News Highlights

Survey may decide if MSU will be smoke-free

An e-mail survey will give each MSU student, faculty and staff member an opportunity to voice their opinions on a possible campus smoking ban.

2006-04-09
By Robb Murray, Free Press Staff Writer [published in The Free Press, Mankato, MN, 4/2/2205]

MANKATO — Minnesota State University officials hope a comprehensive survey next week will give them a good idea how far the campus community wants to limit where people can smoke.

Rob McGinn, MSU's environmental health and safety risk management coordinator, says the survey is the work of a committee that has been meeting for a year to reevaluate the campus smoking policy.

State buildings have been smoke free for years, but now members of the committee hope to get feedback on whether the campus community wants a complete smoking ban on campus grounds.

"It is a very controversial issue," McGinn said. "We've got smokers who are irate, we've got non-smokers who are irate."

The scientific survey, formulated by MSU's psychology department, will be taken online. Each student, faculty and staff member will receive an e-mail next week containing a quick link to the Web-based survey.

McGinn is hoping to get 40-50 percent of everyone to fill it out. It takes about five minutes.

Among the questions:

• Should state funds be used to build smoking shelters at a cost of $10,000 apiece?

• Who should enforce a smoking policy?

• What should be done with violators?

• Should smoking be banned entirely from campus?

• Should just one door per building be a smoking zone?

McGinn said he knows there is going to be friction, even down to at which doors on campus should smoking be allowed, or whether the rest of campus should impose a 15-foot rule as the residence halls have done.

Smokers must stay at least 15 feet away from all entrances to residence halls. They went completely smoke-free inside three years ago.

And some areas, such as the space beneath the skywalk that connects Armstrong and Morris halls where many smokers congregate in the winter because it is somewhat sheltered, are bound to be the source of much debate.

Included in the survey is a map of campus with numbers by each entryway. Survey takers can identify by number the entrances they most wish to limit smoking.

McGin said he wishes everyone would take the survey because that would give the committee the best feedback available. He'll be happy with half.

"We're a big employer and we've got 14,000 students," he said. "It's going to affect a lot of people what we decide here."

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