As more colleges and universities implement campus-wide smoking bans, the University is unsure whether it’s ready to quit on-campus smoking cold turkey – at least for now, an administrator said.

“Our philosophy is to protect students and personnel from the effects of secondhand smoke,” said Tom Jackson, vice president for public affairs, “but we try not to legislate against individual habits.”

The University’s policy – adopted in 2006 – prohibits smoking within all facilities, Sanford Stadium, dormitories and outside areas adjacent to buildings, he said in a phone interview Tuesday.

The outdoor “buffer zones” vary by building and are meant to minimize smoke from entering doorways or ventilation systems.

Jackson said the administration would consider changing the policy if student groups or the University Council were to propose a more stringent approach.

Southeastern Conference institutions – including the University of Arkansas, the University of Florida and the University of Kentucky – are already smoke-free, or have announced dates to begin enforcing campus-wide smoking bans. In Athens-Clarke County, Gainesville State College and Athens Technical College also enforce smoking bans on campus.

For now, the University allows the “highest-ranking administrator” of each building to create designated smoking areas and buffer zones, according to the policy.

“We’re a fairly large campus with a lot of open spaces, and right now we control smoking in places students can’t avoid,” Jackson said, referencing buffer zones near academic buildings. “How could we effectively enforce a ban?”

Instead, more incremental steps may be an option if proposed and passed, he said.

On the other hand, some students think University buildings should be more transparent about where smoking is not allowed.

Katie Kraft, a third-year anthropology major from Athens, said she understands the importance of limiting smoking in certain areas, especially in doorways where it cannot be easily avoided.

“I really don’t want to get in people’s way [while smoking],” Kraft said. “The University could make the current policy better by placing signs outside, so people know where smoking is and isn’t allowed.”

Other students said the University may not be ready to adopt a campus-wide ban on smoking.

“If UGA is concerned with public health, it should clean up current problems,” said Grant Taylor, a third-year linguistics and English major from Dawsonville.

He said fixing problems such as asbestos in older dormitories and buildings should be a larger priority.

“It’s an immediate health problem that affects everyone,” Taylor said.

Respecting smokers’ and non-smokers’ rights is another contentious issue on campus.

“It would be similar to making UGA a dry campus – it’s a form of censorship,” said Ernest Hasbun, a third-year economics major from Carrollton.

Enforcing higher standards for bus emissions may also have a positive effect on air quality, he said.

Regardless of support for a smoking ban, the University Health Center continues to address smoking issues with students. Smoking cessation counseling is offered free of charge to students who pay the Health Center fee.

Officials at the Health Center said a smoking ban is already enforced on the center’s property.

Gloria Varley, assistant director of the University Health Center and manager of the Health Promotion department, said many students do not consider themselves smokers because they smoke socially. More than half of social smokers become addicted, she said.

“I think we’ll see more campuses gradually become smoke-free,” Varley said in a phone interview Friday. “The percent of college students who smoke is decreasing.”

Secondhand smoking on college campuses has become another interest to health officials. A recent study on secondhand smoke conducted by researchers at Wake Forest University reported 83 percent of students surveyed said they were exposed to secondhand smoke sometime in the seven days before the survey.

“It clearly got our attention,” said Mark Wolfson, who led the study. “It’s interesting because not only nonsmokers found secondhand smoke ‘annoying,’ half of the smokers did too.”

Wolfson, a professor of social sciences and health policy, surveyed college students from 10 universities in North Carolina, asking questions about behaviors, demographics and whether students had encountered secondhand smoke within seven days prior to the survey.

Wolfson said he and other researchers do not understand the exact rates of secondhand exposure that lead to serious health problems. They do know, however, that long-term studies have proven secondhand smoke causes several illnesses including heart disease, lung cancer, respiratory infections and asthma.

“At this time, we don’t know if it’s harmful or simply a nuisance [in the short-term],” he said. “But [in the long-term], the harmful effects of secondhand smoke are pretty clear. Students should think about their level of exposure and other things they could do to control their surroundings.”

Furthermore, quitting requires a mental commitment, said Michael Brugger, a physician’s assistant and smoking cessation counselor at the Health Center.

Brugger said he constantly reminds students about the health risks associated with smoking. If health care professionals do not discuss the issue with students who smoke, he said such passivity is the equivalent to silent approval.

“I think the University should incrementally be moving toward a smoke-free campus,” Brugger said. “People will still take breaks, but over time, they’ll figure out how to get by without cigarettes.”

At other universities, students and faculty have been accepting of smoking bans.

David Guzick, senior vice president of health affairs and president of UF Shands Health System at the University of Florida, said the decision to ban smoking on medical school and health college property has not received much criticism.

“If we are not playing a role in preventing smoking-related illnesses, we aren’t doing our job educationally,” Guzick said in a phone interview Wednesday.

He said he thinks the University of Florida’s decision to enforce a campus-wide ban next year will warrant positive feedback as well.

Scott Flanagin, director of communications and outreach at the University of Arkansas said reactions concerning the campus’s smoking ban, enacted July 2008, are mixed.

“Some people see this as having their rights taken away,” he said in an e-mail interview Thursday. “Others see it as having their rights being upheld to not have to inhale some other person’s tobacco smoke.”

Flanagin also said the policy change was brought about by Mary Alice Serafini, assistant vice provost for student affairs, who served as executive director of the health center. Throughout the process, student groups and administrators were consulted.

“This policy is just the right thing to do,” Flanagin said. “It is a matter of public health because everyone knows that secondhand smoke kills.”

Unlike some smoking bans, he said Arkansas’ policy does not designate smoking or tobacco use areas on campus. Flanagin said a state law in Arkansas will go into effect next August, making all college campuses in the state smoke-free.

Violators of the policy will be subject to up to a $500 fine, he said.

“Our policy has been approached in the spirit of compliance,” he said. “We simply ask people to comply with the university policy as they do all others. This policy is a change in culture, and with or without enforcement, it takes [three] or [four] years to change a culture.”

Despite other smoking ban successes, opinions on campus still vary.

“It would help me stop smoking,” Kraft said. “Of course smoking is terrible, and people on campus would be pleased with less smoke; but how would they enforce it?”