UNM plans to limit smoking on campus, or ban it altogether, by the end of the summer.
President David Schmidly has appointed a committee, the UNM Smoke-Free Environment Committee, to look into whether UNM should ban smoking on campus or relegate it to designated areas.
Whatever the committee decides will be implemented Aug 1.
"What we advocate for the whole of New Mexico is also what we promote internally on the UNM campus, and that is a commitment to wellness, prevention and a healthy environment," Schmidly said in his Monday morning message.
Pug Burge, head of the Smoke-Free Environment Committee, said UNM's Health Sciences Center went smoke-free in 2007. The success there is likely what sparked Schmidly's interest in making the rest of UNM smoke-free, she said.
The committee's priority is to provide smoking cessation resources for students, staff and faculty. Its second priority is to decide if the campus will ban just smoking or all tobacco products.
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Schmidly also asked the committee to give input on how to implement the initiative, Burge said.
She said the committee might set up designated smoking areas on campus but that this has not been decided. The committee members are unsure where the areas would be, she said.
Burge said the Health Sciences Center does not enforce its smoking ban with disciplinary action but asks community members to speak to anyone they see smoking and tell them about the smoke-free policy. The HSC offers smoking cessation information to anyone caught smoking on the premises.
Burge said Main Campus might adopt a similar policy but that this has not been decided either.
Burge said the committee is looking for feedback from community members before making recommendations to Schmidly.
"We will have to decide the boundaries that we are working with, and we will have to deal with the businesses and the residential areas around Central, so communication will be a huge part of this effort," she said.
Students and faculty have mixed feelings about banning smoking on campus.
Senior Angelina Medeiros, a smoker, said she is opposed to a campuswide ban.
"I guess smoking on campus does bother nonsmokers, so I could see why Schmidly would be trying to take those people's feelings and health into consideration, but he probably doesn't smoke himself, so I don't think he understands what it's like for smokers," she said.
ASUNM Vice President Alex Riebli said he has taken a neutral stance on the ban.
"I don't think that I, personally, as an ASUNM representative, should say that UNM should be smoke-free or not," he said. "I feel that students have the right to choose to smoke or not, but at the same time, there are people that are completely in favor of having a smoke-free environment."
Riebli said ASUNM will follow Schmidly's lead on the smoke-free or tobacco-free initiative.
"I think that it's important that we take the time to build a base of people to make sure that we know what we are getting into, but if it does become policy, we will have to support it and abide by it."
Riebli said if students have opinions on the matter, they should write to ASUNM. He said the group will be able to relay the messages to the administration.
The committee's first meeting is Nov. 12 in the Education Building, Room 103, and will be open to the public.
