Letter to the Editor: Director clears up allegations of Res. Life seeking campus-wide smoking ban
May 2, 2008
After reading your editorial in the April 25 edition, I implore you to correct and clarify the statements made about the Pershing smoking policy. Your editorial asked “someone” to listen to students. In fact, we listened: to the many residents who asked us remedy the situation, which we did and have already been thanked for doing so; to the area government for Pershing who endorsed the restricted smoking idea, asking that we exempt the courtyard picnic tables, which we did; to a resident student’s suggestion to create a designated smoking area for hospital employees and visitors closer to the hospital, which we did. We also followed an 18-month process, repeatedly met with UMHC staff, met with the area student government, and held two open forums. Only after repeated efforts to address the problem through encouragement, education and requests for actual enforcement of the UMHC smoking policy proved ineffective did we decide on this restriction. For clarification, “the administration” for MU and UMHC are NOT the same. The UMHC administration bears responsibility for hospital employees but although under not any duty to do so, Residential Life (which reports to the MU administration) is providing a smoking area in our efforts to be “good neighbors.” Through this policy, we are finding a way to both provide space for our residents who smoke — picnic tables in the courtyard — while still honoring the requests of those students who do not smoke. Lastly, the conspiracy theory about a subversive attempt to pilot a campus-wide smoking ban is inventing news, not reporting it.
Frankie D. Minor, Director of Residential Life, University of Missouri
Frankie@missouri.edu
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