DU to ban all smoking on campus

DENVER - The University of Denver will become Colorado's largest school to ban smoking when it implements a strict new rule on January 1.

A letter to the campus community from Chancellor Robert Coome outlined the ban, which will apply only to smoking, not to smokeless tobacco products.

DU currently prohibits smoking within 25 feet of buildings on campus. Smoking inside those buildings is prohibited by Colorado law.

The ban being introduced Jan. 1, 2010 will include exemptions for events at the Newman Center for the Performing Arts and the Ritchie Center for Sports and Wellness. Designated outdoor smoking areas will be provided for public events at those venues.

Smoking will be permitted within 25 feet of the exterior boundary of campus along public streets, but not along streets within the campus.

DU's enrollment is approximately four times that of the University of Colorado-Denver Anschutz Medical Campus, where smoking was banned April 6.

A smoking hut on the Anschutz campus will be closed October 31, completing the ban, which also applies to smokeless tobacco products like chewing tobacco.

DU stopped short of a universal tobacco ban.

"A complete ban on the use or possession of legal tobacco products among the DU community is not reasonable," Coombe wrote in his letter to DU students, faculty and staff. "On the other hand, second hand tobacco smoke is a clear public health issue."

Coome says a proposal to extend the 25-foot smoke free buffer to "all major outdoor walkways and congregation areas" would have virtually eliminated all smoking areas on campus, and "as a result," he opted for the campus-wide ban.

"The chancellor believes in personal choice and he really looked at this as a public health issue," said DU spokesman Jim Berscheidt. "He tried to take a middle ground with that."

"I was a little bit disappointed. I'm not a huge fan of the smoking ban," said student Margy Rosé. "It will be people sneaking around. It'll be harder and harder to enforce."

"I think it's really good because now we don't have to smell smoke," said student Maria Steblyanko. "If people really have to smoke, they can go a little bit farther so that other people who don't smoke don't have to smell that."

A recommendation by the DU Tobacco Task Force called for a ban on all tobacco products on campus. The proposal was endorsed by the All Undergraduate Student Association (AUSA), but did not receive the support for the Graduate Student Association Council (GSAC) or the Faculty Senate.

Berscheidt said campus safety officers would remind smokers of the policy but would not be charged with enforcing the rule.

"Campus safety has a lot of other things to do," said Berscheidt.

According to The Denver Alliance on Tobacco and Health (DATH), the Denver School of Nursing and Colorado Christian Academy are the only other college campuses in Colorado to prohibit smoking. DATH reports the Dillon campus of Colorado Mountain College will implement a tobacco-free policy this summer.