On any given afternoon, one can expect to see professors smoking in the courtyard between Johns Hall and Furman Hall as well as staff workers lighting up up outside the Dining Hall and Residence Halls.
This could soon change though. A university committee is currently debating whether to make Furman a tobacco-free campus. The committee is comprised mostly of administrators but also includes Health Sciences Department Chair Bill Pierce and two students.
Tobacco bans are not uncommon for academic institutions as most high schools maintain tobacco-free policies, and universities are increasingly implementing such policies.
The City of Greenville even has policies prohibiting tobacco within certain distances of buildings.
Currently those who choose to smoke at Furman must do so at a minimum distance of 25 feet from a building or on a balcony on a residential hall.
However, the enforcement of this policy falls to the entire university community. The Student Handbook states: “It is the responsibility of all administrators, faculty, staff, and students to enforce the university’s smoking policy. Anyone smoking in a nonsmoking area should be directed to a smoking-permitted area.”
The rule is vague, and the enforcement of a complete smoking ban is even more difficult to grasp. Lieutenant David Enter said he hopes that University Police would not enforce a prohibition and that he would prefer a “community approach.”
Senior Political Science major Ben Saul said that a tobacco ban would have little effect on students and that the committee is working with Student Health Services to provide programs to help students quit smoking.
A smoking-ban would affect faculty and staff the most, as this is the population with the most smokers.
Whether the committee will recommend an all-out ban or recommend smoking zones is still up for debate. The committee will meet for the last time on April 11 and will later present their recommendations to President Smolla’s cabinet.