Enforcing the smoking ban

Written by Brittany Bergstrom Tuesday, 27 October 2009 08:00

Currently, students, staff, faculty and visitors are permitted to smoke 50 feet from buildings. However, last spring semester, NDSU students spoke in favor of a campus wide smoking ban.

The student government, staff and faculty have been working towards this goal since; believing that it is important to make campus more environmentally friendly for the students and visitors. The final step in the all-out campus wide smoking ban is to agree upon an enforcement procedure.

The student government was hoping that the University Police & Safety Office would be able to team up with the university to legally enforce the smoking ban. However, the department is unable to assist in the enforcement of smoking bans.

Chief Bill Vandal of the NDSU University Police & Safety Office was disappointed that his team will not be able to take any legal action against smokers on campus, but says it is out of their jurisdiction.

“We are not allowed to enforce smoking bans because we have to follow city, state and federal laws,” Vandal said. “Smoking is not a violation of law.”

The University Police will only be able to get involved if there is disorderly conduct. “We can remind people about the ban, but can’t legally enforce anything unless we are called in,” Vandal said.

Since legal activity in enforcing the ban is not permitted, student government researched seven campuses across North Dakota, all of which currently have smoke free campuses, for ideas regarding how their smoking bans are enforced.

After reviewing various procedures, it has been decided that the best enforcement is the same way that other NDSU policies are enforced.

Amber Alstadt, student government president, was one of the members who helped make the decision to enforce a smoke-free campus.

“There was uncertainty for smoking ban enforcement when we first began the process because the schools we researched all had different methods. However, after looking at some of the most successful smoking ban implementations we decided NDSU would enforce this the same way NDSU enforces any other university policy,” Alstadt said.

Under NDSU Code of Student behavior, failure to comply with university policy can result in a number of sanctions depending on the relationship to the university, the seriousness of the prohibited act, and if there have been repeat offenses.

Sanctions range from written reprimands, probation, suspension, expulsion or even withdrawl of degree. In addition to these, a multitude of other consequences could be faced. 

Although legal action cannot be taken against a violation of the smoking ban, university sanctions are not something to be taken lightly.

Like all other behaviors under the Code of Student Behavior, the campus-wide smoking ban must be respected for the good of the NDSU community and students, as well as faculty and staff, should be aware that smoking on campus will not be tolerated.