POCATELLO — Based on the results of a survey and a recommendation from students, Idaho State University officials have decided to make the campus completely smoke-free as of Sept.1.
The university is one of 800-plus post-secondary schools across the nation that have adopted the policy, according to a news release, which adds that the local recommendation came from the Associated Students of ISU.
“This is the culmination of a resolution adopted almost 11 months ago by ASISU urging ISU to go totally smoke free,” Shaun Stokes, immediate past president of ASISU, said in the news release. “Although there was some discussion about a modified smoke-free campus, in the end we felt that allowing smoking anywhere on campus defeated the purpose of having clean air environments. And building external structures for smoking limited to certain areas of the campus seemed a poor choice of resources.”
Before the decision was made, faculty, staff and students had a chance to participate in a survey. Nearly 70 percent considered smoking to be a health issue and said they would support policies to maintain clean-air environments, according to the news release. In addition, more than 60 percent felt the campus should go totally smoke-free.
Almost nine percent of the university community smokes on a daily basis, so ISU is offering smoking cessation workshops through Student Health Services and the ISU Wellness Center to help people adjust to the change. Officials say smoking cessation patches are also covered by the student health fee and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Idaho, ISU’s health insurer.
ISU President Arthur C. Vailas said he is pleased to implement ASISU’s recommendation next month.
“As the higher education institution in Idaho that offers the largest number of programs in the health professions, this new policy is consistent with our focus on health and wellness,” he said in the news release.
(1) comment
To my mind this is another example of the suppressive atmosphere that dominates the ISU campus and makes it a bad choice for students
who want to consider a University as a place of unrepressive learning environment. The basic motive of course is money. It would give the
Public Safety more reason to write the tickets and continue to be an oppressive prescene and violation of rights of privacy. This school is already notorious for their oppressive conduct.
To implement such abusive legislation on the student body when supposedly sixty per cent voted for it, hardly the case. It is in line with the purist monopoly that now controls the campus.
Idaho State U. will always be a small time school with small time minds.
I myself am not a smoker. But it is a clear cut violation of civil rights
when a policeman has the authority to accost individuals walking down
the street smoking a cigarette between classes, and issue them a citation.
Of course this kind of civil rights violation is in sinc with the Mormon
Doctrine of no tobacco. It shows more than anything that American Civil Liberties are being undermined daily in Idaho and this disgusting policy of empowering the police to further violate invasions of privacy
is not condusive to the atmosphere of a "public university" that should be committed to the protection of the rights of minorities.
What it does in affect is stignmatize people and it further enhances the prejudice that is so prevalent in monoculturism that reflects the right wing suppression and police state that exists in the Kingdom of Deseret.
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