Ohio University took the Board of Regents’ recommendation to go “tobacco free” — as did three other public universities in the state.
But unlike Cleveland State University, Ohio State University and Miami University, OU will take three years to implement the policy.
Cleveland took just nine months to put a tobacco ban on campus; Miami took almost two weeks to put its tobacco ban in place after about five years of being smoke free. Ohio State plans to take 10 months to go tobacco free by January.
OU officials, though, claim they need more time to iron out the finer details, such as how to enforce the ban, whether e-cigarettes will fall under the ban, and how the city and university will work together.
After presenting the tobacco-free plan to OU’s Board of Trustees at its August meeting, the tobacco-free task force will be assembled and meet this month.
“The first (task force) was looking at it from a bigger picture, (and) this group will be more detailed in their work,” said Ryan Lombardi, vice president for Student Affairs and tobacco-free task force chair.
OU has set its timeline so the tobacco-free information is available to students considering attending OU and for university “transparency” of the plan.
“The university is wise for taking its time for the implementation,” said Mary Kate Gallagher, former student representative on OU’s tobacco-free task force. “It takes a while to implement behavior change.”
But there are still many unknowns — including distinguishing how to regulate smoking on city-owned streets that run through campus — such as Richland Avenue, University Terrace, West Union Street and Stewart Street.
Making that decision will require the city to collaborate with the university, said Ron Lucas, Athens’ deputy service safety director.
“There are a variety of things that go into this, such as litter from cigarette butts and if it would be the city’s job to enforce the policy when the litter is on city or university property,” said Athens Mayor Paul Wiehl. “We’re going to take a ‘wait and see’ approach.”
Wiehl said he doesn’t believe the ban will affect Athens businesses.
“If they do a ban, it’s not going to affect us,” said Jac Cooper manager of Smoke Zone Smoke Shop, 14 W. Union St., explaining that the shop doesn’t necessarily sell tobacco itself, but rather vaporizers and other products. “E-cigs are less unhealthy, you can take a hit anywhere. It’s legal.”
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