Students, faculty and staff at Nicholls are having mixed reactions to the smoking policy enacted this fall, which prohibits the use of any tobacco products, including smokeless tobacco, in or within 25 feet of any campus building or on any campus sidewalk.
“We want to permit students, faculty, staff and visitors with a way to get to and from wherever they need to go on campus without having to breathe second-hand smoke,” Eugene Dial, Vice President of Student Affairs and Enrollment, said.
He said as of now, the University is not planning to designate specific smoking areas because it would be unfair to tell a particular group of students they have to be in a certain area. The University has, however, moved all ashtrays at least 25 feet away from all doors and purchased nine large plastic ashtrays, which were put in the quad. The University plans to buy more of these ashtrays to be placed strategically around campus in areas where smoking is allowed.
Some students who smoke think the whole policy is unfair.
“I think it is completely ridiculous. I can understand not smoking in front of the doors. Even as a smoker, I don’t like to walk though clouds of smoke, but the sidewalks are in the open air. The statistics on second-hand smoke are for enclosed areas. People walking by can barely even smell it,” Louie Charpentier, English junior from Cutoff, said.
Charpentier said the college experience is supposed to be about the freedom to be who you are, and smoking is one of the many things that makes him who he is. “I feel like it is discrimination,” Charpentier said.
Some members of the faculty also have grievances with the new policy.
“I feel that while I do not want to offend anyone with my smoke, it is unfair to put me outside with no shelter and treat me like a second-class citizen for doing something that is legally within my rights,” Daryl Holmes, associate professor of English, said. “If it has to be outside, at least give me shelter from the rain.”
Some students, though, are satisfied with the policy and the effect it has had on campus.
“I think the policy was necessary because as someone who doesn’t smoke, I didn’t like walking through it on my way to class, and so far I haven’t seen very many people smoking,” Bliss Kiff, English junior from Galliano, said.
However, Kiff said she thinks prohibiting smoking on the sidewalks may be “going a bit far” because just walking by the smoke would not give someone a headache.
Christopher Dehart, English junior from Houma, said he is very pleased with the policy, and it is “about time that Nicholls caught up with the rest of the nation.”
At least one faculty member at Nicholls disagrees with Kiff’s opinion of the policy “going a bit far.”
“I don’t think the University has gone far enough with it. They had the opportunity to ban smoking completely from the campus, and they didn’t. I don’t see any reason not to,” Rick Duet, associate professor of mass communication said.
Duet said he was pleased with the effects the policy has had on campus so far. “I haven’t had to walk through any smoke gauntlets to get to any buildings yet, and I like that.”
While there is not an official course of action or consequences for violations of the smoking policy currently in place, Dial said that action would be taken if a person repeatedly disobeys the policy. Faculty and staff members routinely not in compliance with the policy will be referred to their supervisors, and students repeatedly disobeying the policy will be sent to the Student Judicial Affairs Office of Student Life.