by Jeremy Hunt
Daily Lobo
Smokers are getting caught with their pants down, thanks to an underground guerilla effort that brought anti-smoking messages to bathrooms across campus in September, said student Kristen Woodruff, who helped organize the effort.
At least eight students, including members of Expose and the Coalition for a UNM Smoke-Free Campus, tried to bring students' attention to the aesthetic effects of smoking, said Woodruff, coordinator of Expose.
Expose and the coalition are anti-smoking student organizations.
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Woodruff said the effort was a continuation of a New Mexico Department of Health program called the Bathroom Initiative. The initiative is an anti-smoking campaign designed for middle and high school students, said David Tompkins, spokesman for the health department.
The department had extra promotional kits, which the students used at UNM, Woodruff said. The kits include stickers, urinal strainers and two pairs of latex gloves.
The strainers are small pads with a black box on them. The heat from urine causes the black box to turn white, and a message appears that states, "This could be the color of your teeth. That's what's cool about smoking."
The stickers are aimed at women, Woodruff said.
The stickers have messages about aesthetic effects of smoking.
One of them states, "You'll be different from all the other girls. They'll have fresh breath. That's what's cool about smoking."
The students put urinal strainers and stickers in the bathrooms in the SUB, Dane Smith Hall, Ortega Hall, Johnson Center and the biology, psychology, economics and political science buildings, Woodruff said.
The stickers were removed right away, but some of the urinal strainers remain, she said.
Walt Miller, director of the SUB, said the strainers were removed from the SUB, because the staff did not know if they were disinfectants.
"We don't know how they got there," he said. "We use items there for a health and sanitation issue."
Miller said it would have been difficult and time-consuming for the students to get authorization from the SUB Board.
Woodruff said the students didn't want to waste any time bringing the initiative to UNM.
"It was a guerilla tactic or covert operation," she said. "We looked into trying to get permission and saw it most likely wasn't going to happen, so we went for it."
Randy Boeglin, dean of students, said the group should have gone through the proper channels before posting its message.
"I would encourage groups like that to take the time - cast themselves in the legitimate role - rather than what you would call street tactics," he said. "We probably don't want people to come to our campus and use it as a message board, even if that message board is a public urinal."
The initiative is supposed to influence people but not tell them how to live their lives, Woodruff said.
"Some people will look at it and say, 'Oh that's funny. I never thought of it that way,'" she said. "The toilet's gross and so is smoking."
Student Kevin Hutchinson said he was surprised when he saw the message in the urinal. The initiative is not effective, he said.
"A lot of people don't really think, 'Oh, I'm peeing. I don't want to smoke now,'" he said.
Woodruff said the bathroom messages are supposed to constantly remind smokers of their bad habit.
"That's the purpose - the smoker has no escape," she said. "It's supposed to be a slap in the face."
Boeglin said he thought the urinal strainers were sponsored by a UNM health organization.
He said the urinal strainers are witty, but he would use a different forum for discussion.
"I would give someone pretty high marks for creativity and for an unorthodox approach to getting their message across," he said. "If the Dean of Students Office had a message, we probably wouldn't post it that way."
