IU East's No Smoking Ban

Students smoking at tables inside Whitewater Hall.

Today, we can all agree on the damage smoking can have on your health and most public spaces are now smoke free, but thirty years ago, smoking bans were still a relatively new concept and a hot topic issue for many. In the early 80’s, there was a growing movement to help people give up smoking and on campus, the student newspaper would advertise The National Cancer Society’s the Great American Smokeout and provide tips on how to quit. The Great American Smokeout, a movement that, at the time, tried to get smokers to give up cigarettes for twenty-four hours. However, it is still an annual event and today they encourage people to give up smoking not just for a day, but year-round.

Indiana’s Clean Indoor Air Act became law on September 1^st, 1987. The act was passed “to regulate smoking in state owned public buildings, including classroom structures and licensed health facilities”. Smoking was “forbidden” in the IU East building except in six designated areas. Legislative representatives said that they were not trying to deny people the right to smoke or discourage tobacco sales, but to “recognize the right of non-smokers to breathe smokeless air” (Russel). The reactions were mixed with some people in favor of the act, some thought the act needed changes in order to not be unfair to smokers, and a few were vehemently opposed to the act altogether.

From 1987 to 1992, there was still a debate among smoking and non-smoking students about what areas on campus would be smoke free, including dividing the student commons area into smoking and non-smoking sections. After moving the smoking area to the south end of the student lounge, complaints were still in abundance about the heavy smoke. Designating a smoking area in the student lounge proved to be ineffective due to the large number of smokers in the concentrated space. Previously, this would not have been an issue but since the student body had risen to 2,000 by 1991, the smoke was overwhelming. Complaints came in from students who were not only bothered by the smoke, but were suffering from it. Students submitted doctor’s notes citing they were allergic or that the smoke was causing them health problems. Chancellor Nelms was torn in trying to find a solution to appease both smokers and non-smokers. He decided to install “smoke eaters” which work like a dehumidifier in that they would filter “undesirable elements out of the air”. Chancellor Nelms said that if the “smoke eaters” didn’t work, he would have no choice but to look into making IU East a smoke-free building (Cassette, 1991, Smoke Eaters...).

However, the decision to use smoke eaters to control the amount of smoke in the student lounge was over turned. The cost was too expensive, costing about $12,000, as four smoke eaters would have been needed to effectively clear the space. It was then decided that the IU East building will be a smoke free facility for reasons being the health of the students, the cost of the smoke eaters, and the odor that smoke emits being an issue as the building has a closed ventilation system. As a result of the building becoming smoke free, university officials planned seminars to educate smokers on the ill-effects cigarettes have on the body and also methods to help quit smoking. (Cassette, 1991, Cabinet Rejects).

On May 13^th, 1991 IU East became a smoke free facility. New outdoor urns were placed outside of all the entrances and on the patio. Over the years, there were a lot of discussions about the right of smokers and non-smokers, but Chancellor Charlie Nelms at the time stated "I respect another person's right to smoke, but it cannot confuse your right to smoke and another persons' right to become ill as a result of your smoke" (Cassette, 1991, New Policy).

It wasn’t until May 2006, that IU East officially became a smoke free campus, with no smoking permitted indoors or outdoors.

Sources

Cassette, Stephen. (1991, February 14). Smoke Eaters filter cloudy issue. New Voice 20(1), 1.

Cassette, Stephen. (1991, March 7). Cabinet Rejects Smoke eaters. New Voice 20(13), 1.

Cassette, Stephen. (1991, April 11). New Policy bans indoor smoking. New Voice 19(15), 1.

Great American Smokeout. (1982, November 15). The Pioneer Press 11 (7), 11.

Russel, John. (1987, October 13). New campus regulation segregates the smokers. New Voice 1(2), 1.

Smoke Free. (May 10, 2006). Pioneer Press 38(15), 2.

Ward, Gloria. (1988, November 28). Want to Clear Smokescreen on Campus. New Voice 2(5), 5.

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