SCSU ready to use tobacco-free policy
Use on campus won't be allowed starting on Wednesday
11:48 PM, Jul 30, 2012
St. Cloud State University goes smoke-free Wednesday after two years of planning.
University leaders say the tobacco ban will provide a cleaner and healthier campus for students and employees. St. Cloud State is the latest Minnesota State Colleges and Universities member to remove tobacco from its grounds. St. Cloud Technical & Community College is starting its third year.
Mary Bongers, assistant director of human resources at St. Cloud State, said the university is not dictating that students can’t smoke and it is not against the policy to possess tobacco on campus. But with a few thousand residents living on campus, Bongers said safety is a high priority, and health and safety go hand-in-hand.
“The tobacco-free policy shows that we are just as dedicated to improving your health as your mind,” she said.
The policy prohibits all forms of tobacco use on campus including cigarettes, chewing tobacco and hookah, a water pipe. Tobacco use is allowed in traditional Native American ceremonies, scientific studies and theatrical productions or in private vehicles on university property.
The policy is the second phase of a two-year project to make the campus tobacco-free. The first was to assign about 20 tobacco use areas around campus.
In 2010, St. Cloud State President Earl H. Potter III assigned a 13-member task force to review the university’s tobacco use policies. Bongers, who served on the task force, said the task force hosted tables at campus events, conducted surveys and ran focus groups to learn what people thought about tobacco use.
Bongers said the majority of the feedback showed that people thought tobacco use shouldn’t be tolerated. Some comments described it as “gross, unclean and disruptive,” Bongers said.
Bongers said the new policy will give faculty leverage in preventing tobacco use, and will eliminate litter and smoke that interferes with everyone’s experience on campus.
Cleaner campus
Bongers said the main problems with tobacco use on campus were cigarette butts tossed on the sidewalk and people smoking too close to doors or air intakes. The campus has been cleaner since revising the policies, Bongers said.
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