International Cal State Long Beach students were sent an email on Oct. 18 threatening to enforce disciplinary actions for smoking on the campus, such as termination of campus housing without a refund and citations for those who live off -campus.
The email blast, which was sent only to the international student body, was signed by Associate Dean and Executive Director Terence Graham from the email account of International Coordinator Karen Kinsley of the Center of International Education.
“To my dismay, I have received numerous reports from faculty and staff that international students are among those who are repeatedly violating this policy – disproportionately so,” Graham said in the email blast.
Graham reminded everyone of the new policy in the email and took it a step further by actually saying disciplinary actions will be taken against students who ignore this policy, just two months into the policy’s implementation.
The email states that students who live on-campus and are caught violating this policy will receive “mandatory counseling and assessment.”
The email has not been sent to any other students or faculty at CSULB.
If students continue to ignore the policy, they will face removal from on-campus housing without a refund.
The email also states students who live off-campus “…will face escalating disciplinary actions [beginning] with verbal warnings but ultimately resulting in fines and/or other disciplinary actions.”
The email blast is in discrepancy with the CSULB Tobacco and Smoking Policy which states that any disciplinary actions above “cessation and awareness cards” given out by the Breathe Campaign, will not be enforced for another three years.
However, CSULB’s Director of News and Digital Media Michael Uhlenkamp contradicted the email, saying that there will be no disciplinary actions, just more education.
“We knew that our international students were going to be a bit more of a challenge because of language and also that the culture is different in terms smoking, [versus] a native Californian so what we need to do as a university is regroup and see how we can better educate that population.” Uhlenkamp said.
However, the email’s intentions remain unclear and some international students have taken the email personally, expressing that it feels like they will be singled out for enforcement.
An international student from the United Kingdom, who wished to remain anonymous out of concern for potential backlash, said he was smoking a cigarette at his boyfriend’s house when he received the email on his phone.
“I think it is unfair to implement more severe punishments for international students who smoke on campus, without also implementing punishments for American students,” the junior business marketing major said. “Especially when the policy was introduced with an ‘education as a means of enforcement’ approach. Having one rule for American students and another for international students is unfair.”
However, Graham insisted that this rule is not putting international students at a disadvantage.
“The policy applies equally to all CSULB students,” he said. “No one is being singled out for enforcement because of who they are or where they come from.”
After speaking with the CSULB President Jane Close Conoley and the Breathe Campaign, Uhlenkamp reiterated that the smoking policy has not changed and the Breathe Campaign will do a better job of educating everyone on campus, not just international students.
Uhlenkamp said he is unsure of why an email was sent threatening disciplinary actions.