Any relation to Larry Storch?
Posted on 12/24/2008 7:26:17 AM PST by Born Conservative
Union that represents Pa. university faculty wants indoor/outdoor ban rescinded.
HARRISBURG — Grabbing a quick smoke between classes has become impossible for Lock Haven University political science professor Robert Storch.
An indoor and outdoor smoking ban imposed at Pennsylvania’s state university system in September means Storch must walk off campus whenever he craves nicotine — a 20-minute roundtrip excursion that he cannot cram into a 15-minute break between classes.
“I find it ridiculous,” Storch told a Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board hearing examiner Tuesday. “You feel like a leper anyway. It’s really very demeaning.”
Storch was among a handful of professors at the 14 universities who testified about the smoking ban during a hearing on an unfair labor practice complaint filed by the State System of Higher Education’s faculty union. A ruling is not expected before February.
The 5,900-member Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties wants the ban rescinded. The new policy was imposed with virtually no warning, and APSCUF argues that any changes should have been negotiated with the union first.
The complete ban on smoking at the universities came as a new state law banning indoor smoking in most places, including educational facilities, took effect. The schools enroll more than 112,500 students and employ roughly 13,000.
Chancellor John Cavanaugh has said the state law leaves his schools no choice. He interprets the law to extend beyond the universities’ indoor facilities and include all campus grounds — particularly because some classes are held outside. The system previously gave individual schools the latitude to set their own policies on smoking outdoors.
Michael Mottola, the system’s assistant vice chancellor for labor relations, told the hearing examiner Tuesday that he sent a letter to all employee unions three days before the new policy took effect, but acknowledged that administrators did not discuss the proposed changes with them beforehand.
“We were up against a deadline for the implementation” of the new state law, Mottola said.
System administrators have more recently proposed modifying the ban, but no action has been taken, spokesman Kenn Marshall said.
That proposed modification would let employees smoke inside their cars with the windows up and permit smoking on sidewalks along public roads that pass through the campuses. The system is also considering providing receptacles for cigarette butts on the campus perimeters.
Faculty union president Steve Hicks said he doesn’t think the proposal goes far enough.
“They don’t have any jurisdiction over public streets,” Hicks said during a break in the hearing. “What is it they’re giving up by saying you can smoke on public streets?”
Ping.
I agree—it has become totally ridiculous! Smokers arise!
Man a big fat Macanudo would have made me attend a few more classes in college, I tell you.
Pufffff Pinggggg This is long overdue, but something I predicted would eventually happen somewhere. I just didn’t know which union would have the balls to stick up for smokers.
Say good bye to your Tenure, Professor. You've broken with the Orthodoxy and it will not be tolerated.
Owl_Eagle
“When the stock market crashed,
Franklin Roosevelt got on the television
and didn’t just talk about
the princes of greed, he said,
‘Look, here’s what happened.’"
-Slow Joe Biden
... with tenure.
I’m not a smoker, but my Libertarian side agrees; if someone wants to smoke, they should be able to.
If they want to smoke, they ought to approve Concealed Carry and free speech on campus, too. If not, suck it up and get a job somewhere else, Commie.
How hard would it be for a non-smoker to take a few steps around someone smoking outside, if they are offended by smoke?
Political correctness is a damned hard servant. Hard to tell when it will turn and bite you.
How hard would it be for a non-smoker to take a few steps around someone smoking outside, if they are offended by smoke?
Sorry, but that stench travels far more than a few feet AND it is made impossible to take a few steps around a smoker who is standing directly beside the entrance to a smoke free building.
Then of course the encore that is often performed - one last inhale, flick the butt onto the ground, walk inside and exhale.....
Plus there was this comment posted about him:
Simply a rude and crass human being. I either slept through class or stopped going. I am a good student,and this is not my typical behavior, but after hearing about how much he hates Bush and his ex wife, and always hearing how dumb I am, it became too much. He is very demoralizing and doesnt teach.dont waste your time and energy
Owl_Eagle
“When the stock market crashed,
Franklin Roosevelt got on the television
and didn’t just talk about
the princes of greed, he said,
‘Look, here’s what happened.’"
-Slow Joe Biden
I’m not a smoker, but my Libertarian side agrees; if someone wants to smoke, they should be able to.
I am not a smoker either, but that should be done in their car or home, where others who don’t smoke have to “deal with it”.
An outdoor smoking ban is ridiculous. Who exactly is being harmed if you smoke outside? Maybe it contributes to Global Warming? [/sarc]
I’m not a smoker, but my Libertarian side agrees; if someone wants to smoke, they should be able to.
