City, PSU say not yet
Portland State students who enjoy smoking in the South Park Blocks can take a deep breath and relax…for the time being.
Is a smoking ban headed for the South Park Blocks?
City, PSU say not yet
Portland State students who enjoy smoking in the South Park Blocks can take a deep breath and relax…for the time being.
Though Portland State and the City of Portland have talked about creating a smoke-free zone in the South Park Blocks—including the city-owned areas in between the PSU campus—smoking will be allowed for the foreseeable future.
Despite a story published in the Oregonian last week that stated otherwise, the university has not asked the City of Portland to impose a smoking ban in the South Park Blocks at this time, PSU Director of Communications Scott Gallagher said.
However, PSU officials do want to create a Clean Air Corridor in the walkways between Cramer Hall, Smith Memorial Student Union and Neuberger Hall. This corridor would be a zone where people would be encouraged not to smoke.
Additionally, PSU would encourage individuals and workers to limit the emissions of leaf-blowers and car exhaust in the area.
Gallagher said that students have complained to the university about smoking on campus. Dana Tasson, executive director of Student Health and Counseling at PSU, noted that the idea for the Clean Air Corridor originated from a student.
The discussion about reducing or eliminating smoking on campus has been going on for several years, according to Tasson. Five years ago, university officials began internal discussions about how to address the issue of smoking on campus.
Three years ago, PSU started the Healthy Campus Initiative. This initiative is part of a university-driven effort to promote wellness on campus. Besides exploring the smoking issue, other projects include wellness fairs, blood drives and finding healthy items for vending machines.
Student Health Services has already conducted two surveys regarding this issue, one in 2007 and another this year. The 2012 survey had 4,000 respondents, including students, faculty and staff, nonsmokers, smokers and former smokers; 77 percent of the participants were students.
According to the survey, approximately 70 percent felt that PSU should be a smoke-free campus. This number has increased from 2007, when 51 percent of respondents wanted the university to be smoke-free.
Gallagher stressed that no matter what changes take place on PSU’s campus, the city must make the decision about the South Park Blocks. While PSU performs maintenance of the lawn and foliage in the South Park Blocks section of the campus, it does not have the jurisdiction to instill smoking regulations.
Ross added that if the city were to consider a future smoking ban in the South Park Blocks, there would be a public outreach period to gauge the reaction of those living and doing business in the area. If a ban were passed, Portland park rangers would be responsible for issuing citations for smoking violations.
It should be banned. Nothing good comes from smoking. It is a hazard to everyone.
I love that 70% of the student body feels that they can dictate the personal habits of the minority. And no, before anyone says that it is, the majority dictating to the minority is not democracy, it’s tyranny of the majority. Ask Thomas Jefferson.
I’m old enough to remember being a student at PSU at a time when smoking was permitted everywhere on campus, INCLUDING CLASS ROOMS! I recall vividly sitting in classes taking exams and listening to lectures while somebody next to me would light up a cigarette and make me miserable. Asking them to not smoke and telling them it made me feel ill was futile, as smokers back then totally believed they had an ironclad right to blow smoke at me.
Attempts to change smoking rules were met with stiff resistance and took years of hard effort to bring about. The first victories were small, usually getting smoking areas of the campus designated, which is obviously not a cure for the problem since cigarette smoke travels throughout the whole area and you can still be sitting near where smokers are. Over a period of several years the smoking bans were tightened to where they are now, where it is actually possible to not have to breathe cigarete smoke at all. What a joy it is for non smokers to be able to walk into an eating or study area that is smoke free!
I think the proposed ban on smoking in the Park Blocks is great and hope it becomes law by the first day of this year’s fall term.
Smoking is very injurious for health. It is more dangerous for persons those inhale the smoke from others. So it must be banned in public places like in parks and any other public place.
“PSU officials do want to create a Clean Air Corridor in the walkways between Cramer Hall, Smith Memorial Student Union and Neuberger Hall. This corridor would be a zone where people would be encouraged not to smoke.”
I would eliminate “encourage” and make it “told”. It is NO fun to walk between the buildings as one heads up to the park block to have to walk through the “gauntlet”. It reeks and of course, it is unhealthy. Just as those who feel they have the right to smoke, I say I have the right NOT to have to walk through the area and have to be subjected to second-hand smoke.
Ban cigarettes (all forms of tobacco) on the PSU campus all together.
It is really a great and useful piece of info. I’m glad that you just shared this useful info with us. Please keep us informed like this. Thank you for sharing.
People that seriously complain about smoking outdoors make me laugh. It’s not even remotely dangerous to inhale whatever tiny quantity of secondhand smoke might reach your nostrils in an environment with open airflow and this sort of legislation would be enormously inconvenient for smokers.
I’m also writing this as a non-smoker. This wouldn’t act to my detriment in anyway; I just don’t like to impose my own habits onto other people.