Ava Weintraub
The administration created the Workforce Environment Committee (WEC) to produce a no-smoking policy during the Fall ’07 semester. The initiative for designated smoking areas began the first day of the Spring ’08 semester. As part of the campaign, they handed out buttons saying, “Thank you for smoking in designated areas,” and handed out maps with the smoking areas marked.
The problem is, the majority of smokers ignore the designated smoking areas because they’re too far from their classes. How were these areas were chosen? For example, the designated smoking area for the Village is the area in front of the pool. This means if a student wants take a break and have a cigarette they have to walk from their classroom, through the South Gym then make a right turn and sit or stand around a small round patio table with an umbrella. Most smokers in the Village say it takes too long to walk all that way for a cigarette.
Tom Rosdahl, president of the Academic Senate, said in a Feb. 6 news release that smokers ignoring posted signs will be reminded of the smoking policy by faculty, staff members or sheriff’s personnel and then if the student refuses to comply, he or she will be referred to the dean handling student-discipline problems.
I am not a smoker, but I do have asthma that can be triggered by cigarette smoke so I want to breathe smoke-free air. I do recognize smoking as an addiction; some people can quit easily while others can’t for whatever reason.
If the administration thinks that by making it inconvenient for students to smoke it will make them quit, they have it all wrong. WEC should make more convenient smoking areas a shorter distance to classrooms and offices. Making it inconvenient for smokers only means that most ignore the rules and there are no consequences except for those of us who are non-smokers – we’re the losers.
(Ava Weintraub / Roundup)