SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher’s plan to ban tobacco on SUNY campuses gained momentum this summer when the SUNY Board of Trustees voted in support of her proposal.
Although the trustees passed a resolution to support prohibition of all tobacco use on SUNY campuses statewide, the ban would require approval from the state legislature before it could be enacted.
The proposal came from the chancellor’s Task Force for a Tobacco-Free SUNY, which is a component of Zimpher’s Power of SUNY plan to revitalize the New York economy and improve public health.
“There is a clear mandate in the strategic plan for SUNY to address public health, and tobacco control is at the top of that list,” Carl Weizalis, the chair of the chancellor’s task force, wrote in an email to Pipe Dream. “Why? Because tobacco-related diseases remain the largest number and most costly inventory of PREVENTABLE diseases currently afflicting people around the world.”
Several SUNY schools, including Brockport, Cortland and the University at Buffalo, have already banned smoking on their campuses.
Nick Pappas, a senior majoring in business and marketing at SUNY Brockport, said students do not take the ban at his school seriously because it is not strictly enforced.
“It doesn’t stop anybody from smoking,” Pappas said. “I’ve never seen anybody get in trouble, there’s still kids always walking around smoking.”
However, Weizalis argued that potential problems with enforcement should not deter legislatures from passing the ban.
“Enforcement of rules and policies is always a consideration,” he wrote. “It is also an excuse for not passing worthwhile concepts.”
He added that the task force currently believes enforcement policies should be developed by individual universities rather than by a single SUNY-wide policy. Weizalis also suggested that the mere passing of the policy could cause compliance.
“The best laws or rules are those where the merits of compliance are greater to the good of the individual and community than the not following the rules,” Weizalis said. “Compliance with policy is best done by peer groups which monitor themselves. I may be in la-la land, but I feel that policies once articulated and published will be subscribed to my the majority of campus citizens, and general compliance will follow.”
Weizalis said he cannot predict whether legislatures will approve the ban, but added that he is encouraged by previous legislation that banned smoking in public buildings.
“The Legislature has the power to extend that designation to campus outside areas, including parking lots and green spaces,” he said.
Kyle Roddey, a 2008 Binghamton University graduate running for state assembly in the 99th district, wrote in an email to Pipe Dream that although he is not a smoker, he feels that college students should still be allowed the choice to smoke on campus.
“I feel that designated smoking areas sufficiently far enough from buildings would be satisfactory to provide a healthy campus to all, while still giving those who smoke that ability,” Roddey said. “If the purpose of college is to prepare our youth for the real world, I don’t know why we would want to create an artificial environment where that choice is taken away from adults.”