UNM will go tobacco-free on Aug. 1.
That means no cigarettes and no chewing tobacco, except within designated smoking areas around campus, said Pug Burge, co-chairwoman of the Smoke Free Environment Committee.
The committee has presented its revised campus smoking policy to campus groups, including GPSA and ASUNM, Burge said.
After the campus groups review the policy changes, the paperwork will go out to the rest of the University for a 30-day review period, which will begin sometime in the middle of this month, she said.
The policy states that enforcement of the initiative will rely on faculty, staff, students and visitors to comply and report violators. Student violators would be reported to the Dean of Students Office, and repeated violations by faculty and staff would be referred to their dean, director or department head, Burge said.
Individuals reported for repeated violations would be subject to discipline, as laid out in the student and visitor codes of conduct.
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Vicky Kauffman, pre-calculus director and math lecturer, said she has been bothered by cigarette smoke and is in favor of the policy.
However, enforcing the changes will be difficult, she said.
"I think it's hard to enforce things like this because we are such a big campus, and I don't know that it would be enforceable," she said. "It would be difficult for me to walk up to a complete stranger and tell them they shouldn't be smoking and that they weren't in the designated area. I don't think that I could enforce it."
Burge said Main Campus will have at least three designated smoking areas but that the committee has not yet decided where to place them.
"We already have two smoking areas in the Health Sciences Center," she said. "What we are trying to decide now is what to do with the law school. We are thinking of having one either solely for the law school or in a place where both the North Campus and the law school can share."
The committee also hasn't decided where to set up smoking areas on UNM's Continuing Education area, Burge said.
The Outreach and Appointments committee of ASUNM recently conducted a survey seeking student feedback on the smoke-free campus issue.
Vice presidential candidate Michael Westervelt said the survey addressed the key issues surrounding UNM's smoking policy but that not many students participated.
"The survey asked students things like what they would and would not like in smoking corridors, if students want smoking on campus or if they don't," Westervelt said. "Unfortunately, only about 360 students participated in the survey, and to be accurate and statistically representative of the total population, we need more numbers."
Westervelt said ASUNM will conduct another survey soon to get greater student input. He said students should become more active in matters like the smoke-free campus initiative, which will directly impact them.
"We need to get the broadest spectrum of input from the undergrad population so that we, as the undergrad representation, can vouch for the majority of students while still keeping in mind the voices of the minority," he said.
ASUNM vice presidential candidate David Conway said there are many students who would support a smoke-free campus but that enforcing the policy would be difficult and might lead to more problems.
"Personally, I just don't know how they are going to enforce the smoking ban, and it just doesn't seem very feasible to me," he said. "This is an issue that is not going to go away. Obviously, it is going to be in the minds of the administration for the next five to 10 years, so this is something that we need to continue working on."
Voice your opinion at unm.edu/smokefree
