'Breathe Easy Maricopa' website launched

By Julie Rhodes Mataway, December 2011
Feature Editor

Nov. 17, the American Cancer Society’s 36th annual Great American Smokeout, the Maricopa County Community College District released details regarding its Breathe Easy Maricopa initiative, which bans smoking and tobacco use on all MCCCD campuses.

Photo by Julie Mataway

Colleges implementing smoking restrictions cite cigarette butts strewn on the ground as one of the reasons.

Included in the announcement is a new website for students, faculty and staff, according to Tom Gariepy, District director of marketing and communications. The website is intended to be a resource for smokers who want to quit as well as a guide for education on the Breathe Easy initiative.

“People will be able to go (to this website) and get resources for quitting smoking and tobacco use,” said Gariepy. “They are the ones whose habits and lifestyles are affected by this.”

The new restriction, set to take effect on July 1, 2012, was announced last month by MCCCD Chancellor Rufus Glasper.

Since the announcement was made, evenly divided feedback has been coming in on both sides of the issue.

“People who are against it are against it very much; people who are for it are very much for it,” said Gariepy. “The lines have been burning up on Facebook and Twitter. Emails have poured in on both sides of the issue to the chancellor.”

Some have questioned how the decision was made.

“He just decided,” said one faculty member who is a smoker.

The MCCCD has a governing board made up of elected officials whose job is to represent the residents of Maricopa County in determining and demanding appropriate organizational performance within the District. One of their responsibilities pertains to chancellor limitations. The board determines the parameters within which all activity and decisions under the chancellor’s authority must take place.

According to Glasper, the decision to go smoke-free was unilateral.

He said, “I made the decision rather than the Governing Board because it was an administrative decision. The Governing Board is not involved in administrative decisions.”

Was this an arbitrary anti-smoker move?

It was definitely not, according to Helice Agria, program specialist for Student Life and Leadership.

“One of the major driving forces in terms of student groups in making this regulation move forward is a group called Ignite started by the Maricopa County Health Department in partnership with colleges and high schools,” said Agria. “Students were in on the ground level constructing this task force. Meetings were held at campuses since Ignite started four years ago. There have been a lot of chances for input into this process over the years.”

PVCC’s Ignite group did not provide feedback to the District on smoking issues.

Agria indicated that there were smokers in the tasks forces that did provide feedback who had the opportunity to speak.

“That’s important to know,” she said. “Otherwise, people will feel like it came out of the sky. This has actually been four or five years in the works.”

Smokers and tobacco users may find Breathe Easy Maricopa a little tough to swallow.

PVCC student Chase Fadeley views the smoke-free initiative as kind of ridiculous.

“Smoking should be allowed at least in designated areas,” he said.

The actual implementation and enforcement of Breathe Easy Maricopa is not included in the new website that was published on Nov. 17.

“That is still in progress.” said Gariepy. “We are working that through. As soon as we have something we are going to let everyone know.”

There is a possibility that Breathe Easy Maricopa will be patterned after some of the other 500-plus campuses nationwide that have implemented or are in the process of implementing smoking bans.

“We are looking at how other institutions do it,” said Gariepy. “We haven’t reached any conclusion yet in terms of what we will be doing.”

The website www.no-smoke.org provides a list of smoke-free colleges and universities.

The University of Michigan is listed as one such campus. It enacted a smoke- and tobacco-free initiative that took effect July 1 of this year. They created a “Supervisors' Toolkit” which provides guidance on enforcement of their smoking ban and posted it on their website, smokefree.umich.edu. The same website offers information and support for students, faculty and staff who want to quit smoking.

Agria sees Breathe Easy Maricopa as a benefit for those students who have been trying to quit smoking. She has heard students express the desire to quit, but they say they find the social situation in campus designated smoking areas a deterrent.

“I think it’s hard for them to quit because this creates a social situation for them where they are more likely to smoke,” she said.  “I watch these students struggle because (these areas) are like a bar for them.”