As of August 23, smoking on campus is completely allowed. When the no-smoking policy was originally passed in 2009, campus police were told to enforce the rule. With the realization that it was never an official policy in the first place, they removed the “no smoking” signs from a number of buildings and enforcement was put to a stand-still.
Joe Douglas
-Editor-in-Chief-
During the first week of school, smoking signs on various buildings were removed to end a misconception that smoking on campus wasn’t allowed.
As of August 23, smoking on campus is completely allowed. When the no-smoking policy was originally passed in 2009, campus police were told to enforce the rule. With the realization that it was never an official policy in the first place, they removed the “no smoking” signs from a number of buildings and enforcement was put to a stand-still.
“You can’t have a fine where there is no policy,” said Interim President Zerrie Campbell for STLCC-Meramec. “So what we’re doing is just resurrecting the process to get the policy approved throughout the college.”
Last year, the smoking policy prevented students from smoking on the Meramec campus. If someone wanted to smoke, they were required to smoke on the parking lots. The original smoking ban was met with discontent and many students continued to smoke on campus grounds. In response to the policy being applied, campus police were instructed to enforce it.
Banta said that students caught smoking were warned and their information was collected. Repeat offenders who didn’t comply were reported to the vice president of student affairs, and the offender would be notified to meet with the vice president.
Those who continued to ignore the policy would have their grades held and the student wouldn’t be able to transfer their course credits to another school.
“Whatever the college wants to enforce we’ll enforce. We won’t enforce anything that’s not policy,” said Paul Banta, chief of police at Meramec.
Before February 2009 when the original decision to ban smoking on campus grounds was made, students often crowded under the walkway between Communications North and Communications South to socialize and smoke. Anyone leaving or entering either building would have to walk through clouds of smoke, which motivated the Wellness Committee to take action.
The Wellness Committee sponsored Fresh Air Days in fall 2008 where students would be required to smoke under white tents located throughout campus. In addition, surveys were sent from the Wellness Committee to students, faculty and staff via e-mail asking for opinions on a smoke-free campus.
According to the results, 54 percent voted for a completely smoke-free campus. Of the 46 percent that voted otherwise, approximately 73 percent voted that it should be restricted.
In February 2009, the decision came down to the Student Government Association, the Meramec Academic Governance Council, and the Meramec Institutional Affairs Council came to an agreement. They decided to limit smoking to parking lots only. It was then approved by the Campus Leadership Team (CLT), which included then-Vice President of Student Affairs Stephen Petersen, Ed.D., and then-President Paul Pai, Ed.D.
One and a half years later, the CLT examined the smoking policy and they discovered a hole in the original process that no one noticed until now.
“We became aware of it when I was at an LT meeting and we were reviewing different proposals for other policies and then the conversation came up and they said ‘Can’t enforce or make a fine for what?’ There is no policy,’” Campbell said.
Because Meramec isn’t individually accredited, the only way it can adopt a policy is by having it approved and adopted by the other three campuses. Wildwood, the only exception to the rule, was built as a green campus and with a no-smoking policy already in place.
“Remember this is a college and we have many students who are taking classes at various campuses. We can’t enforce something on one campus that doesn’t exist on another campus,” Campbell said.
At this time, there is no expected deadline to complete the approval process.
Meramec student Kerry Lewis, who is an ex-smoker, said he respects smoking on campus, but believes designated smoking areas would be good.
“We’re trying to move as quickly as possible so that we can respond to students’ issues,” Campbell said. “What we want to do is to identify designated areas. We can’t do that just yet.”
