USM protest unlikely to change tobacco ban

GORHAM – It appears efforts by University of Southern Maine students to reverse a university-wide ban on tobacco use will have little impact, school officials said this week.

The ban is set to be implemented beginning New Years Day on university campuses in Portland, Lewiston-Auburn and Gorham. The ban applies to students, faculty, staff and even members of the public.

Craig Hutchinson, the university’s chief student affairs officer, met with students at a sparsely attended protest Monday on the Gorham campus. The students lit up cigarettes, played guitars and posted signs. A handful of students organized the rally, with others filtering in between classes to join the protest.

University officials are intent on implementing the ban on all tobacco products on its three campuses.

“Little to no chance,” Hutchinson, said Monday about the likelihood of reversing the policy. He said the ban has been studied for years and is being implemented after “considerable vetting.”

Citing health reasons, the university, following other campuses nationally and in Maine, has approved a policy banning smoking and chewing tobacco.

“We will be joining the more than 700 other educational institutions across the country which have successfully banned tobacco from their campuses already,” university President Theo Kalikow said recently. “At least three other UMS institutions have already done this, and it is now our turn to support the health of all our students, faculty and staff.”

Students opposing the ban at the Gorham rally didn’t appear ready to capitulate and planned another one on the university’s Portland campus on Wednesday this week. Students also planned to combine petitions circulating on the three campuses.

“I’m a smoker and I don’t think its right,” said Gabrielle Libby, a Lewiston-Auburn junior attending the protest. “Students should come together to reverse it.”

“Students have a voice,” student protest organizer Jordana Avital, a freshman, said Monday on the Gorham campus. “That’s the important thing.”

University officials did not make any effort to disperse tobacco ban protesters on the Gorham campus.

“This is a great example of constructive student dissent,” said Hutchinson, who reports to Kalikow.

It’s unclear what punishment for violations of the ban might be meted out. Hutchinson said students violating the ban would be dealt with through the student conduct process; employees through human resources; and visitors who are smoking will be asked to extinguish smokes.

“I’m not anticipating arrests,” Hutchinson said.

Freshman Michael Corr, who lives in a Gorham dorm, played guitar at the rally. Corr said it’s a public campus and those age 18 or more should have the right to light up.

“It’s wrong to ban the few who smoke,” Corr said.

Emma Beaton, a sophomore on the Gorham campus, wants more designated areas for smoking and more butt buckets.

“What I really want is a compromise,” Beaton said.

The Gorham campus students received backing at the protest from the Lewiston-Auburn campus.

Brian Strouse, a smoker and also a junior from the university’s Lewiston-Auburn campus, opposes the ban and attended the Gorham protest. Strouse is a member of the student government on that campus and attended to show there’s opposition to the ban there, as well.

Strouse and Libby are both military veterans and leaders of a veterans’ club on the Lewiston-Auburn campus. Libby served two years with the Army National Guard, and Strouse served several tours as a U.S. Marine in Iraq.

“Sometimes you just need a cigarette,” Strouse said.

University of Southern Maine students on the Gorham campus Monday protest a coming tobacco ban.
Gabrielle Libby and Brian Strouse, both juniors from the Lewiston-Auburn campus of USM, show solidarity Monday at a Gorham campus protest aimed at reversing the tobacco ban.