Since 2010, Pierce College has been a smoke-free campus; too bad the students do not seem to understand what that means.
Either that, or they just do not seem to care.
The proof can be found all over campus with cigarette butts covering the floor like the snow on a winter day in New York City.
Granted, the litter is a completely separate problem, but is the smoking policy really being enforced?
Deputy Ron Nohles of the Pierce College Sheriff’s office confirmed that as of Feb. 21, not one student had been written up for smoking in an unauthorized area for this semester.
I honestly believe that our smoke-free campus is in name only.
Now I am not saying it is because the Sheriffs Department does not care. I believe the problem lies deeper than that.
The department answers all the calls that come through the station, plus walk students to cars that request it and countless other things.
I would much rather have to deal with a little bit of smoke for the three minutes that it takes the average person to smoke a cigarette, and not be freaked out about walking to my car after my class at 10 p.m.
Furthermore, if in fact the smoke did bother me, I would ask the smoking student to smoke in a different location.
If I was to scared or shy to ask? I would move.
It is time that we as a college acknowledge that fact that students are going to smoke, and we find a reasonable expectation.
Back when I started coming to Pierce many moons ago, there were designated smoking areas around campus where students gathered and bummed cigarettes off each other and asked if anyone had a light.
It was not a perfect solution but it really cut down the smoke everywhere else.
In a perfect world, Pierce would be a smoke-free campus, and students would not have to crash classes that did not have a waiting list of 35 to begin with.
But until them I think we are all just going to have to deal with each other’s imperfections.
