Action Has Broad Support : Smoking Banned Indoors for Most CSUF Buildings

Smoking will be banned in virtually all buildings at Cal State Fullerton begining Oct. 1, in a policy intended to protect nonsmokers from secondhand smoke.

The prohibition, signed last week by President Jewel Plummer Cobb, expands prior restrictions against cigarette, cigar and pipe smoking in the campus Performing Arts Center, the library, classrooms and some offices and meeting rooms. Only the University Center, which was built with student funds, and student dormitories and exterior balconies will be exempted.

The action is part of a no-smoking trend that is sweeping private businesses and airlines, said Cobb, a former smoker. At least two other state universities, Cal State Chico and Cal Poly Pomona, have such bans already in place. UC Irvine does not

“There is growing recognition that we should limit the amount of smoking in public buildings,” Cobb said Wednesday. “We experience an ever-diminishing number of smokers on campus. It will be less convenient for them to smoke now, and it might deter some, or help them delay or cut down on smoking.”

While the ban may burn up a few smokers, it has wide support throughout the campus. Faculty members voted 192 to 81 to prohibit indoor smoking last spring, and a subsequent student referendum favored the ban 4 to 1.

David McCoy, a CSUF piano tuner who filed an unsuccessful suit against the university to bar smoking in 1986, called the order “a battle won.” McCoy, who suffers from asthma and severe allergies, said smoke from other people’s cigarettes has caused him permanent lung and bronchial damage.

“An employer has a duty to eliminate the hazard of second-hand tobacco smoke in the workplace,” said McCoy, who once wore a gas mask and anti-smoking sign as he worked to dramatize the danger.

“This sends a message to people from an educational institution that smoking in enclosed spaces is hazardous to your health. There will be hundreds of thousands of people going though the university over the next decade who will receive this message.”

Other nonsmokers, including Richard Serpe, director of the Social Science Research Center, also applauded the ban.

“For the most part, smokers on campus are responsible in terms of not smoking around people who object,” he said. “This just creates a rule that nonsmokers can point to in a situation where they want to ask somebody not to smoke.” Most smokers interviewed Wednesday said they won’t be greatly affected by the ban because they usually smoke outdoors anyway. However, some professors who are used to smoking undisturbed in the sanctuary of their offices said they will find the adjustment difficult.

“I tend to compose at a word processor in my office, and smoking is part of that process,” said Joyce Flocken, chair of speech communications. Flocken, who has been smoking since she was a high school senior in 1958, said she will try--once again--to stop smoking before the ban takes effect.

“Intellectually, I understand that it is in the interest of the majority. But emotionally, I will find it hard to comply,” she said. “It works a personal hardship. I will try to stop smoking, and if that doesn’t work, I’ll smoke outside.”

Flocken said she will also try to find alternatives, such as mobile offices for smokers, to assist colleagues such as a speech professor who complained to her that he “goes blank” if he tries to write without a cigarette. She also has requested additional outdoor benches and ashtrays for smokers.

James Diefenderfer, dean of natural science and mathematics and a longtime pipe smoker, said he observes an anti-smoking prohibition that he imposed years ago against smoking in corridors and meeting rooms of the college. However, his office air filter will no longer allow him to light up indoors, he said.

“I don’t think it will be that (much of a life-style change) for me,” Diefenderfer said. “If it means I have to walk outside because of others’ comfort, that’s all right.”

Students who smoke said they also will abide by the ban. Several added, however, that the prohibition adds to the feeling that they are under attack by nonsmokers.

“You know it’s an offensive habit,” said Rukko Rao, 24, a marketing major from Placentia. “You know you are in the minority. You are stigmatized all the time. Most people that I know who smoke want to quit.

“I think the ban is a good idea at an academic institution. But as a smoker, I think that some place should be set aside where we can smoke.”