Homewood is moving closer to becoming a smoke-free campus, thanks to the efforts of one student group.
Hopkins Kicks Butt (HKB) is currently attempting to convince administrators to institute a campus-wide smoking ban.Their proposal calls for a $15 fine for people caught smoking on campus.
HKB hopes to make the University completely smoke free by 2012.
The group, which is part of the Center for Health Education and Wellness (CHEW), has been gathering signatures for roughly two years, although according to group President Sarah Durica, they have "only spent about 20 hours actually tabling and getting people to sign up."
"Our primary motivation for establishing a smoke-free campus is to reduce the community's exposure to harmful secondhand smoke," HKB said in the proposal it submitted to the administration about a year ago.
"Establishing a smoke-free campus will set a positive standard for other similar institutions and will reaffirm the Johns Hopkins University's reputation as a center of innovation and commitment to the common good," the proposal said.
HKB is seeking the support of other groups on campus. CHEW, Stressbusters, the Women's Pre-Health Leadership Society and Preventive Education and Empowerment for Peers (PEEPS) have already signed on to the petition.
HKB has roughly 20 members, but according to Durica, "we have had new membersHKB, from A1come to each meeting and are still getting e-mails from people interested in joining the group."
HKB feels that tobacco is a serious problem at Hopkins.
"The smoking problems here at Hopkins is pretty potent . . . We have letters [of complaint] from students in different housing complexes, particularly in the AMRs . . . it's a major problem definitely," Preston Kramer, HKB's Policy Chair, said.
Hopkins Kicks Butt is involved in several other campaigns beside its effort to get a campus-wide smoking ban instituted.
"We've been doing several . . . campaigns to educate students, faculty and staff about the harmful effects of smoking, and creating 'quit kits' that have info and supplies to help people quit," Durica said.
"We had educational programs for children last year and are trying to work with the Village Learning Project this semester . . . along with the Great American Smokeout in November."
According to Durica, Hopkins administrators have been receptive to their proposals. "We have met several times with Dean Boswell and she has been very receptive to our efforts," she said.
According to Durica, the administration is working with the group to "implement the first step" of the plan.
The first step calls for the placing of "signs that discourage smoking within thirty feet of campus building . . . [and taking] cigarette receptacles away from building entrances and windows so far as to discourage smoking within thirty feet of buildings and windows on campus," she wrote.
"We met with Dean Boswell last semester along with Planning and Operations, and they agreed to move the ashtrays away from the doors and windows. That was done last semester," Durica said.
"However, since the ashtrays aren't bolted down, people will just pick them up and move them back to those places so they can smoke when it's raining near the doors."
HKB also helped to get the event "Hookah and Hemp on the Beach" banned.
Durica claimed that HKB's efforts to get smoking banned from Homewood is part of a national trend.
"In the United States there are at least 365 campuses that are now 100 percent smoke-free with minor exception for remote outdoor areas," she said.
"Moreover, the American College Health Association just adopted new guidelines urging colleges to go to an 100 percent tobacco-free indoor and outdoor environment."Durica is not worried that HKB is infringing on the rights of smokers.
"The dangers of second-hand smoke have been known for a long time and more and more research is coming out everyday about the harms of it . . . A person's right to health will always trump an individual's right to smoke," she wrote.
It seems that reactions from the Hopkins community to HKB's proposal have been mixed. "Feedback has been very, very positive - we've gotten a lot of support from students, faculty, staff, etc," Kramer said.
"Of course there are a selection of people that disagree with us, but in general, once we have a chance to explain in detail our rationale and details of our proposals, most of them are more positive on it."
"I am very opposed to smoking personally, but an all out ban is simply cruel. Many smokers are addicted and forcing them to walk far away is not a compassionate proposal," senior and Student Council Executive Vice President Evan Lazerowitz said.
"There are far less extreme options that they should have and definitely should consider."
Lazerowitz added that he thinks this is "a rule that will be broken out of necessity," and that targeting smokers who are addicts "are kicking an already helpless opponent, lying face-down on the floor."
"I feel like that would be infringing on students' rights. It's one thing for high schools to ban smoking, but high schools contain children . . . odds are everyone at Johns Hopkins is legally capable of buying cigarettes, and deserves to be able to smoke them in the places state and city laws allow them to," freshman Reid Ginsburg said.
"I can understand having law or policies against smoking inside because of second hand smoke, but in the open air, even if it's on campus, people should be able to enjoy doing what they want to do . . . the campus is shared by smokers and nonsmokers," sophomore Matt Stankiewicz said.
"We shouldn't control people's lives more than they need to be."
