Following the lead of hundreds of other campuses across the country, Framingham State University plans to be tobacco-free by next year, according to school officials.
But the details of that campus-wide ban on cigarettes, chewing tobacco and similar products are still up in the air, as an ad hoc committee responsible for developing the policy introduces its preliminary draft to students and staff.
"There's still lots of things to work out," said Vice President of Academic Affairs Linda Vaden-Goad, who presented the latest plan, based on policies at other colleges and universities, to students at a campus meeting on Monday.
Some of the concerns raised by the dozen or so students who attended that forum include the safety of smokers who would be forced to indulge their habit off-campus; how the policy would be enforced; and whether a campus-wide ban encroaches upon the civil rights of those who study and work at the university.
"I don't want a tobacco-free campus. We shouldn't be enforcing our moral values on other people," said freshman Michael Reda, who was critical of the tentative plan to prohibit use of smokeless tobacco products in particular.
Reda added it seemed "hypocritical" of the school to ban those in the name of health when it also sells caffeine-loaded energy drinks.
In response to other criticisms that the draft policy goes too far in eradicating tobacco from campus - even cigarette company apparel would be off-limits - Vaden-Goad said the committee purposely made the document broad so students and staff "could see what everybody across the country is doing," according to MetroWest Daily News.
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