‘Smoke-free’ campus postponed indefinitely

By Don Clyde
STAFF WRITER

The City College Student Health Services Department began its push toward making Ocean campus smoke-free by encouraging smokers to light up in any of six designated areas. The draft policy, which was sent in an e-mail to board members, faculty, and select others before the fall semester, is intended to minimize second-hand exposure to non-smokers.

The initiative is not a policy yet and cannot be enforced. The move is intended to be a “data gathering period,” according to Philip Chang, school aide with the Student Health Services Department. Information gathered during this phase will be presented to the board of trustees in order to steer future City College smoking policies.

“Right now we want to strike a balance between the needs of the smokers and those of the non-smokers,” Chang said.

President of the City College Classified Senate Attila Gabor said during the board of trustees meeting Aug. 27 that forging a new City College smoking policy would be a lengthy effort. The e-mail circulated throughout City College erroneously claimed the designated smoking zones were policy as of Sept. 1, according to Gabor.

“It needs to go to the next step which would be planning and budgeting, and the college advisory council,” Gabor said. After this process, draft policy would be presented to the board of trustees, he said.

The date has been postponed to Nov. 19, the date of the Great American Smokeout, a campaign by the America Cancer Society to motivate American smokers to quit.

“A Sept. 1 email was sent out, but from the reaction from some groups on campus, we decided to push the date back to Nov. 19,” said Lisa Tran, a health worker with the Student Health Services Department. “The date was confusing for people because it was too soon. We have to go through the constituent groups again and rethink the policy. We need to go through shared governance.”

The City College Health and Safety Committee has set up a wiki site to gather student, faculty and public input about forging a future smoking policy.

“What we really want from this is feedback from all sides,” Tran said. “The move toward a smoke-free campus has gotten the Drop after the blessing from the major unions, student groups and the teachers union.”

Most student posts on the wiki favor setting up designated smoking areas but some said there are problems with the issue. Others said the areas don’t provide cover from rain and would make for long treks between classes. One post on the wiki said that setting up designated smoking zones might work against smokers with limited mobility.

City College physics professor Tim Dawe said he believes stricter smoking regulations are a personal liberties issue and the college was trying to relieve smokers of their rights.

“Second-hand smoke doesn’t cause cancer,” he said. Dawe cited rulings against the Environmental Protection Agency in the 1990s. He said, as a scientist, he had “never seen evidence of a statistical link between environmental tobacco smoke and cancer.”

Tentative locations for designated smoking areas are: northwest of Science Hall at the bottom of the ramp, southwest of Science Hall at the top of the ramp, outside the Diego Rivera Theatre, on the fourth-floor deck of Batmale Hall and behind the Rosenberg Library on the first floor next to the stadium.

“Many surrounding Bay Area community colleges are working on this too,” said Barbara Conahan, a nurse practitioner with the Student Health Services Department. “UCSD is working toward becoming a smoke-free campus starting with their medical and science campuses this year. UCSF and San Francisco General Hospital recently became smoke-free institutions.”

The Student Health Center will host smoking cessation groups on Sept. 9, 16, 23 and 30 from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m.  For more information call Lisa Tran at (415) 452-5381. The Student Health Center also offers free carbon monoxide levels testing on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Call (415) 239-3110 for an appointment.

The Student Health Services Department encourages smokers and non-smokers to submit comments about future smoking policy to http://ccsfsmokefree.pbworks.com.

Opinions and Editorals Editor Alex Emslie contributed to this story