Greg Gancarz
Editor
Parkland is close to officially implementing tobacco free enforcement procedures in compliance with Illinois state law.
Parkland has been a tobacco-free college since 2015, when state law mandated all public colleges become tobacco-free, but it is now close to officially adopting a system of penalties in order to enforce the law.
The Smoke Free Campus Act was signed into law on Aug. 17, 2014 by Gov. Pat Quinn. The act bans tobacco in both indoor and outdoor spaces on all campuses supported by state funding. The law went into effect on July 1, 2015.
According to the manager of buildings and grounds at Parkland, Troy Burns, it’s a law that many people on campus still do not pay heed to.
“There’s tons of people that still don’t abide by it. I think a lot of it is that people may not be aware of it or it’s just disregarded. I also don’t think people understand that that includes vaping and chewing tobacco as well,” Burns said. “There [are] signs posted all over but, lots of times, [people] don’t even notice them anymore and [they] don’t realize that we are a tobacco free campus.”
Burns said that it doesn’t matter where smokers go – if it’s anywhere on Parkland property, tobacco is not allowed. According to him, since the law was passed, keeping students informed of the policy has been an “uphill battle.”
“We’ve had two new [classes] of freshmen come in [since the law was implemented] and I don’t think any of [the policy] gets relayed to anybody […].. One of the things you should know coming in as a freshman on campus is you can’t do this,” Burns said.
Up until now, there has been little that Parkland has been able to do to actually enforce the law, but according to the chief of police, William Colbrook, the college is “transitioning to a phase of enforcement” in order to comply with state law. In the near future, those who are found to be violating the tobacco-free policy will be subject to warnings and then monetary citations for repeated offenses.
“In general, what we’ve done is we’ve looked at the models from various campuses across the state and some are more strict, some are more lenient. We’ve found one that’s ‘middle of the road’,” Colbrook said. “The college made a strategic decision to go heavy on education and voluntary compliance and we knew, at some point, in order to be in full compliance with the law, we had to enact some sort of enforcement/penalties.”
The policy that Colbrook proposed to the committee is, in his own words, “heavy on education, prevention, and lots of warnings.”
In the current version of the proposed policy, those found to be in violation will be subject to two separate warnings before they become liable for their first monetary citation in the amount of $25. However, Colbrook also proposed allowing violators to be able to take an online education course in order to have the first citation fee waived.
“My vision is for somebody to go online to a URL and just access [the] PowerPoint and go through the short informational course and then, once they’re done, have a certificate generated; paper, if they want it, or electronic. The electronic certificate [would be] given to a certain entity within the college,” Colbrook said. “Once the proper entity gets that certification that the person has successfully completed the PowerPoint, then we would work with the business office to make sure that [the fine] is then waived.”
If the individual continued to violate the policy after receiving warnings and going through the education course, then fines would increase by $25 per offense until a maximum fine of $100 is reached for each repeated violation. Colbrook anticipates revenue from such fines would be miniscule. There would also be an appeals committee to hear the arguments from any alleged violators of the tobacco-free policy.
Although the policy has yet to be officially adopted, Colbrook says that it is unlikely there will be any major changes to the policy he has put forth. At this point Colbrook says the exact wording of the policy is being refined by the policy committee in order to make sure it is perfect.
“[We are refining] so that the college is completely, 100 percent happy with the words we have on paper,” Colbrook said. “We’re getting close. I’d like to have it be fully implemented by this summer but…it’s going to be completely up to the policy committee.”
Colbrook says that although Public Safety is now authorized to issue citations, having to do so is not their aim.
“We’re not about giving tickets and wanting to give people a fine. We’re 100 percent about education and what I call voluntary compliance, no different than if someone is going down a roadway. If the sign is posted ‘30,’ cops want you to do 30 [mph]. They don’t want you to do 40 [mph] and then have to stop you and give you a ticket,” Colbrook said.
“If we can spread the word, semester to semester […], as new students come, as visitors come on campus, to let people know that all colleges and universities, but in particular…Parkland College is a tobacco free campus, we’re going to get voluntary compliance,” Colbrook said. “If we don’t have to write a single warning or a single citation for money, we’ll be happy.”
Colbrook said that although the college has given the responsibility of enforcement to the office of Public Safety, it still “considers every employee to be that voice, to be able to kindly ask other people to comply with state law.”
For Burns the policy implementation is a welcome addition to Parkland.
“I could care less if people smoke or not. My problem is having to expend labor, having guys out there with blowers and stuff and having to pick cigarettes up. We’re trying to keep the place looking [good] and that doesn’t help anything,” Burns said. “[People] might want to start getting compliant with this because it’s not too far down the road […] that we’re going to start having formal penalties. It’s pretty lenient, but it is something: a little bit of a deterrent.”
