Students react to smoking policy

January 21, 2008 —

The recent enactment of SVSU's new smoking policy has produced many reactions among smokers and non-smokers alike on campus.

The policy, which began Jan. 1, prohibits smokers from lighting up any place except for in designated parking lots. The former policy prohibited smoking only in areas 25 feet from campus buildings.

SVSU students like freshman Jeremy Hassen find themselves inconvenienced by the new policy. "It's horrible," Hassen said. "You can't smoke where you want to. You can't smoke on your way to class unless you take the long, long way, and you have to leave like half an hour early. You're also out in the cold, and you really have nowhere to sit anymore."

"It has been quite an inconvenience because I used to smoke on the way to my classes, and the new policy makes that nearly impossible," nursing freshman Amanda Lynn said. "However, I have been respecting the policy because it is not worth getting in trouble."

Among those who believe the reformed policy is unfair are computer information systems freshman Josh Armes and English education freshman Addison Spear.

"Since this is a public campus, I believe that we have the right to smoke wherever we please," Armes said. "The school allowed two cult preachers to come to our school and tell us that we are going to hell on the principle that this is a public campus. If that is true, we should also be allowed to smoke where we please."

"I don't think it's fair at all," Spear added. "It's completely ridiculous that I have to change my life because a bunch of people can't stand farther away from me. There's probably going to be an increase in people smoking in dorms because of how incredibly unreasonable it is to have to walk to a parking lot to smoke for five minutes."

Some students question how realistic the new policy is in terms of enforceability and student cooperation.

"Alcohol and drugs are illegal," Spear said, "but we know people get around the rules there. This is just another opportunity for a cunning student to figure out a way around a new set of rules.

"If it's late at night or early in the morning and I don't feel like walking out to the parking lot to smoke, I might just do it where I'm not supposed to."

"There are ways people are getting around the policy," political science and business management freshman Ashley Strattan said. "I've heard of a lot of people that are just smoking in their rooms or hiding in a corner of a building or something."

Some smokers, including Strattan, have mentioned their desire for smoking shelters in light of the new policy, which were recently the subject of an online debate on an SVSU open forum.

"People would be happy to smoke in shelters in the winter and when it's raining," she said.

"At least meet us halfway," criminal justice freshman Nick Lake said, referring to his wish for smoking shelters as he and his friends smoked cigarettes in the falling snow in a parking lot near Living Center North.

"It's not a popular rule by any means," elementary education freshman Joe Whalen said, referring to the new policy from a smoker's point of view. "When so many people disagree with a rule, it just makes rulebreakers out of a huge portion of the population here on campus. I don't think it ever should have been implemented."

Non-smokers on campus hold opinions on the matter as well.

"It's nice to now have it where they can't smoke right in front of the doors so everyone walking in doesn't have to go through it," Living Center South RA Zach Lietaert said.

While the idea of increased smoking in dorm rooms has been mentioned by smokers, Lietaert said, "It could increase, but hopefully it doesn't, and if it does, hopefully we'll be on top of it."

"I always thought it was moderately annoying to walk through smoke on my way to class," secondary education senior Tori Oxley said, "but I never thought it was a really important issue on our specific campus."

"I can't see the change being huge at first." Oxley added, who still believes the campus is headed in a smoke-free direction. "Without a way to police it efficiently, I'm not sure we'll see the policy have too much of an effect."

Accounting sophomore Jason Sweet is also a non-smoker. "The new policy has not directly affected me." Sweet said. "However, I did not see any harm with the old policy. Thus far, the new policy has seemed to work, but it is only a matter of time before people find a way around it." Despite his reservations, Sweet still feels that for the moment, this is the best solution to the problem.

While many students have expressed their dissatisfaction with the way the current policy operates, and while others recognize its benefits, only after it has been in effect for a length of time will its rate of success be determinable.