Kelly Hungerford

Copy editor

Oregon’s new Smokefree Workplace Law, prohibiting smoking within 10 feet of entrances, exits and windows of workplaces, will go into effect Jan. 1, 2009. Linfield’s Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention Team is discussing ways to implement this law on campus.

“All of our campus is a workplace, so we have to be in compliance,” Health Promotion and Student Wellness Coordinator Christina Ries said.

Linfield enforces a more stringent policy than the state law; it prohibits smoking within 30 feet of campus facilities. The problem, Ries said, is what to do with ashtrays, as the new law requires them to be situated at least 10 feet from workplace buildings, as well.

Linfield’s ashtrays are currently chained to campus’ buildings. Ries said they will be removed by Jan.1, but what will be done with them after that is undecided.

“People are still allowed to smoke on campus, and if we don’t provide an ashtray, we could be creating a mess of campus,” she said.

Jeff Mackay, associate dean of students and director of residence life, said there are options available.

One, he said, is to put them 30 feet from buildings, in accordance with current policy, but the problem is that 30 feet  from one building is not often 30 feet from another.

Senior Rose Kelter, a member of ADAPT, said it would be nice to see more attractive ashtrays on campus because they would be less “in-your-face.”

“Some of the nice, attractive [ashtrays] are really expensive,” Mackay said, saying that it is more economical to relocate the old ashtrays than to get new ones.

He also said if they are eliminated, someone will have to be paid to clean up the cigarette butts left around campus.

Ries pointed out that one of the main financial issues surrounding the ashtray problem is that new ashtrays were not budgeted for, and there are no grants to cover the costs.

ADAPT has also been discussing another option: a tobacco-free campus. Last year, Oregon Health & Science University went tobacco-free, and, according to the American Lung Association of Oregon, so will all Portland community colleges by the fall of 2009.

“[Going tobacco-free] would make a very significant statement to [people] who visit campus that we think smoking is unhealthy,” Susan Chambers, adjunct professor of health, human performance and athletics, said.

However, she added that now might not be the best time to implement such  a policy because there is not enough general support for going smoke-free.

According to a survey conducted last school year and taken by students, faculty and staff, there is only scattered support for the idea.

“I don’t think we’re having a serious discussion about banning tobacco here yet, above ADAPT,” Mackay said.

Kelter said she agrees banning smoking would be difficult to enforce.

“[It’s] hard to stop a behavior, especially because it’s a residential campus,” she said.

While the survey showed only mild support for a smoke-free campus, it also showed that 82.1 percent of campus supports the 30- feet policy. This policy will remain intact, but ADAPT will continue to discuss what to do with the ashtrays, Ries said.

“People think they have a right to smoke,” Ries said. “But people also have the right to breathe clean air.”