CCL to revise current smoking policy

By Sasha Benderly_Kraft

The Committee on Campus Life (CCL) is lighting up changes in Earlham’s smoking policy, which was up for renewal under its three-year review cycle this past fall.

Members of the committee felt strongly enough during the discussion of the policy to call for a change in the policy for its next cycle, according to CCL member and Earlham Student Government Co-President Cory Mathieu, senior.

The committee has decided upon no definitive version of the policy’s new form at this point, but Mathieu was willing to discuss the committee’s thinking and process on the matter. From her perspective, the two main issues at stake in this revision are enforcement and respect.

According to Mathieu, a focus on the language of the policy with an eye to respecting smokers is prominent among the committee’s priorities.

“We’re being careful not to make smokers feel marginalized,” she said. “As a whole, the committee isn’t concerned with stopping smoking on campus.”

Instead, the committee hopes to create a climate of mutual respect between smokers and non-smokers.

To Mathieu, second-hand smoke is the main issue when it comes to respect. While she said the committee acknowledges that smoking will happen and does not wish to make smokers change their habits, the health and comfort issues of secondhand smoke provide an impetus for a clearer and more respectoriented policy that will allow smokers and non-smokers alike to be comfortable, she said.

To her, a major part of this process is selecting more specific smoking spots and clearly labeling them, while attempting to change the phenomenon she refers to as “smoking in transit” — students lighting up immediately on departure from a class building on the way to another. Mathieu says the committee understands the reasons for this behavior, but would like to have specific smoking areas available for these times for the comfort of nonsmokers.

The main focus of the committee, however, is finding a balanced policy toward enforcement. According to Mathieu, the committee is concerned about a disconnect between the language and standards of the smoking policy and the manner in which it is currently enforced.

For instance, the fine for smoking in academic buildings or residences is $500, but enforcement is rather relaxed. Mathieu sees the high fine and the lack of enforcement as closely related.

“Most of the reporting falls to RAs,” Mathieu said, “and not many students want to impose a $500 fine on one another.”

In light of this disconnect, the committee hopes to form a revised policy that is both more respectful to smokers and more likely to be enforced.

Cathy Anthofer, Earlham’s director of Safety and Security, says that the issue of enforcement is primarily a question of responsibility.

“We expect that everyone should hold one another responsible, which is part of being a community,” she said. “But it can be uncomfortable to confront others over something like smoking.”

Currently, according to Anthofer, Security has no special place in smoking enforcement. Security officers simply file reports of major violations in academic spaces and hold community members accountable the same way anyone else at Earlham is expected to. However, she said the committee has talked of giving security a more significant place in enforcement.

“Security isn’t particularly vested in stopping smoking,” Anthofer said. “But we’re already working on policy enforcement in terms of parking, so some committee members saw it as a natural step to have Security be another layer of smoking enforcement.”

Anthofer stressed that Security would not be the sole authority on the matter.

“We want enforcement to be not authoritarian, but a matter of community concern,” she said. “We want to frame smoking enforcement as a teachable moment for community responsibility.”

Anthofer also mentioned that this educational aspect is important to Earlham’s smoking policy.

“I never think a fine alone will make a difference on a college campus,” she said.

Mathieu was unable to give many specifics on the new policy, as the committee has yet to approve specifics, but she noted that the committee will likely lower the current fine and establish specific smoking areas. She predicts that Security will assess the new fines.

Mathieu said she could not say quite what the new policy’s impact will be.

“It depends mostly on the community’s approach,” she said. “We’re not trying to actively change the culture, we just hope to create a climate of mutual respect that everyone is comfortable with.”

The success of this approach will be determined once the final policy is released and responded to.

Vice President and Dean of Student Development Cheryl Presley, for her part, sees smoking as a test of the Earlham community’s interest in looking at its own culture.

“In this kind of situation, everyone should be responsible for deciding where we want to go,” she said. “But that sometimes means that nobody is actually responsible.”

Since this is a multi-layered issue, involving questions of health, environment, weather and respect, Presley sees it as a focal point for a broader discussion.

“Once CCL makes its recommendations, we will need to look at the policy in broader context of our social responsibility and reality,” she said. “The entire community should be involved in figuring out where we go from there.”

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