Warren Queton fought for his religious rights Thursday at a meeting to gather input about a proposed campuswide tobacco ban.
The anthropology graduate student and other OU community members voiced their opinions to the Advisory Committee on Tobacco Policy during a forum in the Oklahoma Memorial Union’s Beaird Lounge.
Issues raised included a desire for designated smoking areas, a petition for the university to provide tools to help smokers quit and infringements on personal liberties.
But smoking tobacco isn’t just a personal liberty to Queton — he said it’s something spiritual.
As a member of the Kiowa, Seminole and Cherokee tribes, Queton smokes ceremonial tobacco almost every day as part of his culture.
Banning all tobacco on campus would violate the rights of Native Americans and possibly the Native American Religious Freedom Act, he said.
“Tobacco — to our Native American people — is considered to be sacred,” he said.
The advisory committee, which was created by President David Boren, used the forum as a listening opportunity while it crafts its recommendations for Boren and the OU Board of Regents, said committee chairman Gary Raskob, College of Public Health dean.
The forum lasted almost the entire hour and 15 minutes allotted, with a myriad of questions posed by the community both supporting and opposing a new tobacco policy.
Raskob didn’t answer many questions directly, but he thanked the participants for their suggestions.
“A lot of good input came from the tobacco forum,” Raskob said.
Third-year law student RJ Harris told the committee a complete tobacco ban would be an overreach by the university and would violate the liberties of people who smoke.
Raskob said he couldn’t address Harris’ concern immediately, but he said legal issues on liberty infringements will be discussed with Anil Gollahalli, OU’s general counsel and legal counsel for the tobacco committee.
UOSA Vice President Laura Bock said the committee helped her understand what community members wanted, but she said she was disappointed with the response from students.
“We were elected to represent the students’ opinions,” said Bock, zoology senior.
Raskob said there were no plans to host another forum at this time, but the committee will continue to gather information from the community through its email account.
Once the committee members prepare their recommendations for Boren, the proposals will be sent to the OU Board of Regents.
Queton will have to wait and see what the committee sends to Boren before he learns whether he will be barred from practicing his cultural beliefs. He said he will push back against the university if a tobacco ban is implemented without religious exemptions.
“[Banning tobacco] violates our First Amendment rights,” Queton said.
CONTACT THE COMMITTEE
• tobaccopolicy@ou.edu
UPDATE: Campus smoking ban
• BACKGROUND: During the State of the University address in September, President David Boren announced he was creating a committee to explore a campuswide ban on tobacco. The Advisory Committee on Tobacco Policy held its first meeting Sept. 29.
• WHAT'S NEW: The committee held an open forum Thursday to gather input from the OU community.
• WHAT'S NEXT: The committee meets today to discuss the information gathered during Thursday’s open forum. Boren has requested the committee submit its recommendations on a new tobacco policy in time for the OU Board of Regents’ Dec. 1 meeting.
AT A GLANCE: Questions asked
Members of the OU community expressed many concerns during the forum. Here is a list of questions or concerns posed by participants:
• Will there be designated smoking areas?
• Will there be exemptions for religious uses of tobacco?
• Why did it take so long for the university to make this decision?
• There should be more tools available to help smokers on campus quit, especially if a full ban goes into place.
• What does the committee plan to do about students living in the dorms and campus housing?
• Will smokeless tobacco be banned?
• Does the university benefit from grants and money for being a non-smoking campus?
• How will the university enforce a smoking ban?
• Will enforcing a university ban cost more than cleaning up cigarette litter?
AT A GLANCE: Committee members
STUDENTS:
• UOSA President Hannah Morris
• UOSA Vice President Laura Bock
• CAC Chairwoman Melissa Mock
• Student Congress chairwoman Alyssa Loveless
• Graduate Student Senate chairman Derrell Cox
FACULTY:
• Political science professor Michael Givel
• Former Faculty Senate chairwoman Cecilia Brown
• Political science professor Hank Jenkins-Smith
STAFF:
• Custodial supervisor Matthew Rom
• Housing and Food Services general manager April Buchanan-Sandlin
• Staff Senate chairman-elect Chris Cook
ADMINISTRATORS:
• Administrative affairs vice president Nick Hatahway
• Human Resources director Julius Hilburn
• College of Public Health dean Gary Raskob.
