by Jerreck McWilliams
Staff writer
Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin issued an executive order on Feb. 6 announcing that all state property “owned, leased or contracted for use by the State of Oklahoma,” was to become tobacco free by Aug. 6.
Southeastern falls under this category, and according to Vice President of Student Affairs Sharon Robinson, plans are already underway to adjust to the change in policy. The first action was an email from University President Larry Minks to SE’s faculty and staff announcing the change.
Robinson said the university has formed a task force consisting of several members of SE Faculty Senate and the Staff Association, as well as Student Government Association President Matthew Sitton.
“The taskforce has been charged with gathering input from our various constituencies… to see what ideas they have for this transition into a tobacco free campus,” Robinson said.
According to Robinson, after Fallin issued her executive order, SE President Larry Minks put the task force together and asked them to establish a date for the beginning of this transitional period by Feb. 29.
“All three bodies [of the task force] submitted documents that said they would support the transition to a tobacco free campus,” said Robinson.
Robinson said that from spring until Aug. 1 the university will have different campaigns that will assist smokers if they want to quit, as well as campaigns to spread the word about the tobacco free policy.
SGA President Sitton said the task force is setting the terms that meet the requirements of Fallin’s executive order. Sitton said that while there is no getting around being tobacco free, there are, however, many ways to establish and run a tobacco free policy.
“We will be assessing the benefits of different policies to determine where we want to set the policy on campus,” Sitton said. “We will talk about enforcement, reporting, who is accountable, and even what programs we can make available for people trying to quit smoking.”
Sitton also mentioned several previous plans on Student Senate’s agenda in the past to reach a compromise on the tobacco free issue, some of which were underway before Fallin’s executive order, citing that a middle ground was available. Those plans included the designation of smoking zones in areas of the campus where others could choose to avoid easily.
Sitton said, “It’s going to be difficult. There are parts of campus where smoking is a regular routine. Some segments of the student population aren’t going to be happy.”
Student Senator Blake Tomlinson said, “I think it is criminal the treatment that smokers are getting out of this. The state charges insane tax levels on cigarettes, and then makes it where they can’t use these items on state property? Even though I am not one, I feel for the smokers.”
Tomlinson is not alone in his concerns. His views are shared by a number of other students who did not wish to be quoted.
However, Sitton does believe that the tobacco free transition is overall going to help the campus, not hurt.
“We’ll have a healthy environment, we’re not going to have a bunch of cigarette butts lying around and we’ll have a healthier student population,” Sitton said.
Southeastern will not be the first campus to go tobacco free. According to no-smoke.org, 17 of Oklahoma’s universities adopted smoke free and/or tobacco free policies before Fallin’s executive order.