UTRGV has been a tobacco-free campus since Sept. 1, 2015, but that hasnโt stopped some people from lighting up.
The purpose of the policy, as stated in the Handbook of Operating Procedures, is to promote the health, well-being and safety of the UTRGV campus community.
โIf you see somebody smoking, you can tell them, โHey, we have a policy, no smoking on campus. Please stop smoking,โโ said Douglas Arney, senior associate vice president for operations for Finance and Administration. โSome people are comfortable doing this, some not.โ
If students are not comfortable telling a person to stop smoking, they can let University Police know.
โCampus police will then just ask them politely and inform them that there is a no-smoking policy on campus, โPlease refrain from doing so,โโ Arney said.
Also, UTRGV offers a webpage, โKeep UTRGV Tobacco Free,โ where students can report a person smoking on campus anonymously.
Those who continue to smoke on campus will be routed to the appropriate person.
โIf itโs an employee, it gets routed to the chief human resource officer,โ Arney said. โIf it is a student, theyโll route it to the dean of students or their designee. If itโs a faculty member, theyโre routed to the provost or his designee and if itโs a contractor, theyโll route it to Auxiliary Services or their designee.โ
Arney said itโs those individualsโ responsibility to look into the situation and have a conversation with the person smoking.
โItโs a warning the first time โฆ but if it continues to happen with that individual, then it becomes a disciplinary issue,โ he said.
For students, there is a disciplinary code of conduct and they would go through that process. For staff, HR has its own discipline process.
โWe would do a write-up,โ Arney said. โHopefully, it doesnโt get to that point. It hasnโt yet.โ
Faculty have their own process. The chair and dean meet with the faculty member and they make sure the faculty member stops smoking, he said.
โWe have a lot of things to do. We will provide you, as an employee, professional counseling and support. We will pay for it,โ Arney said. โWe have nicotine replacement therapy; we will pay for that.โ
For students, the university offers the Collegiate Recovery Program, where students can get tips to quit smoking.
UTRGV Police Chief Raul Munguia said after his department warns a student to stop smoking, they have not seen them repeat the act.
โThere has not been issues with the same person,โ Munguia said. โWe just follow the policy that exists already.โ
Sandra Masso, a freshman exercise science major, said smoking on campus may hurt peopleโs health.
โI think that smoking on campus is not OK because on campus, we have different types of people that might have major or minor health problems breathing the smoke,โ Masso said. โI think that smoking can be left to be done somewhere else rather than on campus.โ
