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Starting this fall, no ifs, ands or butts at Northeastern as university goes smoke free
By adamg on Mon, 05/13/2013 - 3:39pm
This fall, Northeastern students, faculty and staff will have to leave the butts at home - the school tomorrow will announce plans for a smoke-free campus, both indoors and outside. In an e-mail to students today, Terry Fulmer, dean of Bouvé College of Health Sciences writes:
Last fall, President Aoun and the university's Senior Leadership Team asked me to chair a committee to explore the pros and cons of a smoke-free campus. The committee, co-chaired by Bouvé College of Health Sciences professor John Auerbach, was comprised of students, faculty, and staff. Since then, this group has conducted careful and thorough research, and engaged the campus community in conversation through a range of meetings, campus announcements, and via social media channels.
Late last month, the committee submitted a report and recommendation for the university to adopt a smoke-free policy, to take effect at the start of the fall 2013 semester. I am pleased to tell you that we have received approval to move forward. We will announce this policy change tomorrow; I wanted to share the news with you in advance. The group will spend the coming months fully developing an implementation plan that will include education efforts, and an awareness campaign around smoking cessation resources.
This new policy reflects Northeastern’s long-standing commitment to promoting a healthy and safe environment. We look forward to updating the campus community in the coming months and working with students, faculty, and staff as we join the more than 1,100 colleges and universities across the nation - and among the first in the Boston area - that have taken this important step to promote the health of university campuses. In the meantime, feedback may continue to be submitted via [email protected].
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Comments
Ya
Just like every College campus is "Drug Free", good luck!
This seems a bit harsh, and I
This seems a bit harsh, and I can imagine a lot of unitended consequences coming from this such as trying to sneak a smoke in the dorms and starting a fire to a student heading to the outskirts of campus late at night to comply with the ban and getting mugged.
The moat will stop that
They pull up the drawbridges at 11. Keeps the dragons out.
Ah, outdoor smoking bans
The pinnacle of "I know better than you" nannyism.
Keep sucking, Northeastern.
People who smoke around other
People who smoke around other people who don't smoke are the pinnacle of suck, so I guess it's great match!
use your feet and walk away.
use your feet and walk away.
Wish I could
But my office window is right above one of the designated smoking area.
I do, but usually, by the
I do, but usually, by the time I've noticed the smoke, it's already in my lungs. What else you got?
People who don't smoke
People who don't smoke are the scum of the earth and all should be locked away in labor camps where they are tortured and forced to labor in fields growing tobacco.
Benny Hill Theme here?
Too?
Sounds like someone was
Sounds like someone was waitlisted and went to a Community College.
No, he's right.
Northeastern sucks. This is probably the only thing they've done in many years which I can agree with.
Now, how do they plan on enforcing this ambitious ban?
squirt guns . . . damn,
squirt guns . . . damn, they'd be mistaken for assault weapons. ummmm. . . fire buckets, straws of iced coffee, glowering looks, insults.
Wrong
I didn't attend any college.
10 years later, $58,000 stock portfolio and $0 debt. I win, life.
I said nothing in this post
I said nothing in this post anything is already said, and in this particular line of posts, I agree more with the accusation of nannyism than take issue with the bashing.
But man, for a guy whose job is... well that running gag is getting old... you seem to gun hard to be "punchable" as possible.
That's it?
That's hardly something to brag about, I bet most uhub intellectuals here get that or more every year through trust fund disbursements while pursuing their third master's in history of art history ;)
I have to wonder how much
I have to wonder how much policies like this are being driven by the desire to minimize health insurance by dismissing employees who are long-term smokers and have failed to quit?
A nice way to reduce costs, wrapped in the virtuous cloak of public health.
Actually...
I believe according to most insurance companies, smokers aren't an issue given that they don't live long enough to need the expensive end-of-life care that is really raising insurance costs (well, aside from the other obvious reasons...)
So I don't think "reducing costs" is going to get you very far by banning smoking. If anything, the opposite.
Fallacy
Fallacy.
Well, more of an urban legend at this point.
Smoking exacerbates so many chronic diseases that, if you look at the Global Burden of Disease project, smoking doesn't make smokers "just drop dead". It makes a few of them just drop dead. Smokers also contribute substantially to the total DALYs (total years of productive life lost to disability).
My college dorm room (not at
My college dorm room (not at Northeastern) was right next to the building entrance. So I got all the smoke, even when my windows were closed. (In fact, it was worse when my windows were closed, since the smoke wouldn't clear.)
So I think this is a great idea, as long as "off campus" isn't still right next to a window or door.
Yeah, if it just means that
Yeah, if it just means that the smokers will form a ring around the perimeter of the NU campus, then I don't see what this is really doing.
Excellent news!
Excellent news!
They tried this at the
They tried this at the University of Pittsburgh a few years ago when I was an undergrad. Does not work. Very hard to mitigate smoke from a cigarette when you are in an open environment with people not even associated with the University walking by. I think it's stupid. On closed campuses, it makes a good amount of sense. Not in a city campus. I say grow up. If you can't handle someone on Huntington smoking a butt, then re-asses walking in this city. Or anywhere with toxic fumes for that matter. Maybe NEU should ban cars from Huntington Ave.
Societal contradictions
On one hand, we have a society that is on the trajectory of enacting prohibition-style restrictions on tobacco. On the other, we have a growing movement to legalize and normalize weed. Wacky.
Granola outrage in 3, 2, 1
Granola outrage in 3, 2, 1 ...
I work on campus...
...and I have to wonder if it's due in any part to the apparent inability of the student body to place their spent cigarette butts in the receptacles? Seriously, as soon as Spring hit, I kept having to ask myself if it had snowed again because of the proliferation of cigarette butts on the ground, in concentrations I'd never seen before in any of my travels... It may be that the litterbugs are ruining it for the rest of the smokers.
Next, no under 21 drinking!
Next, no under 21 drinking by students! Will NU then try to ban gasoline and diesel exhaust fumes on Huntington Ave?
Well, its all a nice distraction from NU athletes in sexual assault scandals.
What NU athletes in sexual
What NU athletes in sexual assault scandals? I can think of one hockey player who got accused years ago, but the charges didn't stick. There was a BU athlete sex scandal, maybe you were confused?
Are they getting some kind of
Are they getting some kind of break with their insurance premiums?
====================
Note to administrators:
No amount of nanny rules will stop college age 'kids' from smoking tobacco, weed, using drugs, drinking alcohol and having sex, if they so choose. My solution is to treat them like adults, and give them all the privileges of an adult. This includes buying tobacco products and alcohol. I've never brought into this waiting until 21 to legally drink and smoke. Unless I'm mistaken, we are the only advanced western country that does this. I call it babying. In England 16 and 17 year olds can legally buy and drink beer, hard cider or wine with a meal. 18 year olds are legal age to buy anything. In Germany, 16 year olds can legally buy and drink beer, 18 for everything else. France just recently raised it to 18 from 16, and that was to buy beer or hard liquor. And they still don't generally ask for an ID. Belgium, Denmark similar to England and Germany. We are highly repressive in this country.
IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT...
Don't attend Northeastern or go on their property whilst smoking.
Simple as that.
People will cry over anything.