The decision has been made:
smokers at Bucks can now only
light up in designated areas on
campus.
Where will the designated
areas be? How will this be
enforced? The problem is no one
seems to know.
On Thursday Sept. 11, Bucks’
Board of Trustees officially mandated
that smokers must smoke
only in designated areas of the
campus. The board’s edict followed
on the heels of the state
legislature banning smoking
from most public areas and
workplaces, and in
Pennsylvania’s 14 state-run universities.
Pennsylvania is now
one of 32 states that adopted
some sort of prohibitive-smoking
measure.
The board issued a statement
that read, “Based on the report
we had last year,
requests from student
government and
employees, the passage
of legislation in the state
regulating smoking in
public areas which is
effective today, and the
clear trend towards designating
public spaces as
clean air or smoke-free
zones, the Trustees recommend
an approach
that is a middle-ground
between an absolute ban
on our campuses and
what we currently are doing.”
Student Government
Association President John
Skudris thinks a middle-ground
approach constituted a win for
students. “Coming into this
semester, it appeared as though
the students at our school who
smoke were going to lose their
rights. It seemed that the original
plan was going to be put into
process and there was nothing
we could do. Everyone at SGA is
pleased that a compromise was
reached. We consider this a victory
for all students and I’m very
proud of the decision.”
“By creating clearly marked
areas where smoking is permitted
and areas that are designated
as smoke free/clean air zones,
the college will be acting proactively
to create an environment
that does not endanger others
but will allow individual freedom
to make decisions that have
health consequences,” said the
report by the Trustees. “This is
consistent with recently enacted
Pennsylvania legislation that
prohibits smoking in public places including schools, hospitals
and sports facilities. We
believe that a rational, balanced
and phased approach will be
best for all.”
The state’s decision came after
15 years of advocacy by
Republican Sen. Stewart
Greenleaf. Bucks’ decision came
after the Student Government
Association proposed a campuswide
ban in fall semester of 2007.
Smoking students said if someone
tried to stop them from
smoking they’d just run away or
continue smoking.
Director of Security and Safety
Chris Lloyd said he didn’t know
who was responsible for enforcement,
but said the campus community
must share the responsibility.
“From what I understand this
is a community-wide effort,”
said Lloyd. “But, students need
to ultimately understand if you
agree to be a student here you
agree to the [school’s] rules and
regulations.”
According to a source within
the college, Safety and Security is
said to be unsure whether they
are willing to enforce the new
rule. Lloyd said that he could
reason with those who would
resist the regulation and added
there are no penalties yet in place
for violators.
The board said smoking was to
be immediately prohibited “from
all door areas and all overhangs
in keeping with the
Pennsylvania State statute implementation
guideline” and any
use of tobacco products in areas
that non-smokers cannot avoid is
not allowed.
But students and faculty have
no idea about the smoking
restriction and continue to
smoke all about the campus, and
no one is doing anything to stop
it.
Allowable smoking is to be in
private cars, open areas designated
for smoking and anywhere
ash receptacles are provided.
Currently, multiple ash receptacles
are located very near, or next
to door areas and overhangs.
Smoker Ashley
Sherick, 19, said
smoking was
okay if it was outside
and off to the
side but, “if
Bucks didn’t
want us smoking
by the doors then
why are there so
many ash trays
by them, it’s
sending two different
signals.”
Administration
is responsible for
implementing
signage that
alerts students to
the change by
Oct. 1. And the
smokers are to go
where is still
undecided by the college.
Cipriano elluded to parking
lots being ok-to-smoke zones,
but as of print time, this was
unofficial.
Student Life Director Matt
Cipriano explained that these
decisions have been left to an
administrative committee to
decide.
This committee has been delegated
by the board to be a “leadership
team” and they are to plan
“appropriate communications
with students, staff, guests, contractors
and the community,”
according to the report. Also,
procedures for oversights and
violations are to be adopted and
anyone wishing to quit smoking
is to be assisted by the providing
of information and cessation programs.
