By Ginny LaRoe

LITTLE ROCK — The University of Arkansas at Little Rock will be smokefree in the fall next year, joining four other University of Arkansas System campuses in prohibiting puffing at school.The policy, which comes with no enforcement plans, will apply to all UALR property, including the W.H. Bowen School of Law and the Benton campus. Wednesday’s announcement follows the recommendations of student and faculty government groups.

“I think smoking in public areas is a detriment to the rest of the community,”said Bradley McColey, an international studies major who set out to persuade administrators to ban smoking when he joined student government last year.

The 23-year-old sophomore made his pitch to students and employees. And at the end of the spring semester, the University Assembly adopted a resolution supporting a ban.UALR Chancellor Joel E. Anderson said he made the de-cision to follow the recommendation “with some reluctance.”

“For those who smoke, I know that this announcement is unwelcome news,” he wrote in a note to students, the faculty and the staff. But the issue is “larger than any individual” and is “best for the future of UALR,” he wrote.

Anderson held meetings with groups of smokers and nonsmokers last month to hear their thoughts. As anticipated, smokers were opposed and nonsmokers were receptive, he said. He said he suspects that nonsmokers make up the majority of the student body of 12,000 and that banning smoking is part of a national trend.

“It is not only a trend on university campuses, but I think we’re seeing the same thing inother areas of society,” he said.

Indeed, the UA campuses in Fayetteville, Fort Smith and Pine Bluff and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, which took cues from area hospitals in 2004, are now smokefree. The Fayetteville and Pine Bluff campuses have complete tobacco prohibitions.

“You can’t chew, you can’t spit,” said Steve Voorhies, a spokesman for UA-Fayetteville.

The University of Arkansas at Monticello is talking about going smoke-free this year, said Ben Beaumont, a spokesman for the system. Outside of the UA System, Arkansas State University-Jonesboro and Arkansas Tech University in Russellville allow smoking on much of their campuses. UALR’s ban will take effect Aug. 16, 2009. Signs announcing the prohibition will replace ashtrays across campus. Giving everyone a year to adjust to the new rules will make the transition smoother, Anderson said. He is encouraging smokers to take advantage of campus smoking-cessation programs, which he said he plans to beef up in coming months.

“For me, it’s good news,” said Terrie Larkin, an administrative assistant at UALR who doesn’t smoke. “I just don’t think it’s healthy.”

UALR, like numerous other colleges and universities across the state, already forbids smoking in front of building entrances. But McColey said not everyone follows the rules and that leads him to believe enforcement could be a problem with the new ban. Shane Ruple, a 30-year-old music education student who also works in the fine arts building at UALR, agrees. He said that while he makes an effort to go off campus to smoke, others aren’tas conscientious. Ruple said he expects some of the “older” smokers to ignore the rules.

“There’s going to be some smoking holes” on campus where people puff, he said.

In Fayetteville, officials are counting on peer pressure to keep students and the staff in line when the masses return to campus this month, Voorhies said. Like UALR, the Fayetteville campus hasn’t developed an enforcement program.

“Friendly reminders are the way we’re going at this point,” Voorhies said.

Anderson said students and employees could be subject to disciplinary action if caught breaking the rules, but he said he doesn’t think it will come to that. He declined to say what kind of punishment they could face.

“I am confident there will not be an enforcement issue on this campus,” he said.

This article was published Thursday, August 7, 2008 in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette

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