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The University's decision comes two weeks after GW law professor John Banzhaf, a noted crusader against smoking, sent a letter of intent to sue Fitzroy Smith, GW's director of Risk Management and Insurance, for rejecting the proposal. The proposal asked the University to ban smoking within 25 feet of buildings on campus, and suggested that GW put up signs outside of all buildings asking people not to smoke near entrances.
Earlier this month the University cited its lack of authority to enforce non-smoking rules on city-owned sidewalks as its reason for not acting on a proposal to put up non-smoking signs on GW buildings. Banzhaf said in an interview Saturday that the proposal never asked for signs with enforcement but just for signs to be put up because they tend to be self-enforcing.
Assistant Director of Media Relations Matt Lindsay said Saturday that the decision to put up the signs was made after taking a longer look at what was proposed. He said he doesn't think the decision was made directly because of Banzhaf's threat to sue, but rather because of the amount of support the proposal had from students and faculty members.
"I think without (the lawsuit) it probably would have gone through," Lindsay said. "I think the initial reaction was there was some resentment for it. As more support grew the University took a longer look at things."
Banzhaf disagreed and said he thinks the only reason GW changed its stance on the outdoor smoking ban proposal was because of his threat to sue.
"If not, it would be an awful impossible coincidence," he said. "Unfortunately it takes something like this for the University to do something that they should have been doing all along."
