According to filed legislation in the 2013 Louisiana Legislature, university and college campuses could see a ban on smoking throughout the entirety of the state.
Senate Bill 36, filed by Algiers Democrat Sen. David Heitmeier, calls for the prohibition of tobacco products on all higher education facilities and buildings in Louisiana. The bill cleared through the Senate Health Committee and is now proceeding onward in the legislative session.
The demand, as explained by Heitmeier, is designed to make the state a healthier place to live and would follow the examples of already smoke free campuses such as Nicholls State and most recently Tulane University.
Southeastern’s Grant Coordinator for Tobacco Free Living, Annette Baldwin, explained that the procedure change would deter students from becoming lifelong smokers.
“If we had a tobacco free policy here, it encourages people to not smoke as much,” said Baldwin. “If people don’t smoke as much, possibly they won’t get addicted as much. If they don’t get addicted as much then they won’t get as sick as much.”
The tobacco free campus proposal has a strong student following according to a survey conducted by Dr. Ralph Wood out of the university’s Kinesiology and Health Studies Department.
Taken in the spring 2012 semester, the survey concluded that 70.2 percent of Southeastern students supported tobacco free campuses and 76 percent believed the smoke free law should be extended to include university campuses.
More revealing in the study is the perception students have of smoking on campus. Research found that in 2011, students alleged 44.4 percent of the Southeastern student body used tobacco on a daily basis while in actuality only 15.5 percent of students reported daily use, down four percentage points from 2009.
“The perception that more students smoke than actually do is I think because of secondhand smoke,” said Baldwin. “If there’s a hundred people walking in that student union breezeway and one person walks through with a cigarette, a lot of those people will smell that cigarette. It gives the illusion that there are more people smoking than there is.”
The study also found that merely 10.9 percent of Southeastern students smoked during campus events and even lower, 4.4 percent reported smoking near resident halls.
“I’m actually okay with smoke free because most of the time when I do smoke it’s usually not on campus,” said senior communication major Mellissa Daigle. “I always go sit in my car if I ever want a cigarette and so I’m not against banning it on campuses and honestly, I would smoke less.”
However, a number of students disagree with a state-wide ban on campus smoking and argue that additional policies are not the solution to remedying tobacco use on campus.
“It is student choice,” said senior communication major Whitney Lester.  “We’re citizens and we have a right of freedom of expression and if it’s a way to express ourselves then we should be able to do it. The way I see it is if you put laws on anything it makes people kind of want to do it more. It’s kind of like gun control and prohibition.”
Current Southeastern policy prohibits smoking in no smoking zones around campus but designates four specific spots for smokers to light up, the back entrance of D. Vickers, Fayard Hall’s east side, Garrett Hall’s north side, and north side of the Sims Memorial Library.
Even with the policy in place, students find enforcement of the procedure to be one that is quite lax.
“I think universities should be smoke-free because they have the areas but I feel like people don’t use them,” said Freshman communication major Amy Purvis. “I’m walking around and people are smoking everywhere and I’m walking behind them so it’s all in my face.”
A total of 6 universities and colleges are smoke free within the state at the moment while over 1,000 campuses nation-wide are smoke-free with no exemptions.
Senate Bill 36 will be voted on sometime before the end of the 2013 legislative session.