Smoking on STLCC – Meramec campus has officially come to an end as of Aug. 17, 2009, at least on paper.
-No byline-
The decision, which was approved in spring of 2009 and took effect the August 17 limits any and all smoking to the parking lots of Meramec campus, banning it entirely from campus grounds. The new rule has been proposed before and has been in the works for some time now.
The decision was reached after a survey in October 2008 that was circulated among students, faculty and staff at Meramec. The decision to enact and clarify the ban was made largely by the collaboration of three separate Meramec entities. The former chair of the Meramec Institutional Affairs Council, Bonnie Sanguinet, former Meramec Academic Governance Council Shaun Reno, and the Student Government Council Presiding Officer Malachi Rein all met in the office of Stephen Petersen, vice president of Student Affairs, to hash out the final decisions on the rule.
“I think we’ve come up with something really good here. Impressions will be better. The campus will be cleaner and greener,” said Sanguinet, “We spend a lot of time discussing how to implement something like that, but I think we got it right.”
While the concern has always been for health, enforcement of this new rule is still up in the air.
“Transition is always difficult with something like this,” said Campus Police Chief Paul Banta. “We’re really still working out how we are going to enforce this. Currently it’s a disciplinary matter, not a criminal matter. If someone is seen smoking they’ll be warned politely. But if we see multiple offenses from the same person, then I believe you’ll see the same kind of discipline procedures you’d see with unreturned library books; things like that.”
Faculty and staff have also been recruited to assist in enforcing the new ban.
“The faculty and staff here will all be wearing buttons that we’ve distributed reminding the students that this is now a smoke-free campus. If they see someone smoking, we are encouraging them to speak up and inform the person that they have to smoke elsewhere,” said Petersen.
“The original proposal I was not for,” said Reno, discussing the idea for specialized tents that would be made into smoking structures. “It wasn’t workable. Of course, it came up to ban smoking altogether, including the parking lots, but the SGC fought that, so we worked on a compromise.”
With a whole slew of new students on campus, and many returning who are used to uninhibited smoking outside, the new ban may be difficult to perfect right away.
“People need to understand this comes down to an issue of public health. This isn’t about discriminating; it’s about compromise and protecting the interests of those with certain health concerns,” said Sanguinet.
But with no official policy on punishing possible offenders of the new ban, the transition could be shaky.
“It’s possible that it could become an offense that would warrant a fine of some kind, but that’s up to the board [of trustees] and it might become a possibility,” said Banta. “I’d prefer that people just comply, first and foremost.”
