SEAS Cafe changes policy, no longer sells cigarettes
By Daily Bruin Staff
Oct. 5, 2000 9:00 p.m.
 DAVE HILL/Daily Bruin Senior Staff The SEAS Cafe in
Boelter Hall posts a sign announcing the absence of cigarettes.
SEAS was the last place on campus to sell cigarettes.
By Hemesh Patel
Daily Bruin Reporter
Some students at UCLA are outraged that cigarettes are no longer
being sold anywhere on campus ““ but many don’t know
that they may have the ability to bring them back.
UCLA joined the bandwagon of anti-tobacco campaigns at the
beginning of the last decade when it banned the sale and
consumption of tobacco products at all Associated Students of UCLA
facilities.
The last place on campus that sold cigarettes, the Society of
Engineering and Applied Sciences Cafe in Boelter Hall discontinued
the sale of tobacco products last spring.
“Basically it was a health hazard and we certainly did not
want to be promoting it,” said Lydia Kowalski, assistant dean
for administration in the engineering department.
“We didn’t want to be a holdout to the rest of the
campus,” she said.
Jerry Mann, director of the Student Union and Student Support
Services, said there is currently no place on campus that sells
cigarettes.
He said there was no pressure placed on the SEAS Cafe to stop
selling cigarettes, even though it had sold tobacco products for
the past 10 years.
“We don’t have anything to do with them,” he
said. “We have a couple of video games there but other than
that, there’s no connection.”
Kowalski said the decision to stop the sale of cigarettes was a
collective one between the dean of the school of engineering and
applied sciences, A. R. Frank Wazzan, and students.
She said the store waited this long because tobacco products
were a major source of income for the cafe.
The process to ban cigarettes at ASUCLA facilities 10 years ago
was similar to the process that was carried out with the
engineering department.
“We have a fairly active student majority board of members
who contributed to a well defined social responsibility
policy,” Mann said.
ASUCLA expected a decrease in revenue, to the tune of $80,000
when it decided to stop the sale of cigarettes.
“The $80,000 loss was from cigarette sales alone,”
Mann said. “Some customers came back and bought more
merchandise because of the discontinuance.”
ASUCLA ended last fiscal year $1.6 million below expected
revenues.
Felipe Lamug, assistant manager of the SEAS cafe, said sales had
dropped significantly since the cigarette ban.
“A lot of north campus students came here, they would be
disappointed when they found out there were no cigarettes after
their aerobic workout,” he said.
Mann said he doesn’t smoke himself and that he is glad
that he can work in a smoke free environment.
Some students and faculty support the decision made by the
engineering department to stop selling tobacco products.
“I’m glad that they don’t sell cigarettes
anymore, it keeps a group of allegedly intelligent people from
doing something stupid,” said Glen Glazer, a graduate student
in computer science.
But many students and staff, including the engineering school
dean’s secretary, are upset with the decision.
“Some of our customers did not realize that cigarettes
were not being sold,” said Lauren DeMore, a third-year
economics student who works at the SEAS Cafe. “Its
frustrating for people to go to Westwood; I think a lot of them are
angry.”
One in four American adults smoke, but only 11 percent of
college-educated adults indulge in cigarettes according to a survey
released yesterday by the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention.
Some students would like to see cigarette sales back on campus
and said the new inaccessibility adds to their stress levels.
“Its just a convenience taken away from students at UCLA
““ I think it sucks,” said David Jeong, a third-year
computer science and engineering student.
“If they’re trying to get people to quit, that
ain’t going to work,” he said.
Mann said there is a possibility cigarettes will come back,
depending on student input.
“It is a legal product and we respond to the campus
climate. If students want us to sell cigarettes then we will sell
them,” he said.
With reports by Marjorie Hernandez, Daily Bruin Contributor.
