USenate debates new smoking policy

A proposed resolution to ban smoking within a minimum of 50 feet from all buildings on Columbia’s Morningside campus was a contentious issue at the University Senate’s monthly plenary meeting on Friday.

The resolution, proposed by the Senate’s External Relations Committee, was based on a two-year evaluation process conducted by the Tobacco Work Group, a group of students and staff created in 2008 by Scott Wright, the vice president for campus services. Over the past two years, the group has solicited opinions from members of the community and has studied local laws, policies of peer institutions, and current scholarly literature on tobacco and its long-term effects, according to the resolution.

Michael McNeil, the chair of the working group and the director of Alice! Health Promotion of Health Services, said the 50 feet recommendation was based on both New York State law, which prohibits smoking within 20 feet of college residence halls, and the current policies of buildings on campus, such as Avery, that already have 50 feet smoking bans in place.

Immediately after the policy was proposed, Michael Adler, a professor in the Business School and a self-proclaimed smoker, voiced his complaints against the policy and offered an amendment.

“We [smokers] don’t break any laws and we are nice people,” Adler said. “I have a proposal that Columbia put up little huts to shelter Columbians [when they smoke] in the rain and the storms.”

“Remember you are dealing with people who are addicted … They cannot be exposed to the elements in the winter,” Adler argued.

Adler added that the little huts could be painted Columbia Blue and be made to look like umbrellas.

University President Lee Bollinger, who sits on the Executive Committee of the USenate, said he opposed the idea due to the financial burden on the University. But, in response, Adler argued that “the cost of these shelters is going to be minuscule.”

“If it is the will of the Senate that this happen, it would be important and powerful, and I think unfortunate,” Bollinger said before the official vote on the amendment.

The amendment was voted down, with 32 senators opposed to the idea, 11 in favor, and 6 abstentions. But, it was voted unanimously to consider the idea going forward.

If the shelters are approved, Esteban Reichberg, a student senator from the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation, commented that the architecture students would help build them.

After the issue of shelters was decided, the body moved on to discussing the issue as a whole.

Concerns were raised in regards to the enforcement of the policy, the possible alienation of student smokers, and the determination of the proper smoking areas on campus.

After debating the topic at length, Bollinger agreed with some senators that the body was not prepared to properly vote on the issue yet and voted to table the final vote until the December plenary meeting.

But, at the end of the meeting, the president conducted a straw vote to gauge the current sentiments of the members regarding the resolution.

At that time, 22 were in favor, 16 opposed, and 9 abstentions.

amber.tunnell@columbiaspectator.com