Cal State Faculty Drops Plan for Smoking Ban : Policy Would Have Made All Campus Buildings Off-Limits to Smokers, Including Private Offices

A proposal before the Academic Senate to ban smoking from all buildings at Cal State Fullerton, including private offices, was modified Thursday to a request that the university president “take immediate action to maximize smoke-free areas.”

Senate member Tom Klammer, who introduced the resolution at an April 30 meeting, said smoke from private offices passed through the ventilating system and is trapped in windowless buildings.

But Julian Foster, chairman of the senate, which represents university faculty, said a total ban “would have created a backlash.”

“I don’t think (a ban) is enforceable,” senate member Cameron Stewart said. “What are we going to do, have a cigarette police that goes around sniffing under doors. . . . I strongly urge you not to vote for this.”

Senate member Jack Crabbs said, “I am a smoker, and I’m not going to quit because of this policy.”

“It’s fanatic. It’s Draconian. It’s trying to kill a flea with a sledgehammer. I know it’s fashionable nowadays to be fanatic about smoking. . . . I think there are much more moderate and less dramatic ways to confront this problem,” he said.

Klammer said his proposal was prompted by a newspaper article about a campus employee who sued the university, claiming his health was threatened by second-hand cigarette smoke.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Gary L. Taylor in April denied David B. McCoy’s request for a campuswide ban on smoking, ruling that the university had not violated any laws.

McCoy, 44, an instrument technician who works in the performing arts building at the university, suffers from asthma and other allergies that make him especially susceptible to the hazards of secondary smoke.

“It made me very angry,” Klammer said. “The university is living in the past and fighting against change that is inevitable.”

Klammer said he was satisfied with the amended resolution because it was still a sign of “progress.”

Senate member Stewart Long, who proposed the amendment, said the Senate’s recommendations were consistent with an executive order issued by Gov. George Deukmejian in March that called for all public agencies to maximize a smoke-free environment. The recommended options include improving air filtering in buildings, posting more signs or banning smoking entirely.

Thomas Caley, an assistant to university President Jewel Plummer Cobb, said he did not think she would ban all smoking in campus buildings.

The university generally restricts smoking to hallways and private offices, and violators receive warnings. Smoking is banned in the library, the greenhouse and the campus computer center.