ARIZONA SUMMER
WILDCAT
Tobacco ban leaves some fuming - 8
WEDNESDAY, JULY 23, 2014
UA baseball trio named CCBL All-stars - 10
VOLUME 107 • ISSUE 158
DAILYWILDCAT.COM
Printing the news, sounding the alarm, and raising hell since 1899
Streetcar launches Friday - 3
New app turns UA into a battleground - 16
Students face few options for food
UP IN SMOKE
BY NICHOLAS PEPPE
Arizona Summer Wildcat
Next month, UA students, faculty and visitors will no longer be allowed to use tobacco products on all UA property as the university enacts a policy years in the making
on the Arizona Health Sciences Center campus. SHAC has been researching and advocating a tobacco-free main campus since 2012 as well, Kha said. “This policy aims to benefit the health of all of the members of our campus community and places the UA in a leadership position for the city of Tucson to look up to as well,” Kha said. SHAC conducted surveys amongst students and faculty at the UA and held meetings to discuss the strengths and challenges of a tobacco-free campus. Kha said SHAC also raised awareness of the litter associated with the use of tobacco products by hosting two cigarette butt cleanup competitions. During
UA students are having a hard time buying groceries around campus. Some contribute it to a lack of money or transportation, but the reality is that sufficient food options are simply inaccessible. The UA campus is considered a food desert. A food desert can be described as an area in the United States with limited access to affordable and nutritious food, particularly such an area composed of predominantly lower-income neighborhoods and communities. The UA, along with much of downtown including the Congress Street entertainment district, is considered a food desert because 67.8 percent of the 366 total households in the area are without vehicles and are more than half a mile from a supermarket, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Many students living around campus do not have the resources to go grocery shopping. “We have a serious problem in that the University of Arizona, while it has done wonderful things all across the country, hasn’t taken care of the hunger and poverty in our own city,” said Gary Nabhan, a research social scientist at the Southwest Studies Center. “There are many students who are either on welfare or are in jobs where they’re just breaking even and they’re really at risk in terms of their own food security.” With the shortfall of grocery stores around campus, students have resorted to the many on-campus food options at the UA, using school provided meal plans that range from $2,500 to $3,500 throughout the academic school year. The Student Union Memorial Center
TOBACCO, 7
DESERT, 7
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY REBECCA MARIE SASNETT/ARIZONA SUMMER WILDCAT
A NEWLY ADOPTED UA policy will prohibit the use of tobacco products on all UA property beginning on Aug. 15. The current policy proposal disallows the use of any tobacco or nicotine-containing products, including e-cigarettes.
BY HANNAH PLOTKIN
Arizona Summer Wildcat
After years of discussion, the UA has announced that it will adopt a policy to ban the use of tobacco products on all UA property and campuses beginning Aug. 15. The current version of the policy proposal prohibits the use of tobacco, tobacco-related and nicotine-containing products like e-cigarettes at the UA. The policy is an attempt to improve the health of those working and studying on campus. The policy is also meant to keep the campus clean of the litter that is typically associated with the use of tobacco products like cigarettes, cigars and chewing tobacco. Compliance with the policy
will be encouraged by personal responsibility. UA students and faculty are encouraged to inform anyone they see using tobacco products on campus of the policy. Visitors on campus who are not in compliance with the policy may be required to leave. Students who are out of compliance will be referred to their college’s student representatives for educational resources. Employees and volunteers will be referred to their supervisors for appropriate action. “The success of this Policy depends on the entire campus community and its members being willing to hold one another accountable. Whenever possible, concerns about tobacco and nicotine use should be respectfully addressed at the time such
concerns arise,” the policy states. Issac Ortega, president of Associated Students of the University of Arizona, said ASUA has been involved with the tobacco-free policy throughout the process. Last year, ASUA voted against the policy, but has been working with the Student Health Advocacy Committee since, and found most UA students are in support of the policy, Ortega said. He said he endorses the tobaccoban personally and as the ASUA president. Ortega has asthma and said that family members choosing to smoke around him growing up affected his health. Stephanie Kha, director of the SHAC, said that SHAC helped support the 2012 tobacco-ban