UPDATED: Changes in the wind for Tarleton’s smoking policy
Tarleton’s new policy will encompass that found in the A&M system and will enforce the 20 foot rule in greater lengths to ensure the health of other students and faculty members who do not use tobacco products.
April 3, 2014
Changes to Tarleton State University’s current policy on tobacco use on campus will be discussed among the administration in the following weeks.These suggested alterations may lead Tarleton to a smoke-free campus.
“When I was first selected for the position of Vice President of University Operations, one of the things that I really wanted to work on was eventually transitioning Tarleton to a smoke-free campus policy,” Abigail Fesmire, Vice President of University Operations, said. “As I began to work with the Faculty Senate and began gathering input from the Student Senate and House, our position on the tobacco policy became more refined and our focus shifted more to better enforcing current university and state regulations as well as the implementation of designated smoking areas.”
The current tobacco policy states that smoking and the use of smokeless tobacco are permitted only in the areas designated on campus for students, faculty and Tarleton staff. These areas are located 20 feet away from all building entrances and the use of tobacco products indoors is prohibited.
However, it is common to find the designated cigarette trash receptacles moved from their areas away from the building to the benches under the awning at the O.A. Grant building.
“If the suggestions of the students and the faculty senate are implemented and enforced, I believe that we can expect to see a relocation of a majority of the campus’s cigarette receptacles away from doorways,” Fesmire said.
Tarleton’s new policy will encompass that found in the A&M system and will enforce the 20 foot rule in greater lengths to ensure the health of other students and faculty members who do not use tobacco products.
“If the smoking policy changes are enforced, I believe that overall this would positively impact students on campus by significantly reducing their exposure to cigarette smoke,” Fesmire said. “As for those using tobacco products, it would require them to only smoke in specific areas.”
Other areas of discussion will be the use of vapor nicotine products indoors as well as around the outer locations on campus.
“I have been working closely with Dr. Mark Shipman, the head of the Faculty Senate,” Fesmire said. “We hosted a discussion in both the Student Senate and the Student House to obtain the overall views of the students. Dr. Shipman took these views back to the Faculty Senate. The Faculty Senate then combined their own findings with the views presented in the Student Senate and House and issued an official suggestion to the administration of Tarleton asking for designated smoking areas and better enforcement of current university and state regulations.”
This suggested movement to a smoke-free campus has not only been a student effort, but one supported by members of the faculty senate on campus as well.
“Overall, I think that it is very inspiring to see faculty and students working together to try to help amend a problem that has affected every person in some fashion on this campus,” Fesmire said. “I am excited to see what will become of Tarleton’s smoking policy and, more importantly, how students and faculty will continue to work together for the betterment of the university in the years to come.”
UPDATE: This resolution was passed through the House of Representatives on Wednesday April 2.
Anonymous Alum (Former Tarleton SGA student member) • Jan 16, 2023 at 10:40 PM
This is no surprise. In my time in Tarleton SGA House from 2008-2010, then in the senate in 2011, there we at least 2 attempts to ban smoking on campus. The first attempt failed miserably as woke students from the cities pled their cases of how the liberal heavy schools like UT Arlington & others had band smoking on campus years ago. Others said the smell offended them & there were a couple of people who had issue with their health around smoke. One representative stood up with a cigar in his mouth & stated that smoking indoors had been already banned years ago, and more recently 25 feet from any doors or entrances were set into place. He also stated that banning smoking on campus is basically forcing 99.9 % of faculty & students who are above the age of 18 (who at the time were old enough to smoke in the State of Texas) to go hide under the bleachers like we did in high school to go smoke. That colllege was a place for learning those 1st life experiences. And that smokers had rights stop. The last time I heard an argument was in 2011 where it was deemed that gazebos were to be built around campus. But, no money was ever appropriated to build the gazebos. It was the thought of the more conservative wings that they were just resting the matter until a new chairman SGA body was in place. A younger woke 1. And here we have it. In as little as 3 years later they got what they wanted. Freedoms striped from their professors and fellow students for the sake of a tiny minority. I’m reminded of something Dr. Jordan Peterson once said. Paraphrasing here. “Bowing to tyranny always has a moral consequence. You may think you can ignore your conscience but, you will pay the piper.” You either align yourself with the spirit of freedom, or the spirit of tyranny. As a Tarleton alumni I hope the future classes of our beloved university choses to align itself with the cause of personal freedom.