Vassar considers smoking ban

After a request from the Committee on College Life (CCL), the Drugs and Alcohol Education Committee (DEC) has created a recommendation for ways to phase out or significantly reduce the areas where smoking is allowed on campus. "We were tasked by the CCL to look into smoking on campus and to make recommendations based on current trends and what our surveys have said," said Head Athletics Trainer and Chair of the DEC Jeffrey Carter.

"It is premature to discuss what if scenarios at this point, but they are questions that will have to be addressed," wrote Associate Director of Security and member of DEC Kim Squillace in an e-mailed statement.

The first phase of the plan includes an update and unification of College smoking policies across campus. Currently, Section 23 of College Regulations states, "Smoking is forbidden in all buildings on campus and within fifty feet of all building entrances. Additionally, smoking is forbidden on the College Center Circle and Patio." Students caught smoking in these areas first receive a warning and then a $25 fine per incident.

However, Carter noted that many buildings and offices only advertise a 25-foot minimum smoking distance from entrances. The DEC proposal recommends that all buildings advertise the 50 rather than 25-foot rule, generally increase signage and encourage smoking further away from buildings by moving cigarette butt containers. When these policies are made more visible, efforts to educate students about these regulations would increase.

A slightly more problematic clause in this current regulation is the imposition of warnings and fines. Though the Security Department technically has the ability to issue fines for smoking violations, according to Squillace, officers rarely mete out fines because no one is really aware of the punishments. "Security is not currently charged with enforcing the 50 feet smoking by issuing fines; however, we will remind people they should be 50 feet from the building," said Squillace.

Putting this part of College policy into practice would come under step two of the DEC's proposal, and the Security Department would wait to impose fines until about six months after efforts to make rules more visible had been completed. "We suggested that if [the CCL] were going to continue with the current policy then they needed to do some education with that," said Carter, indicating that fines would not be imposed immediately despite the fact that the policy already exists. "Security was even a little hesitant to do that because no one really knows the rules, so that was our big thing—don't just go from zero to 100 miles per an hour."

"Security isn't excited about enforcing that," said DEC Student Representative Carson Robinson '12. "Security is almost on the same page as the students. Enforcing policies or enforcing fines is something you do after education."

This second phase would also encompass a more formal reduction in smoking by the designation of certain smoke-free zones, which could include the Walker Athletic Complex and Ballantine Field, the "health corridor" between Baldwin Health Center and Metcalf House, and Main Circle. After the reinstatement of fines, the College might also designate certain areas for smoking, possibly using gazebos that could be paid for with the collected fines. This step would be similar to the smoking policy of the Culinary Institute of America, which has a smoke-free campus except for specially allocated gazebos. The Committee's recommendation suggested that this would emphasize the social aspect of smoking and give smokers a place to go that would be somewhat protected from the elements.

The third and final step would be the establishment of Vassar as a smoke-free campus, though the decision to pursue this goal is now up to CCL. "We actually didn't put pressure on it either way of saying this would be a good idea or a bad idea," said Carter. "This would just be another step that the College could take."

Though increasing awareness of College policies and reducing exposure to second-hand smoke is a definite plan, the ultimate goal of becoming a smoke-free campus is still up for consideration. "I think they're having second thoughts about that," said Robinson. "It doesn't sound possible to me personally. That's everyone's ideal, and we'll see if it remains an actual goal."

Robinson did consider that the change would bring mixed reactions from students. "[Non-smokers] probably just don't really care," he said, but "for people who do smoke, yeah, it's going to be a problem. I think there's going to be a big reaction."

"Some people will be very happy about it," said Carter. "For those who do smoke, I think it will be a little bit of a headache."

Part of the potentially varied reaction to any changes in smoking policies is a disparity between the perception of smoking's prevalence and how many students actually smoke. "The last DEC Survey completed in 2008 and [the American College Health Association survey] completed in 2007 reported that less than three percent of Vassar College students report smoking daily, and about 20 percent have used cigarettes in the last 30 days," wrote Director of Health Education Renee Pabst. "Students may be shocked or disagree with these statistics, but students overestimate how many of their peers are engaging in tobacco use leading to misperceptions about usage."

According to Squillace, "I have been here approximately 13 years, and in my opinion smoking has increased with our student population."

The method of hemming in smoking on campus is also a question—whether it is preferable to reduce smoking's prevalence through regulations or educational efforts. "For a lot of people (a high average compared to other schools, as far as I can tell), smoking is a part of daily student life and for a lot of people it's not. In some crowds it's taboo to smoke and in others it's taboo to ask people to put out their cigarettes," wrote Irina Kaplan '10, who is currently enrolled in the smoking cessation class. "The way to reduce smoking among students is not harsher rules, it's adult education."

One way that the College is already trying to increase smoking education is by offering smoking cessation classes to all members of the campus community for $5. "This is the first year that we have ever offered a smoking cessation workshop," wrote Pabst. "I think the people who have chosen to take the class have appreciated having the class and have found it helpful."

Because the recommendations have to be reviewed by the CCL, the timeline for the plan has not been set, and both Carter and Robinson were adamant that the College will not make the transition immediately. "They're not going to do anything drastic or really fast," said Robinson.

"Our goal was to get it to them this semester so that if they decide to make any changes that they can go into effect at the beginning of next year," said Carter. Any changes that go into effect early next year would fall under step one plans to increase awareness and align the policies of individual buildings with those outlined in the College Handbook. According to Carter, "I think the fact that they asked us for this information says that there is at least a push to make things uniform, let alone what the next step would be after that."