Written by Amber Emery and Ryan Tarinelli
Hundreds of comments from students showing support and opposition for the proposed tobacco-free policy were written on the Free Speech Wall.
Located between the Idaho Commons and TLC last month, the wall was an exercise in “starting the conversation,” according to the University of Idaho Economics Club and Veterans Club.
Amber Emery | Argonaut
A UI student writes a comment on the Free Speech Wall tobacco display in the Idaho Commons Thursday, Sept. 11. The student wrote under the “What are the pros and cons of a complete tobacco ban?” poster. The Free Speech Wall was an interactive display put in place by the Economics and Veterans Clubs.
Several sheets of butcher paper were hung on the wall. Each sheet asked a question to the average passersby.
One sheet asked, “What are the pros and cons of having a complete tobacco ban?”
Another, “What other alternatives are there to a complete tobacco ban?”
The questions were posted the second week of September and by the end of the week, there was no longer any white space on the pieces of paper for students to leave more comments.
“We thought is was successful,” said Mason Donaldson, Economics Club vice president. “We wanted to see if the general student body had anything to say about this issue and they obviously do.”
Another question posted on the wall asked, “Would you attend an open forum debate between opposing views?”
“We got over, I think, 30 tallies,” said Joseph Cook, Economics Club president. “It made us realize that there really needs to be more dialogue about this.”
The Economics and Veterans Clubs will host a panel discussion about the proposed tobacco-free policy from 5-7 p.m. Nov. 19, in the Menard Law Building courtroom.
Steven Peterson, adviser of the Economics Club, said representatives of the Tobacco Task Force will be in attendence so panel attendees can hear both sides of the debate.
“One of the things we want to emphasize is that they will be treated with respect — this will be a friendly environment, they can bring their own supporters and encourage them to come,” Peterson said.
Yet, for members of the task force like Helen Brown, the task force has made a clear effort to already communicate with groups opposed to the tobacco-free policy.
Brown said the task force has met with representatives from both the Economics and Veterans Clubs and held a public orientation event last week. She said the orientation was open to the public to ask questions about the task force and the tobacco-free policy.
Brown said only one person attended, Athletic Director Rob Spear, who voiced support for the tobacco-free policy.
“We’re not closed off to things, we just feel like we’ve done that work,” she said.
The two clubs have joined together to openly oppose the proposed tobacco ban citing a lack of scientific evidence in outdoor tobacco bans and a strong commitment to personal freedom, among other reasons. The Economics Club came out in opposition of the proposal last spring when the task force officially recommended UI institute a tobacco-free policy. The Veterans Club reached out to the Economics Club shortly after to hop on board.
“We basically reached out to them because we saw they were the only ones speaking up,” said William Gentry, community service coordinator for the Veterans Club. “There’s a large number of veterans I’ve spoken to who came here for a reason, that there’s prevailing opinions on civil liberties and individual liberty, and a tobacco-ban kind of goes against those values.”
Peterson said the Economics Club first became interested in the smoking policy about three years ago when there were initial conversations on campus about changing the policy.
“We thought ‘What a great issue to have an open forum on,'” he said. “We specialize in panel discussions about issues related to economics, so we’ve been following this for a very long time.”
Peterson said the club decided to hold an open forum last spring, but ran out of time as the end of the academic year approached. When school resumed in August, he said he was shocked to have heard the task force was moving forward with the implementation phase of the tobacco ban despite many on campus being unaware of the issue, or the proposal at all.
“We were hoping this would take a little more of a leisurely trip through the fall, but when it comes right out as a blast in the fall before we even put the wheels on the wagon,” he said. “We felt like we had to act somewhat quick.”
But, Brown said the task force looked at many points of view on an update to the smoking policy, and concluded a tobacco ban was the best route for UI. She said people will always be opposed to change, even when it is for the best.
“We’re trying to be very very thoughtful about it, but you’ll always have opposition to any decision,” Brown said.
From the beginning, Brown said UI community health and safety has been at the forefront of their efforts.
“That’s what we’ve done since the very beginning, what’s the most protective for the health and safety of the students, faculty and staff on this campus,” she said.
While Donaldson said he is against the tobacco ban for multiple reasons, including valuing the ability to make decisions on his own, he said the main reason he is actively working against the tobacco ban is because he believes it hasn’t been given the spotlight it should have.
“We think the task force should be an embodiment of the students’ and faculty’s ideas about the policy, rather than a group of people on a mission to get something done,” he said. “We — and I think everyone should — want to be part of the compromise.”
Donaldson said he, the rest of the Economics Club and members of the Veterans Club have taken steps the last few weeks to reach out to the UI community to gauge their opinions on the tobacco-free campus policy. One of which was the Free Speech Wall display that yielded split opinions among UI students.
Peterson said while the club didn’t quantify the responses, they looked at the results holistically and determined that the campus was almost evenly split among supporters and those in opposition.
“The yes’ and no’s came out almost exactly the same,” he said.
As for the comments made by students, Donaldson said many of the remarks were questions about what the tobacco ban would entail.
“A lot of comments on there were like people saying, “What about dip, or chew, or other things like that?'” He said. “It just shows how unaware they were that this is not just cigarettes, it’s all tobacco products — even e-cigs.”
Overall, Donaldson said he and his fellow Economics Club members were pleased to see interactions between students on the paper. He said there were some comments surrounded with “agrees” or “disagrees,” from other students, as well as popular comments being bolded or underlined by different colors of pen.
In addition to its Free Speech Wall exercise, the Economics and Veterans Clubs hung a banner and placed flyers in table tents in the Idaho Commons to try and build a larger coalition of people who are against the tobacco ban.
“We are scheduled to present to the faculty senate within the next few weeks,” Peterson said in a statement. “We will be reaching out the Greek community soon (and) we are beginning a printed petition drive on campus.”
Gentry said he wants the campus community to know a student-led movement started the task force and that the general public should still have a say in the university’s smoking policy.
“The tobacco task force is our task force essentially — we’re the student body,” Gentry said. “We assembled them collectively.”
UI General Counsel Kent Nelson said he thinks the tobacco-free campus policy proposal should be carefully vetted with stakeholders in the UI community, including students.
“I think that they should be aware that this is in serious consideration, and has been thought through by this task for some time,” Nelson said. “If they have issues or concerns they should make them known to the task force.”
Amber Emery and Ryan Tarinelli can be reached at [email protected]