A look at how the non-smoking policy first began on the UIndy campus
A little over four years ago, student complaints generated a major change on the University of Indianapolis campus. In 2006, UIndy became the first non-smoking campus in Indianapolis. Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis soon followed suit, gaining media attention for the issue.
Initially, only buildings on UIndy’s campus were non-smoking. Now, the entire campus officially conforms to the policy.
The Indianapolis Student Government (ISG) played an integral role in making UIndy a smoke-free campus.
“ISG worked together with the administration of the university to come to this decision,” ISG President Caitlin Deranek said. “ISG simply heard the wishes of the students and worked together to create the plan currently in place.”
After the policy took effect, UIndy took a number of steps to remind students of the change, such as putting signs on doors in all of the buildings. Recently, announcers began to remind visitors as well as students at all home games.
Also, when groups visit the campus to take tours, the university asks the organizers to remind the visitors about the policy.
Punitive enforcements were never set. Instead, if someone is smoking, they are given a simple reminder that UIndy is a non-smoking campus.
“We didn’t feel that we needed to have enforcements. We built it [the no-smoking policy] on the positive goodwill and approached it in more of the positive persuasive model instead of the negative,” UIndy President Beverley Pitts said.
Walking through the construction on Hanna Ave., students may notice a cluttering of cigarette butts or an empty carton. The university doesn’t own the sidewalks, so construction workers still have the right to smoke as long as they aren’t on campus property.
Both Pitts and Deranek believe that the policy will stay the same for many years to come and don’t see it changing in the near future.
“I think, if anything, we’re getting to the place where it’s not a rule, it’s more of a norm,” Pitts said.
Deranek said that ISG is the place for students voices to be heard, whether in a complaint or praise. She maintains that the overall response to the non-smoking policy has been positive.
“As always, ISG is available to champion the complaints of the student body,” Deranek said. “If there is a large movement to change the rule, ISG will be happy to attempt to communicate that to those that can make the changes happen.”
