The Gateway | Thursday, 26 January, 2006

Student seeks campus tobacco ban

Ross Prusakowski

Photo Illustration: Leanne Brown

LET THE FLAME DIE OUT? University of Alberta students may soon vote on banning tobacco products from campus.

Students across campus might soon be able to exit a building without having to plunge into a cloud of smoke or trample on a carpet of cigarette butts if third-year Physical Education student Shereen Kangarloo gets her wish.

Kangarloo, who has been involved in tobacco-reduction groups for four years, is circulating a petition in the hopes of putting the question of a campus-wide tobacco ban on the ballot during the Students’ Union elections in March.

With the petition only 400 short of the 1600 signatures required, students will likely be presented with a plebiscite banning the use and sale of tobacco products on University property, to be effective 1 July, 2006. An exception would allow for smoking around residences until 1 July, 2008, at which point the same conditions would come into effect. This would bring the University of Alberta in line with Dalhousie University in Halifax, which has been leading this type of initiative in Canada. If implemented, it would make the U of A’s smoking ban more stringent than the City of Edmonton’s.

“Ever since I became involved and began to know about tobacco and its effects, I realized that tobacco should be off campus, and that’s kind of my goal,” said Kangarloo. “I’m pretty hopeful that the situation on campus will change through this, but I don’t know if it will be the drastic, full-on change as proposed in the question.”

However, achieving any change could be difficult because of the way the SU electoral system is set up. Plebiscites are not legally binding on the SU or the University administration and serve only as a sign of student opinion on issues.

But according to Science Councilor Steve Kirkham—who has previously tried and failed to have the SU cease selling tobacco products—the SU and University would be foolish to ignore the results if students voted overwhelmingly in favour of the ban, particularly since a wellness report produced by the University’s Senate in July 2003 recommended a campus-wide tobacco ban.

“I certainly hope [the University] will pursue this in good faith,” Kirkham said. “It could get the ball rolling a little faster, and if it’s something that students support, they could actually have it implemented.

“That’s exactly why there are dates here; to try and convince the University to do something.”

A University administration official declined to comment on how the University would react if students voted in favour of a ban. However, SU Vice-President (Operations and Finance) Jason Tobias said it was extremely likely that Students’ Council would use the results to make a final decision about SU tobacco sales.

“Eventually we’re going to have to come to a consensus on if we should be selling tobacco products and using that revenue to fund student services, or whether it’s just unacceptable for us to be doing that,” he said.

“Council has yet to come to a decision on that, and once they have a plebiscite result to illustrate where the wind’s blowing from the electorate, then I think that’s going to send a pretty strong signal either way.”

Although a vote would be non-

binding, Kangarloo is optimistic a majority of students will support a ban, given that only 3.9 per cent of them smoke regularly, according to the 2004 SU Student Survey. She also believes that, at the very least, her petition and plebiscite drive will create some debate about the issue on campus.

“It’s not that [the SU and University] don’t care; it’s that they just don’t seem to want to change anything if students aren’t saying anything about it,” said Kangarloo. “So if I can get a good number of people signing the petition and then voting for [a tobacco ban], then they may do something about it.

“I just want the word out and people talking about it.”

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