Cipriano said that the committee
has been divided into subcommittees
to focus on certain
aspects of the ban in order to be
ready by Oct. 1. These sub-committees
match each area of the
regulation: enforcement, layout
of designated smoking areas and
communications.
According to Christine
Hagedorn, assistant dean, advising
and student planning, this
isn’t true. When asked about the
layout sub-committee and where
the designated smoking areas
were going to be, Hagedorn
responded that she was involved
with a “leadership team and the
lingo is very important” but she
wasn’t currently aware of where
designated smoke areas were
going to be because the leadership
team had only met once so
far.
Most interviewed students on
campus, smoker or non-smoker,
said that they didn’t want anyone
to be inconvenienced, they
wanted a conscious respect on
both sides and for cigarette butts
to not be littered about. Extreme
opinions were commonly held,
mentioning violations of civil liberties
to the adaptation of socialism
and fascism. An equal
amount of smoking and nonsmoking
students said they didn’t
care one way or the other.
Brandon Yorty, a 20-year-old
education major from Newtown
said that he didn’t want to be
inconvenienced and wasn’t
going to abide by the regulation.
“It’s an outdoor campus. I think
smoke bothers everyone and it
sucks, but people need to just
deal.”
Chris Dorman, 21, history
major has been a smoker for
almost 3 years. The Doylestown
resident said he might obey the
designated areas. “I hope they’re
not too ridiculous an inconvenience,”
he said, adding that
where they were would depend
on what he’d do.
Cipriano said that smoking
could possibly be curbed to outside
Linden Lane, the main drag
running through campus, allowing
an external radius from within
the college grounds for smoking;
thus any learning area of
campus would be smoke-free.
Cipriano also mentioned he didn’t
think anything was going to
be built or erected covering
smokers from the weather wherever
the designated smoking
areas are going to be.
Not surprisingly, smokers said
that they didn’t want to walk
very far to smoke or be exposed
to the elements and that’s why
smoking by the building doors
and overhangs were the best
spots to fulfill the need for nicotine.
“It’s a conflict,” said Paulina
Bartolewska, 28, a non-smoker
and math major from Levittown.
She is bothered by the smoke in
front of the doors but agrees a
smoker has the right to smoke.
“If I walk from Rollins to
Founders there is a lot of smoke
and it’s really hard to get away
from it, do they have to go to the
other side of campus?”
So is Bucks just blowing
smoke in students’ faces? How
enforcement will be handled and
where the designated areas are
yet to be decided and the Oct. 1
date for adoption is quickly
approaching.
continued from page 1
OUT IN THE QUAD, STUDENTS LIGHT UP. WILL IT CONTINUE?
PHOTO BY MIKE VESEL
Free-fall
market
By The Associated Press
NEW YORK–Wall Street
fell in early trading Monday
as investors nervously await
further news about the government’s
plan to buy $700
billion in banks’ mortgage
debt.
Investors are relieved that
federal authorities are taking
action to relieve the nation’s
banks of their toxic assets. But
it is not sure yet how successful
the plan will be in loosening
up the credit markets and
propping up the sinking
housing market.
Bush administration officials
and congressional leaders
have been meeting on the
rescue plan, the main thrust
of which congressional leaders
have endorsed.
Late Sunday, the Federal
Reserve granted Morgan
Stanley and Goldman Sachs,
the country’s last two major
investment banks, approval
to change their status to bank
holding companies. The
change of status will allow
the companies to set up commercial
banks that will be
able to take deposits, significantly
bolstering the
resources of both.
That shift came a week after
negotiations failed to save
Lehman Brothers Holdings
Inc. That and the government’s
plan to bail out
American International
Group Inc. helped lead to a
seizing up of the credit markets
that spurred the government
to formulate its plan to
rescue companies from their
crippling debt.
In the first hour of trading,
the Dow Jones industrial
average fell 102.34 to
11,286.10. Broader stock indicators
also declined. The
Standard & Poor’s 500 index
fell 14.24, or 1.00 percent, to
1,240.84, and the Nasdaq
composite index fell 25.50, or
1.12 percent, to 2,248.40.