I am not a smoker either, but that should be done in their car or home, where others who don’t smoke have to “deal with it”.
but that’s not really the point of this post is it?
crazy liberals want to control our lives unless it’s uncomfortable for them - o, the irony.
I've always wondered what people did before the 80s. Back when people could smoke in offices, in waiting rooms, on airplanes...what did the complainers do?
Had they not been programmed to be offended yet?
Life sucks, and then you die Dudley Do-Right.
If I don’t want to be around smoke, I avoid it. Prior to the public smoking ban in PA, if I wanted to avoid smoke in a restaurant, I went to one that didn’t allow smoking. No big deal.
I concur provided it does not heavily impact anyone else. Smoking can and does impact others, and its more than just a few feet. Not talking about second hand smoke health issues as much as headaches and and the stench.
IMO, a lot of it is exposure. I grew up with smoking parents, and I never noticed the smell nor did smoking bother me. When I got out on my own I slowly lost the desensitization. It physically irritates me today while back then, it did not.
It’s hard to fathom, but people used to be allowed to smoke in hospitals! And while in general I’m against smoking bans, I agree that hospitals should be smoke free.
Come on--get a life!
I believe its an exposure/desensitization issue. I was raised by smokers. Cigarette smoke never bothered me. I moved out and slowly lost my desensitization, and it became a physical irritant that it was not before.
But wouldn't it be some great giggles if one of GODGOV's favored classes, organized labor, turned on them and brought the state system to a halt?
One can dream.
A very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you my FRiends from the Mrs. and me!
What stench? I really like secondhand smoke. It brings back good memories, even though I’ve never smoked.
Be careful what you wish for; you may just get it.
Ironically, the UAW has it written into their contract with GM. No smoking bans.
You can easily make a stronger case against perfume than second hand smoke. The carrier agent in perfume (methyl benzoate) actually kills people - second hand smoke doesn’t.
It's a wonder I've survived as long as I have.
L
Just wait until mthey come for whatever pleasure it is you enjoy, like beer, or coffee, peanut butter, sugar, etc. The destruction of liberties will not stop with smoking, trust me. They are just using it as a model of incrementalism.
It’s long been my opinion that smoking should be allowed in jails and prisons — likely would cut way back on testiness, let alone black market instances.
NO KIDDING!! I have a female co-worker who absolutely stinks. It's like a combination of hair spray, urinal cakes, and decompsoing flesh. The odor is REALLY offensive, and nobody can or will do anything about it. I'm sure those odors wafting of this otherwise fairly attractive woman are more physically damaging than cigarette smoke.
I can agree with the ban on smoking indoors but the outdoor ban goes a little bit too far. At my university, it has to be outdoors and more than something like 20 feet away from doors. That is reasonable.
In grad school, I used to sit outside and talk with one of my professors while he puffed on his pipe. The guy has PhD’s in both law and math.
Amazing scholar.
And I learned way more from him outside, than I did in the classroom.
The newly organized Tobacco Growers Union formed after the employees rights bill was past, and secret elections banned
Especially the perfume that is sold by the gallon.
Very difficult, and doing it without that little fake cough is impossible.
That is not just perception on your part - it is true. The cheaper the perfume, the more methyl bensoate it contains.
The chemical magnifies the scent of the very expensive perfume oil.
We're so screwed----
In the same room where seven others and I worked, they hired a guy that farted constantly.
Not your normal farter, this guy could stink up 2000 sq ft so bad it would gag everyone to the point of puking! It would hang in the air for 30 min, and he farted about every 30 min!
He smelled worse than an open sewer with a dead cow floating on top, on a 90deg day!
Bottom line, there was nothing the company, or the other employees could do because he was classified as having a disability!
My wish is for every anti-smoking Nazi to be forced to work around someone like that, for the rest of their life!
I actually quit a year ago, but sometimes I still forget that I’m a non-smoker now. But I’ll NEVER forget the coughers. Diesel-bus-fumes? NO problem. Tiny little cigarette? Give me air!
They’ve gotten so bold, the comments aren’t under their breath any more. A man sat down next to me in a bar, where I was already smoking, and asked me to put it out. A woman told Steve as she was leaving another bar that she hoped he’d enjoyed his cigarette as much as she didn’t.
There’s really only one appropriate reply: Stop stealing my smoke! Go buy your own, cheapskate!
He smokes AND he’s a Christian. Off with his head!
I would have kept a can of air spray handy in my desk—LOL!
Same to you and everyone on the puff ping brigade!!
That bad, huh? Maybe the poor guy should have worn Pampers—they are supposed to keep most of the smell inside. Or—someone could have suggested a cork.
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