by Jeremy Hunt
Daily Lobo
The Board of Regents Finances and Facilities Committee approved a resolution to ban smoking at the Health Sciences Center at a meeting Dec. 21.
Regent Mel Eaves, chairman of the committee, said there is no specific date for the ban to take effect, but it will be toward the end of the summer.
Eaves said there will be discussions with students and faculty to build support for a campuswide smoking ban.
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"My interest as chair of the Finances and Facilities Committee is to push forward with a smoking ban on main campus as well, after we go through a period of consensus," he said. "I think it's just a form of pollution."
Randy Boeglin, dean of students, said a smoking ban across campus is not an easy issue to handle, and UNM will have to balance the rights of smokers and nonsmokers.
The University has to be careful how it handles the residence halls if a smoking ban is approved, Boeglin said.
"I'd hate to send a message to the residence hall, 'If you're a smoker, you can't live on campus,' and yet there may be some who'd say that," he said. "It's a thorny issue."
Student Nathaniel Schneider is the coordinator of Expose, an anti-smoking group that wants to make UNM a smoke-free campus. Schneider said the effects of smoking are too dangerous for it to be allowed around so many people.
"It's a bad role model," he said. "Now, there's such support for these kinds of public health measures across the country and internationally. It's time for UNM to revisit its policy in a very meaningful way."
Eaves said there is no reason nonsmokers should have to be around smoke at UNM.
"I wouldn't want to be subjected to it, and why should anyone have to be subjected to secondhand smoke?" he said.
Student James Baldwin, a smoker, said a ban on campus might not be a bad idea.
"I'm not completely opposed," he said. "Some people are annoyed by it."
Student Larissa Thill, a nonsmoker, said smoking should not be banned on campus, because so many students
do it.
"It's their personal choice to smoke. It doesn't seem right to take that choice away," she said. "It's obnoxious when there are groups of people standing around smoking, but I just try to avoid where they are. It's difficult sometimes, but I think banning it is extreme."
Jamie Koch, president of the regents, said the board would not move forward with a smoking ban on main campus. A substantial group of students, faculty and organizations would have to come to the regents and make a proposal, he said.
"We're not going to impose a no-smoking ban," he said.
ASUNM did an opinion poll at the last election in November, asking students if smoking should be banned on main campus. Of the 18,199 undergraduates at UNM, 715 voted.
There were 363 in favor, 300 opposed and 52 abstained.
