Correction appended, 2/1/12.
Nearly three years after the University Senate began debating a smoking policy change, discussion of a full ban has been referred back to External Relations and Research Policy Committee.
At the senate's recent Executive Committee meeting, it was decided that External Relations would take up the matter, according to University Senator Mark Cohen, who is on the Executive Committee. Cohen readily acknowledges that the smoking policy debate has taken “forever” to resolve.
Cohen, a vocal advocate for a full smoking ban, has become increasingly frustrated by the slow pace of debate on the matter.
The bureaucratic process, Cohen said, “should never supplant the principle. This flies in the face of common judgment.”
“Many members of the Senate agree that this issue needs to be dealt with in a much better manner,” Cohen said. “This University should not be held hostage by process.”
Some senators criticized Cohen for pushing his proposal for a campus-wide smoking ban less than a year after the existing 20-foot smoking ban was approved and far ahead of its scheduled review this December.
Cohen vehemently criticized the 20-foot rule, which bans smoking within 20 feet of all University buildings and has proven difficult to enforce.
“The 20-foot rule is an expression of stupidity,” he said. “I won’t stand anymore for anything half-assed.”
Executive Committee member Alex Frouman, CC ’12, a co-chair of the senate’s Student Affairs Committee, said in November he did not support the full ban because of the existence of the 20-foot rule.
But he also said at the time that a full ban resolution proposed by Cohen “circumvents the senate process by avoiding the External Relations Committee. It would seem inappropriate for the Executive Committee to sponsor the resolution as it doesn’t follow due process.”
Cohen cited multiple schools, such as the University of Michigan and the University of California system, that have implemented full campus smoking bans. “If Columbia is going to be true to its place and space as an enlightened institution, then it shouldn’t be the last university to resolve this matter.”
Barnard implemented a full smoking ban last spring, which Barnard assistant professor Rebecca Jordan-Young described as a success.
“The full ban is easier to enforce and it has worked very well at the uptown campus,” Jordan-Young said.
On Columbia’s campus, she said, many feel uncomfortable asking an individual to stop smoking because of the ambiguity of exactly where one is allowed to smoke, a problem that would be resolved with a full ban.
The full smoking ban has met with resistance from some students, who believe that smoking on campus is a personal right, and from University employees’ unions, which believe that a ban would shorten their workers’ break times.
Cohen said he did not accept either of these notions. “The union problem is a smokescreen, and an issue that has to be resolved with agreements with unions. It is a matter no different than that which hospitals, other universities, or the City of New York has faced.”
Margaret Mattes contributed reporting.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story indicated that University President Lee Bollinger had "mandated" that External Relations debate the smoking ban and make a decision before the end of this semester. There is no clear timeline for when the debate will be resolved, and Bollinger cannot "mandate" that a senate committee discuss a particular issue. Spectator regrets the errors.
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