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Editorial: Committee ignoring the options
Faculty-run cabinet is taking matters into their own hands
In an editorial published May 6, 2009, the Roundup addressed the lack of enforcement regarding the smoking policy at Pierce College. Perhaps it was taken too literally.
The Work Environment Committee (WEC) has decided to take it upon themselves to bypass enforcement all together. Instead, the WEC is considering making Pierce a smoke-free campus.
This is not what last semester’s editorial demanded; it is a solution that will produce no results and create more problems.
It is true that some other colleges have strict nosmoking policies, including both Moorpark College and Santa Monica College. Each of these institutions restricts smoking to the parking lots only.
While this may be an option for Pierce, many forget the sheer size of the campus. Pierce College is one of the largest community colleges in the district, and sitting atop 426 acres, classes are scattered across the grounds.
It is not fair to demand students who smoke to scour the campus in order to find a parking lot, not to mention parking lots are full of students and faculty going to and from classes. It would only be a matter of time until they too got tired of walking through clouds of smoke.
Perhaps what the WEC should be doing is demanding a strict enforcement of the existing policy, thereby encouraging smokers to stay within the designated areas.
There are already rules in place, as illustrated by former Pierce President Robert Garber.
“..if repeated offenses occur, then it can be taken as a violation of the student conduct policy, a result of which the student could be suspended,” Garber said, as quoted in the May 6 editorial.
Campus sheriffs should also do their part in actually enforcing the policy. Officers can take down a student’s name and information and proceed to file an incident report, which could then be forwarded to the dean of student services.
The WEC should focus on pressuring the enforcement of the policy instead of relocating the problem to another area of campus.
