized culture of individualism permit us to approach a person in the first place and ask them to do what ‘we think is right’?
In addition, we believe that the official position to not make the policy punitive does not help. As a community we must have clear punishments in place, such as the policy we currently have for checking parking permit violations with both warnings as well as fees. Clearly, repercussions for breaking the rule have not been enforced and so people continue use tobacco-products on campus.
We must also make tobacco-free campus education mandatory components of our freshmen orientations as well as advertise it during university games. It is not fun to have to inhale second-hand smoke at the bus terminal, at a Rocket Football game or just around spots of relaxation on campus. Change requires sacrifices and challenging the status quo.
As a diverse campus we may not adequately satisfy everybody’s desires, but it is important we remain true to what we know is right for the majority and be willing to take criticisms for it. We have to roll up our sleeves and show that we are truly committed to this policy in order to realize the goal of a healthier community sooner.