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braceyourself 6 months, 1 week ago
Does seriously everything in this state have to be about religion? Slap "religion" onto anything, and people use it as an excuse for everything.
Sorry, but the flip side of allowing you to practice whatever religion you want is that you don't get to force your religion onto other people, which is exactly what you're doing if you're smoking in a crowd on campus. Just like I don't feel like accompanying you to mass on Sundays, I don't feel like accompanying you on your religious tobacco journey in front of Dale Hall.
kdbp1213 6 months, 1 week ago
i'm an adamament non-smoker but i am an adamament believer in freedom of choice. smoke? don't smoke? wear helmet while motorcycling or bicycling? go helmetless? drink alcohol? be non-acoholic?
i don't need a big brother imposing a choice on me.
cacremin 6 months, 1 week ago
braceyourself: What part of "designated smoking area" do you not understand?
Your personal disapproval does not give you the right to tell people what to do. That's the authoritarian impulse in action.
There is a reasonable compromise: give people places where they can smoke, prevent them from smoking in places used by the public.
For instance, I notice that there aren't any ashtrays around campus, with the exception of a few placed near building entrances (where smoking is prohibited anyway). Creating these would be one way to reduce litter, which is the argument many are using to force a ban on cigarettes. Notice how the reaction to food/drink packaging litter was to provide more trashcans, not to ban the offending products.
braceyourself 6 months, 1 week ago
No, saying people can't smoke whatsoever is authoritarian. Setting rules for smoking on campus is creating a policy about use of a space. Don't be melodramatic.
braceyourself 6 months, 1 week ago
"What part of "designated smoking area" do you not understand?"
Frankly, I understand these just fine, and when I'm constantly being told that we can't have certain things because of the budget crisis, the LAST thing I want to spend money or space on is designated smoking areas. MMMKAY? Do you understand that?
braceyourself 6 months, 1 week ago
Also, are you really saying that banning a luxury item like tobacco is similar to banning essential items like food and drink? In the words of Michelle Tanner, PUH-LEASE.
cacremin 6 months, 1 week ago
Food and drink sold from vending machines are luxury items. They have no nutritional value and can actually damage health in excess. So yes, soda, chips, and candy are not substantially different than smoking.
It's still authoritarian. You're limiting personal autonomy when there are compromises that do not limit personal autonomy available. Whether you personally think the right to smoke is an important one does not mean keeping that right from other people isn't a form of authoritarianism.
cacremin 6 months, 1 week ago
Also, tobacco is not a luxury item to the Native American tribes who use it for religious ceremonies or to individuals with a physical addiction to nicotine.
braceyourself 6 months ago
Are you seriously trying to tell me that Native Americans will be performing their religious ceremonies in these "designated smoking areas?" Don't be daft. And frankly, until you can take the time to learn which tribes actually use tobacco for their religious ceremonies, stop using it as an excuse. It's incredibly offensive to generalize about a group of people and fail to separate a religion from a people. Would you be posting comments about how we need to keep wine legal because some white people use it for sacrament? No.
And really? REALLY? We should be helping people with their addictions, not helping them find ways to stay addicted. You clearly care more about your ability to argue than about people.
Telling people that they need to respect a space is not authoritarian. If you want to smoke (religiously or otherwise), you can do that at home...or at a park...or on tribal lands...or anywhere else you want that doesn't have a policy against smoking. Your rights aren't being limited in this case; you're being melodramatic.
Frankly, the only thing you've done is convince me that vending machines need to be removed from campus. Frankly, this is as much of a problem on campus as smoking, and it shouldn't be ignored. Like you said, the food and drinks sold have no nutritional value and can damage people. I think it's about time we stop ignoring the obesity problem in America and start caring enough about the health of our citizens to stop tiptoeing around the subject. Perhaps you'd like to spearhead that initiative?