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 university faculty wants indoor/outdoor ban rescinded.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The 5,900-member Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties wants the ban rescinded.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.
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