With virtually no warning, smoking at 14 of Pennsylvania’s state-owned universities has been banned anywhere on campus even outdoors.
The action has sparked protests around the state by some of the 110,000 students in the State System of Higher Education, who received word of the ban by e-mail late Wednesday a day before a new state law forbidding smoking in most workplaces and public spaces took effect.
After discussions with university presidents and system board members, Chancellor John Cavanaugh said he interprets the law to extend beyond buildings at educational facilities to include all campus grounds, such as courtyards, parking lots and athletic fields.
Cavanaugh, who took over as chancellor in July, said some classes occasionally meet outside, and the schools also hold outdoor fundraising events and receptions.
“After all of that deliberation, we decided we would go on the side of caution,” he said.
The move to make campuses systemwide completely smoke-free is apparently unprecedented among state-funded Pennsylvania universities, but the American Lung Association said more than 130 colleges and universities across the country have such policies.
Penn State University, a public university that is not part of the state system, bans smoking inside buildings and university-owned vehicles and within a certain distance of building entrances, but allows smoking elsewhere at its flagship University Park campus in State College, a spokeswoman said. Some of Penn State’s other campuses have stricter bans, spokeswoman Lisa Powers said.
