The back of the CCB, next to the Sandbar, in front of Payson, Lower Dorm Road. There are several hotspots for smokers at Pepperdine that it’s often difficult to discern where the non-smoking areas are. The concrete cigarette receptacles overflowing with empty packs and butts are evidence of how prevalent smoking is on campus.
Soon, those smoking spots will be fewer and farther between.
Pepperdine administrators introduced a new school policy Nov. 6 that will restrict smoking to designated areas in the next semester. The former rules allowed smoking on campus as long as it was 20 feet away from buildings and doorways and not in a smoke-free area.
Despite the new policy, some students said they doubt tighter smoking restrictions or a ban on tobacco would have a significant impact.
“To ban smoking and to allocate it to certain areas doesn’t discourage it, and it does ostracize those who do smoke,” junior Ryan Swain said. “There’s no other reason for these new regulations other than because people don’t care for the smell of cigarettes.
“I enjoy smoking cigars and a pipe, and I find the former smoking regulations that 20 feet from the door, not in any prohibited areas, were sufficient.”
Swain is one of the 43 percent of Seaver College students who do not support a smoke-free campus, according to a Graphic survey conducted last month.
Like most student smokers at Pepperdine, Swain does not smoke cigarettes. In the survey, 30 percent of student smokers used cigars within the past year, 28 percent used hookah, 23 percent used pipes and 18 percent used cigarettes.
“A broad cros-section of the community weighed in and expressed dissatisfaction with the current policy,” read an email sent from the university to the student body, “but felt that a proposal to ban smoking entirely with no designated smoking areas represented too big of a step. This feedback was informative and positive, suggesting that the community is in favor of moving at a measured rate towards a smoke-free environment, with limited, designated smoking areas and better enforcement.”
The Seaver Student Government Association and University Faculty Council worked with the University Management Committee to determine the best stance for the entire campus community, said Dr. Jay Brewster, associate provost and biology professor at Pepperdine. Brewster has been a key figure in reaching out to faculty, staff and students during the 18-month process of reforming the university’s smoking policy.
“We are hopeful our new policy will be one more step in educating our community and discouraging smoking,” said Provost Dr. Darryl Tippens.
The new policy will take effect spring 2013 to allow the university to create the new smoking areas, as well as a map of their locations for smokers.
In 2009, 14 percent of Pepperdine students said they had smoked cigarettes in the previous 30 days, the Graphic reported from a National College Health Association Survey. Of more than 100 students surveyed last month by the Graphic, 16 percent of Seaver students said they have smoked within the past month.
“Tobacco use has gone up slightly, but not significantly,” said Jennifer Ehteshami, a physician’s assistant from the Student Health Center.
Within the past three weeks, officials with the city of Santa Monica, University of California Los Angeles and University of California Santa Barbara have all announced they will implement smoking bans in the coming months, and officials at the University of Southern California may follow the trend.
“There are a number of colleges and universities across the country that are transitioning to a completely smoke-free campus policy,” Brewster said. “And I think for many, there is a will to move to being smoke-free in the near future, and this is a big step in the right direction.”
Tippens said Pepperdine will not be enacting a smoke ban as soon as other institutions.
“It should be clear to all that the administration is deeply concerned about any harmful behavior,” Tippens said. “We know that tobacco, including secondhand smoke, is harmful.”
Of the students surveyed, 57 percent said they supported Pepperdine going 100 percent smoke free. The rest said they thought the university’s current policy was sufficient.
“I feel like smoking is incredibly rude to the people around you,” freshman Cameran Holiday said. “There are places that I dread walking by because the smoke makes me cough or I have to cover my mouth with my shirt.”
However, Holiday said that with Pepperdine’s “tight rules on drugs, alcohol and sex,” it surprises him the university still condones smoking.
“If we’re really going to promote this image of Pepperdine being a completely clean campus of substances, then naturally a smoking ban would be the next step,” Holiday said.
Even if a majority of the Pepperdine community declines a smoke-free campus, many obstacles remain in the way.
“Many in the university administration believe (and I am one of them) that we should move to a total ban of smoking (and all tobacco products), but we also have taken care to consult with multiple campus constituencies,” Tippens said.
Health Center Director Nancy Safinick agreed with Tippens’ caution to immediately oust tobacco.
“Smoking is standard in some cultures,” Safinick said. “And, as medical practitioners, we need to be culturally sensitive so that we can continue to provide medical care in the best way possible to all students.”
Not only would discrimination be an issue under a smoking ban, but smokers would be unable to smoke off campus because Pepperdine is in such a rural setting prone to wildfires. Santa Monica and University of California system universities are able to enact smoking bans because they “are situated in urban settings where one can still smoke simply by crossing a street into a neighborhood or business district adjacent to the campus,” Tippens said.
“That is not possible at Pepperdine,” Tippens said. “Given our location, our obvious proximity to brush, we do not want our community members wandering off campus and smoking where fires might be ignited. We will continue the conversation, certainly, and will aim for the day when we can enjoy a fully smoke-free campus.”
Because students at Pepperdine tend to be “social smokers” (people who only smoke in social settings), Pepperdine’s Health Center officials said they think students underestimate the effects of first and secondhand smoke.
“It is my belief that at this stage in a student’s life, they don’t think about the long-term health effects or that it will hurt them,” Ehteshami said. “It is later on in life, when smoking has caused health effects that patients are motivated to stop. It is a goal for the SHC to educate students that the negative effects of smoking start immediately.”
The American Cancer Society has found 30 percent of all cancer cases are caused by tobacco smoke, Brewster said. There are 63 carcinogenic compounds in tobacco (carcinogens are cancer-causing substances), thus “it is clear that tobacco use and exposure can diminish both the quality of life and the duration of life.”
To work toward a smoke-free campus, the SHC has a Tobacco Cessation Program for all students and also participates in the annual Great American Smokeout and Kick Butts Day. For years, the SHC has been a welcoming place for student smokers who seek help, but studies seem to indicate that most of the SHC’s “brochures end up in the garbage can unread,” Safinick said. “Some tobacco-using students have taken advantage of our smoking cessation program; others are not ready to address the issue.”
Even though students like Holiday support a smoking ban, Brewster said, “The kids who have chosen to smoke are now chained to it — they’re chained to their addiction, and so to them, a ban is almost a form of discrimination because it’s not something they can change easily.”
Brewster said the smoking policy will probably be revisited in two to three years, but until then, “the university’s goal is to generate a healthier campus environment, limiting student exposure to smoke and environmental (secondhand) smoke.”