30-foot rule enforcement methods would carry over to proposed smoking ban
>>Print ViewPublication Date: 11/03/2009
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A proposed policy that would ban smoking campus-wide would be enforced in the same way as the University’s current policy, according to officials.
In the proposed policy, smoking would not be allowed anywhere that is a “University facility” or on any land that is part of the “West Lafayette Campus,” including: University residences, parking garages, parking lots, stadiums, athletic fields, golf courses, the airport or the Union Club Hotel. The policy states, “This term is meant to encompass the entire campus of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind.”
According to senior director of environmental health and public safety Carol Shelby, current penalties for not complying with smoking policy would carry over to the proposed policy.
Shelby said for a first offense, someone smoking on campus would be asked to extinguish their “smoking material.”
“If that person were to be found as routinely violating the policy, if faculty, it would be brought to the attention of their supervisor, or to the dean in the event of a student,” she said.
According to Shelby, all disciplinary actions taken and any records of violations would be handled on a case-by-case basis.
“It’s individual so there is no central way we track that,” she said.
Executive associate dean of students Stephen Akers said records would be kept on smoking policy violators in the same way as any other form of conduct.
“Records are kept on individual students concerning any conduct matters,” he said in an e-mail. “Sanctions for conduct violations include warnings, disciplinary probation, suspension or expulsion.”
Akers said there is no benchmark for punishment of violating the smoking policy.
“No typical penalty since we have not had a case referred to us yet,” he said in an e-mail. “We’ll have to see since we have not received any complaints to date.”
As far as enforcement, Shelby said there is language in the policy that allows for peer-enforcement. She said anyone could ask someone who is smoking on campus to stop and that complaints go to the dean of students’ office.
“Shared responsibility for compliance,” she said.
According to Shelby, smoking would not be allowed anywhere on campus, even along some roadways.
“Any street belonging to the campus would be enforced, but not city streets,” she said.
All Big Ten schools prohibit smoking in some way, but Purdue would become only the second school in the Big Ten, after the University of Iowa, to ban smoking on campus without exception.
Purdue accepted feedback on the University’s Web site until Nov. 1. Purdue will decide on whether or not to adopt the policy in the near future, and, if accepted, the new policy would go into effect July 1, 2010.