Despite the ASU-wide smoking ban that began Aug. 1, Downtown smokers aren’t putting out their cigarettes.
For many smokers, the benches outside of Taylor Place served as a communal place.
“Every smoker pretty much met last year at one point or another because either one of us needed to bum a cigarette or needed a lighter or we’re just talking,” journalism junior Zach Holland said.
But with the new tobacco-free policy, individuals are no longer allowed to smoke on campus. This, however, has not stopped students from lighting up.
“None of us really care. We just smoke pretty much wherever we want,” Holland said.
This was demonstrated when students smoked by the benches on campus during Taylor Fest.
Kevin Salcido, associate vice president of ASU’s Office of Human Resources, said he didn’t expect students to stop smoking immediately.
“I fully anticipate that somebody will be smoking on campus the first day of school. I’m not naive,” Salcido said. “But I think as people learn what the policy looks like and how it’s enforced over a period of time, it will be a very rare occurrence.”
Police will not enforce the tobacco-free policy. Because Arizona does not have a law prohibiting smoking on college campuses, ASU police is unable to maintain the policy, Salcido said.
Instead, the policy dictates that students should ask their peers to extinguish their cigarettes, Salcido said.
ASU Public Affairs created a video to demonstrate the proper way to approach fellow students.
The video uses the acronym FLAME, which stands for Friendly introduction, Let the person know about the ASU tobacco-free policy, Advise them about campus quit resources, Make a request that they not smoke on campus and Express thanks for not smoking on campus.
“(I) didn’t really care at first and then when they told me that it was peer enforced, I cared even less because nothing is going to happen to you, like ticket-wise from the cops,” Holland said. “All you have to deal with is people who don’t like it for five seconds and then they’ll, if they do even say anything to you, you can tell them pretty much to either go away or just walk away.”
If a student refuses to extinguish their cigarette, Student Rights and Responsibilities will deal with the situation, Salcido said.
Holland said he was not concerned about issues arising with Student Rights and Responsibilities. He also said the new policy will not hinder his smoking.
“If you go five feet across the street then you’re on the parking lot of the Sheraton, you’re technically not on campus so you can smoke there anyway,” Holland said.
Other colleges, including Maricopa Community Colleges, have used the same or a similar approach to enforce a tobacco-free environment.
When Maricopa Community Colleges became tobacco free, the peer enforcement technique was successful, MCCCD Coordinator of Employee Well-Being Michele Hamm said.
“Anyone who felt comfortable could make that contact but we didn’t require it by any means,” Hamm said.
MCCCD took four months to focus on awareness of the policy without punishment then began to use “hard enforcement” by writing students up and working with student conduct or human resources, Hamm said.
Rarely would a smoker cause major problems, and if they did, public safety officers intervened, Hamm said.
Both ASU and MCCCD worked with the county to create their tobacco-free policies, which contributed to the similarities between the two policy approaches, Hamm said.
ASU has used multiple outlets to educate students about the tobacco-free environment, including a video, various signage and an email, Salcido said.
Before the ban began on Aug. 1, ASU sent an email to 85,000 people concerning the smoking ban, Salcido said. The school only received 10-12 follow-up emails against the ban and a similar number of emails supporting the ban, he said.
Contact the reporter at danika.worthington@asu.edu
