New Jersey bans smoking in private college dorms

Daily Record
Aug. 23, 2005

It was all the evidence that state legislators needed to drive home the point.

Just two weeks after a state ban on smoking in college residence halls was introduced, a Drew University student smoking a cigarette sparked a dormitory fire in February.

No one was injured, but Drew rang up thousands of dollars in repairs and 150 students were temporarily displaced. The blaze also prompted school officials to reconsider the institution's policy permitting students to smoke on the third floor of most residence halls.

Can't light up

Drew's policy has changed,and it doesn't favor smokers. Students no longer are allowed to light up in the dorms -- a policy that soon will be in effect statewide.

Drew's decision to ban smoking in all of its residence halls coincides with state legislation making all college dorms in New Jersey smoke-free. With Drew as his backdrop, acting Gov. Richard Codey will sign the measure into law on Monday giving all public and private universities 60 days to comply.

"The state law came at good time and helped us make a decision," Drew spokesman Thomas Harris said.

"I think students will understand this decision and support it, knowing there is a state law behind it."

New Jersey's law is considered the toughest in the nation because it includes private, as well as public, universities. Other states, like Connecticut and Wisconsin, have legislated smoking bans that affect only public university residence halls.

Smoke-free living on college campuses now is the norm. Advocacy groups estimate that more than half of the nation's public and private universities have stamped out smoking privileges in dorms. Nearly two-dozen colleges are known to have gone so far as to enact campus-wide smoking bans.

"The last five years saw us cross well over the halfway mark," said Michael McNeil, director of Temple University's health office and co-chairman of the American College Health Association's alcohol and tobacco committee.

Ivy League universities, such as Harvard and Princeton, and large public university systems, such as those in California, all have created smoke-free residences. New Jersey's Burlington County College is one of the few with a campus-wide ban.

From a public health perspective, colleges could not guarantee that smoke from one part of a residence hall didn't drift elsewhere, McNeil said. Most pushed smokers outdoors, sometimes into designated areas, he said.

In Morris County, all three private universities now have bans in place. The College of St. Elizabeth and Fairleigh Dickinson University's College at Florham campus have designated outdoor areas for smoking.

Won't restrict

Drew officials said, so far, they will not restrict outdoor smoking. That's good news for Drew senior Abby Lee, who thinks the residence hall smoking ban is bad enough.

The 21-year-old from Malvern, Pa., said she doesn't look forward to huddling around an ashtray outside her dorm during the thick of winter. She also expects to see more cigarette butts littering the campus due to the ban.

"It's a good intention, but it's not so good in practice," she said, lighting up a Marlboro while having lunch on campus this week.

"It's not going to solve anything. It's just going to make everybody very annoyed."

Her friend, Anna Muldoon, who graduated from Drew in the spring, called the ban ridiculous.

The 23-year-old Madison woman said she lived on campus while attending Drew and smoked in her dorm room without incident.

Safety hazard

The safety hazard is not cigarettes, she said, but students behaving irresponsibly. She cited February's dorm fire, which officials said was caused by an ash that fell from a student's cigarette onto spilled lighter fluid.

"I never set anything on fire. I never put any burn holes in my couch," Muldoon said. "The issue of responsibility is bigger than the issue of smoking here."

Applauds ban

Drew junior Chelsea McCauley, however, applauds the ban. The 20-year-old from Bethlehem, Pa., said there are plenty of places to smoke outside.

The former smoker added that many public establishments, such as the Garlic Rose Bistro where she works, prohibit smoking these days.

"If you can't smoke in restaurants, why should living spaces be any different?" McCauley said.

Drew senior David Whitcomb, 20, said it's unfair to impose the safety and health hazards related to smoking on non-smokers. That's why he supports the ban.

"A lot of people complain about the health risks of second-hand smoke," Whitcomb said. "I think their rights should be respected."

Reports suggest that smokers are the minority these days on college campuses. In a 2004 American College Health Association survey of 47,202 college students across the country, roughly 80 percent responded as non-smokers. Only 10 percent said they smoke cigarettes daily.

In recent years, college campuses have been a key battleground in the fight to reduce smoking in New Jersey. Anti-smoking advocates have pushed universities to ban smoking in dorms, prohibit tobacco-promoting groups from sponsoring campus events and bar the sale, advertising or sampling of tobacco products on campus.

Cigarettes can be bought in campus bookstores and convenience stores at Drew, FDU, Seton Hall University and Rutgers University's New Brunswick campus.

Began to surge

The anti-smoking movement began to surge on the Drew campus about three years ago, when a smoking cessation group was formed, said Frank Merckx, Drew's associate dean of educational and student affairs.

The group spurred the university to ban smoking in its snack bar and limit smoking to a small area in the dining hall. The student government then successfully urged the university two years ago to make Welch-Holloway residence hall smoke-free.

While he expects that some people will oppose the ban, Merckx said overall "the feeling is that it's positive."

At FDU, an informal survey conducted by the student government suggests that a majority of students -- 82 percent of the 400 polled -- favor a smoking ban in residence halls, said Michael Smallis, the university's associate dean of students.

Those findings led the institution to ban smoking in the dorms, effective this month. Previously, there were lounges where students could smoke.

Smallis said the university created the ban without knowing of the impending state law.

Police themselves

Smallis said he hopes students will police themselves. But, if they don't, an enforcement policy is in place.

The first time an FDU student is found smoking in a dorm, he or she will get a written warning. A second offense will result in a $50 to $100 fine, a visit to the dean's office and attendance at a smoking program.

A student who consistently ignores the rule could be kicked out of university housing.

Smallis, an ex-smoker himself, said he doesn't think officials will be "banging on doors like storm troopers, yelling, 'Put that cigarette out." He also emphasized that violators who want to quit smoking will be encouraged to tap into cessation programs offered through the university's wellness center.

That said, students should know that lighting up in the dorms won't be tolerated.

"We want students to know we mean business," Smallis said. "No smoking means no smoking."