UMaine To Be Smoke Free By 2012
By: Robert Nesbitt
ORONO – After three years of research the University of Maine has put together a plan that would slowly introduce the idea of being a smoke free campus by 2012. The schools smoke free initiative is a three-year plan according to UMaine Director of Alcohol and Substance Abuse services Lauri Sidelko. For the remainder of 2010 the university will begin an informational campaign and will offer resources for those who wish to kick the habit. The smoke free policy will be voluntary in 2011, and then mandatory for students and staff by 2012.
“We’re really trying to focus allot on if a person wants to quit, ’re going to try to give them every resource that they can have to do so,” said Sidelko.
When planning for the smoke free initiative was still underway, those who were apart of the plan met and talked with five other colleges that had already formed similar policies.
“What we wanted to see from them was what are your successes and your challenges in this process,” Said Sidleko. “What have you found out, and what can we learn from you? And also at the same time take into consideration all of our specific things at this campus that’s different from some of the other campuses.”
Several meetings and forums were held at UMaine to discuss the terms of the new policy and to get public feedback. Twenty four year old Umaine Senior, Steve Emmons, told the Bangor Daily News that he didn’t know about the meetings and that he doesn’t believe the policy will work.
“The people I know didn’t know about these meetings until after they happened,” he said. “It seems like this infringes on people’s right to choose. People are just going to go underground. They’re going to smoke in their dorm rooms.”
Sidelko says that the meetings were announced in several different forms and that the committee that was responsible for forming the smoke free policy did the best they could to get the word out.
“We put up flyers, we put out emails, we put it in on the UMaine website. We made every effort to make this something that people knew about,” said Sidelko.
The only other college in Maine to become tobacco-free is Kennebec Valley Community College in Fairfield. Two schools that are working on adopting a similar policy other than the University of Maine are the University of New England and The University of Southern Maine. The Dean of Husson University, John Rubino, believes that UMaine’s smoke free policy is a step in the right direction and has not thrown out the idea of a similar policy at Husson.
“I see that as being a very positive move by the University of Maine and other campuses, and I would welcome discussion on our campus about such a move,” said Rubino.
UMaine is still in the process of developing its enforcement plan. According to the Vice President for Student Affairs Robert Dana the UMaine community would work with repeat violators to achieve behavior modification.
“Those who find compliance to be difficult should ask for help,” said Dana to the Bangor Daily News. “Our goal is not to create an adversarial situation for anyone, but rather to provide the resources necessary to help bring everybody in our community to the point where this is no longer an issue.”
Though the smoke free policy has passed at UMaine, Sidelko says that she is still available for any questions or concerns students, faculty, or the public may have.
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