Penn. schools set up bans

Pennsylvania college students still are waiting to find out how a new smoking ban will be enforced two weeks after the state's university system passed it.

State law specifies that the Pennsylvania Department of Health can enforce statewide non-smoking policy.

But the department still is trying to decide how it will regulate smoking on the campuses" department spokeswoman Holli Senior said.

""The issue with this particular topic is the chancellor interpreted the bill in a way we didn't really anticipate"" Senior said.

The university system is going one step further than the state law by extending the ban to all outdoor areas on campuses. The health department is responsible for enforcing the ban.

The system ban includes outdoor areas because classes and other learning takes place outside, said Kenneth Marshall, spokesman for the Pennsylvania State System for Higher Education.

We believe that our entire campus qualifies as an educational facility"" Marshall said.

Senior said the state ban should cover more public indoor spaces.

Currently, the ban only includes bars that earn more than 20 percent of their revenue from food sales.

But health department officials want to eliminate all exemptions in the law and effectively ban smoking in all bars, Senior said.

We certainly" as the Department of Health would like to see a tougher law" she said. We'd like to see no smoking across the board.""

Some students have taken action" said Peter Gigliotti spokesman for Shippensburg University" a Pennsylvania-system school.

 ""We've had students protesting; we've had students who think it's great"" he said. We've had faculty complaining and faculty thinking it's a good idea.""

Students at Bloomsburg University" another system school didn't react as strongly" spokeswoman Rosalee Rush said.

""We haven't had any protests or any real issues on campus" she said.

Rush said the campus already had limited anti-smoking policies that could have eased the transition.

Gigliotti said his campus is currently preparing for implementation of the new policy.

Law requires that we post signs and we are preparing for that" he said. It is the law and this is how we've chosen to implement it.""

Despite being partially responsible for implementing the ban"" the universities don't play a role in punishing students for violations.

""We don't enforce the law"" Gigliotti said.

Campus police will help monitor smoking and eventually report offenders to the health department, but that might not happen immediately, Marshall said.

University police will be telling smokers to put it out" but how quickly we'll go farther than that I'm not sure" Marshall said. It's a process that will take some time.""



Staff Writer Ian Ager contributed reporting.

Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.