On June 13th, 2008 the Pennsylvania Smoking ban was put into effect. This ban stopped smoking in public places such as bars that have 20 percent or less in annual sales of food, as well as cigar bars, college state universities, sports facilities, theaters and other performance establishments. There is a long list of exceptions but the campuses are not one. Campuses have smokers just as any other area of Pennsylvania although students will go to any lengths to take a smoke break.
The State Universities students have questions on if this ban is ever going to work. The smokers went from designated areas to nowhere at all and most students are not even abiding by the rules because cops aren’t enforcing them. So now instead of smokers going to an area to smoke and out of the way of non-smokers they are now hiding it right outside the building entrances, blowing smoke into our faces.
Alex Thomas a senior at Shippensburg University sat down with me stating, “As a non-smoker you can’t stop smoking from happening. So instead of banning it completely there should be designated areas so they can smoke away from the building entrances and keep it out of our faces.” The campus police on the University of Shippensburg University seem to just keep on patrol even when someone is smoking in plain sight. So how do the students even take this law seriously? Why is this law causing the unlucky few hundreds of dollars when police are picking out only certain individuals?
Even college professors are making light of this situation, Kutztown University geography professor Steven Schnell stated, “This law, the clean indoor air act, very explicit defines its terms. I suggest a grammar class for your legal counsel.” This remark makes a good question. How can a Clean “Indoor” Air Act stop us from smoking outside? How can we sit back and let legislation take us for granted?
Other campuses are talking out on the issue as well. Steve Dugan, a 20-year-old freshman at Clarion University stated to Kathleen Kingsbury of Time, “Do we really want an 18-year-old girl walking by herself off-campus at 2 a.m.? All we’re asking is for a compromise that considers students’ needs here.” Dugan does raise some good points, as safety can be an issue. If someone were to head off of campus on a nearby roadway and get hit, then that could pose a huge problem for a campus under the no smoking ban.
Should this ban stay in place? Or should it be expelled? Is it right to stop people from smoking in an open area if it was designated for it? Or should we keep hiding it, keeping it towards the building, or can we find a compromise? People who smoke will never conform to the ban it’s been almost a year and 4 months and nothing has changed except the area in which they will smoke.
