| By
Nathalie Horner
To clear the air,
RVCC is getting tough with people who smoke near doorways or other prohibited
areas.
Under the policy in
effect at Raritan Valley, smoking is allowed only outside in designated
areas. Smoking is banned by New Jersey law in all public buildings, including
the college.
“The college
administration and the student government have talked about having a more
aggressive smoking policy for four years,” explains college President
Jerry Ryan. “We’ve been unable to get together on a policy
that we could all agree on. This fall, I decided to take things into my
own hands and suggest to the custodians and the security guards that they
need to be more aggressive in enforcing the smoking areas.”
Over a year ago, signs
were posted to indicate the locations of smoking areas; among those places
is the courtyard between the north and south buildings. These signs were
mostly ignored, Ryan says.
The new policy was
prompted by hundreds of complaints by staff and students, who maintained
that smokers congregate near building entrances. People were not able
to go outside without inhaling second-hand smoke, Ryan adds. “Those
of us who don’t smoke can walk through the non-smoking areas without
having to breathe the second-hand smoke,” he reasons, noting that
there have been few complaints from smokers about these limitations.
The previous system
lacked enforcement, Ryan says. People would smoke anywhere and there was
no one to make them stop. Student Government had proposed a policy to
impose fines on violators, but this was not put in place. Now, enforcement
of the new policy falls on the custodians and the security guards, who
have a new responsibility. The system is to have the “Smoking Police”
ask people to move to a designated area if they are smoking in a non-smoking
area.
“Our hope is
to isolate the smokers in an area where they can smoke together, and they
would be far enough away from those of us who don’t smoke so that
their smoke won’t have any negative impact on our health. It’s
more important for the non-smoker to have a healthy environment than it
is for us to tolerate smokers in the wrong areas,”says Ryan.
“The second
thing, which really irritates me, is that too many of the cigarette buts
end up on the ground instead of in the ashtrays in the designated areas.
This will hopefully help to keep the grounds clean.”
There is no plan to
spend any money to build a special enclosure for smokers to smoke during
bad weather.
The Student Government is behind this policy.
President Sheik Mohamed
Kaba states: “Yes, we the SGA officials fully support the president’s
new policy abut prohibiting smoking in no-smoking areas. Before the beginning
of classes, SGA officials and Mary Sullivan, our advisor, had a meeting
with Dr. Ryan, and one of the major things he asked of us was to get students
to observe to this law. We pledged our best to protect the non-smokers
against second-hand smoke.
In fact, we have no
smokers in our association, but we do have smoker friends and would like
for them to follow the signs for the smoking and non-smoking areas. In
that case, we will have a win-win situation.”
“We are asking
the students to smoke only in designated smoking areas, and to deposit
cigarette butts only in proper receptacles, not on the ground,”
says Mary Sullivan, executive director of student services.
A group of smokers
was asked what they thought of the new policy.
“The new policy
is effective to an extent. I think it is good that security is doing this,”
says Mark Schechter. Another smoker, who identified himself as Breon,
responds: “It makes no sense to have separate areas since we are
already outside.”
Kristen Bodemer adds:
“People should be able to smoke anywhere outside. There should be
no designated areas.”
Michael Finley responds,
“If we are outside, we should be able to smoke in the middle of
the courtyard.”
All of the smokers interviewed says they intend to comply with the new
policy.
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