TL20070507-01 "May 7, 2007 www.thetowerlight.com The Towerlight Published by and for the students of Towson and Baltimore -- twice-weekly Towson community members and visitors turn out for 40th annual Towsontown Festival News, page 11 Monday Now on TheTowerlight.com: View our video of Saturday�s men�s lacrosse CAA championship game against Delaware... Smoke-free campus? Committee to consider smoking ban; could start next year Police investigate arson in Res. Tower Some students claim fire alarm malfunctions in Saturday�s early morning incident Photo Illustration by Patrick Smith/The Towerlight Sharon Leff Editor in Chief The sight of students and faculty huddled outside buildings for smoking breaks may be a thing of the past if Towson implements a policy making campus smoke free. Following a request from the president�s council last month, the Substance Education and Concerns Committee is creating a formal recommenda-tion for Towson President Robert Caret. Caret, who smoked for 14 years before quit-ting, doesn�t like the way some smokers behave at TU. He said he�s not trying to stop people from smoking, but he doesn�t like cigarette butts that litter campus or the secondhand smoke others must tolerate. �What I won�t let them do is force others to live with their habit. I really resent the way they�re treating the campus,� Caret said. Jana Varwig, chair of SECC and associate vice president for student affairs, said it is the committee�s intention to look at other schools and get feedback from Towson faculty, staff and students about the idea. �We hope to have a recommendation back to the president�s council by the end of the fall semester,� Varwig said. Towson will need to address certain issues before a ban could be imple-mented. �The two biggest issues as we go for-ward are: where will smokers go? And number two is enforcement. If we were to go to [a non-smoking campus] what are the consequences if you do smoke?� Jerry Dieringer, assistant vice president and director of housing and residence life, said. Smoking has been forbidden in buildings for years. Three years ago, Towson adopted a policy that required smokers to move at least 30 feet away from building entrances. �It seemed to have a fair amount of success,� Dieringer said. �There have been some prob-lems. Generally it worked pretty well.� Some students ignore the rule, choosing to smoke directly outside Linthicum Hall and other buildings. Dieringer said the policy doesn�t have a strong enforcement mechanism, an issue that would need to be looked at with this policy as well. �Needless to say, as long as there are smok-ers and non-smokers, there are going to be issues of where it�s appropriate,� he said. Dieringer said a committee will be formed to help create the policy recommendation. The committee will look for significant student input. �We will have a task force made up of differ-ent members of the University to take a look, and make a recommendation,� Dieringer said. Towson University is the only institution of the Towson Four Partnership that allows smoking. In January 2006 GBMC Healthcare banned smoking. In September 2006 St. Joseph Medical Center did the same. Staffers from St. Joseph can now be found on the edges of the property. The Sheppard Pratt Health System also banned smoking. See BAN page 10 Sean Schaefer and the Tigers took the field for the annual spring game Saturday Sports, page 22 Jazzmen Tynes News Editor The State Fire Marshall�s Office and the Towson University Police are investigating a first-degree arson that occurred in an elevator of the Residence Tower early Saturday. �There were no injuries, however damage estimates right now are $10,000 as a result of the fire,� Deputy Fire Marshall W. Faron Taylor said on WBAL Radio Saturday morn-ing. According to a University-issued crime alert, a TUPD officer was on a routine patrol at 4:15 a.m. in the Residence Tower lobby when he noticed that one of the building�s elevator doors was open. He looked inside and saw fire. �It was almost simultaneous to finding the fire in the elevator that we evacuated the stu-dents,� TUPD Capt. Joe Herring said. But some students on the third floor didn�t hear the fire alarms. Instead, they found out about the fire after receiving phone calls from friends. Julia Poltorak, a freshman political science major, said she didn�t leave her room on the third floor until 4:50 a.m. �I never heard an alarm. My friend called me and told me about the fire,� Poltorak said. �I saw police officers in the stairway, but I didn�t see any on my floor.� Ivey Foster, a freshman international busi-ness and Spanish major, also lives on the third floor. �Around 4:30 a.m., people on my floor started getting calls on their cell phones from people on the second floor about the fire,� See FIRE, page 10 The two biggest issues as we go forward are: where will smokers go? And two is enforcement. If we were to non-smoking what are the consequences if you do smoke? Jerry Dieringer Assistant vice president , Director of Housing and Residence Life �number nforcement go to [a no campus] "
