Idaho State University in Need of Smoking Ban Reform

Idaho State University a smoke-free campus

 Idaho State University is starting to experience troubles after a few years of having a "No smoking" policy implemented on campus grounds.

The smoking policy was implemented in hopes that campus life and wellness would improve. However, many students do not abide by the rule of "no smoking on campus". 

There has been a number of attempts to make campus aware of the policy such as Josh Cook's smoking ban awareness video. Yet, according to an ISJ article, about the smoking ban, approximately nine percent of campus are still active smokers and if those numbers are crunched that means there are about 400 active smokers on campus daily. 

Cigarette butts litter ISU campus

Issues that are associated with the smoking ban involve mostly damage to the campus wellness. Due to the fact that there is no where on campus for smokers to dispose of their cigarette waste, it then ends up on the ground. The ISU campus is really very pretty, but is tainted daily by the ever growing cigarette litter. 

"It's annoying because the cigarette butts are everywhere and will stick to my shoes, and when I later find them in my car it makes me really mad," ISU student, Brent Van Tassel said. 

Another issue with the smoking ban is that because there are a large number of smokers on campus daily, it is difficult for ISU public safety to patrol and enforce the implemented policy. The public safety dispatch said that they on average will have two officers dispatched at a time, which isn't nearly enough to patrol 400 potential smokers. ISU public safety official, Officer Newberry shared that even if they do catch someone smoking, the first offense is just a warning.

"I worked at the ISU Idaho Falls campus before I came here, they had designated smoking areas and we never had problems with smokers going outside those areas."

Is it possibly time for ISU to reform their policy into one where smokers have somewhere to get their fix?