During finals week, the entrance to Geisel Library is always crowded with students taking a break ‘mdash; in most cases by lighting up a cigarette. It’s a tradition going back to the high-school bathroom, but if UCSD takes up behind a number of San Diego community colleges that have spent the past four years adjusting their tobacco polices to make their campuses 100-percent smoke free, it could make for a far fresher respite.
Adjustments first began at Mesa College, where Kendra Jackson, a severely asthmatic freshman student, felt threatened by second-hand smoke. After meeting with the San Diego Community College District Board of Trustees, Jackson sparked the formation of the Smoking Investigation Committee in December 2005 to rally for the ban of on-campus smoking.
‘It’s not good, not just for me, but for everyone else. It’s a bad health issue,’ Jackson told the San Diego Union-Tribune.
Consisting of students, faculty, campus police officers and nurse practitioners, the committee hosted student-health fairs and delivered presentations to SDCC governing bodies, all of whom voted to make Mesa College smoke free. By relegating the habit to certain parking lots, Mesa College achieved its goal of being a smoke-free campus on Jan. 1, 2007, six months after the creation of
SIC.
Grossmont College and Cuyamaca College have also banned smoking ‘mdash; as of Jan. 1, 2009 ‘mdash; after a yearlong transitional period of restricting smoking to designated peripheral areas and creating student awareness campaigns.
All three campuses incorporated bans into their updated policies after receiving failing grades from the American Lung Association and the Tobacco-Free Communities Coalition in 2005. Letter grades were distributed to San Diego colleges based on various factors, including smoking-policy enforcement by campus officials and the protection of nonsmokers from second-hand smoke.
‘The failing grade caused administrators at the campus and district level to take a proactive stand toward the issue of smoking on campus,’ said Lina Heil, public information officer at Mesa College. ‘It was serendipitous that a student came forward shortly after the grade. Its success was based on the campaign being student-led.’
Currently, the only four-year institution in San Diego to have made the switch to smoke-free is Point Loma Nazarene University, where attendance requires an agreement to also refrain from all drug and alcohol consumption.
Other parts of San Diego are also encouraging cleaner air. Everyday destinations such as public-transit stops, restaurants and bars ‘mdash; along with popular tourist attractions like the San Diego Zoo, Wild Animal Park, Petco Park and Qualcomm Stadium ‘mdash; have enforced stricter smoking regulations since 2003.
Also, all coastal cities in the San Diego area ‘mdash; including the city of San Diego, Solana Beach, Oceanside, Encinitas, Del Mar and, most recently, Carlsbad ‘mdash; have enacted bans prohibiting smoking on beaches, parks and trails, though enforcement is limited to personal implementation and communal politeness.
In contrast, the newer policies at the community colleges rely on the power of information availability, a shifting social norm and student-based peer pressure to enforce the smoking bans. No formal policing of the policy is in place and according to Mesa College’s campus paper, many smokers are not following the new guidlines.
‘California has found that social norm change is an excellent enforcement tool as evidenced by no smoking in restaurants bars and other public areas,’ said Mesa’s Smoking Investigation Committee in an educational presentation.
Christine Jensen, a third-year nonsmoker at Mesa, has witnessed the positive effects of the ban.
‘People still smoke in the parking lots, but there has been a decrease in smokers since the ban,’ Jensen said. ‘People just aren’t smoking while they’re at school, or they just don’t want to walk to the designated smoking areas off campus. Campus is definitely way cleaner.’
UCSD currently complies with state law regarding indoor smoking and enforces the policy that smokers must be at least 20 feet from any facility when smoking, but there have been no plans yet proposed to make UCSD a smoke-free campus.
The same year that today’s smoke-free community colleges received failing grades from the ALA, UCSD received a B- and was complimented for enforcing its current smoking policies. The university was docked, however, for not adjusting the policy to reduce second-hand smoke in all areas, selling cigarettes on campus and accepting money from tobacco companies for research funding.
‘I think it’s ironic that the largest institutions that do serve the largest student population have been the least progressive,’ said Debra Kelley, ALA vice president of government relations, about UCSD and two local Cal State universities in an interview with KPBS News. ‘It’s a huge disappointment for us that our institutions here in San Diego are not leading the way.’
Yet the need for such UCSD policy amendments is debatable, according to some students. ‘I think [the policies] are reasonable since certain people are allergic to cigarette smoke,’ said Macy La, an Earl Warren sophomore. ‘Even though people don’t like cigarette smoke, we are all above the legal age limit to smoke; people can just walk around you.’
Though Earl Warren senior Deborah Johnson does not choose to smoke herself, she respects the option for those who do.
‘As a music minor, I know that a lot of people smoke in the arts department, but they always stay away from the buildings like they’re supposed to,’ said Johnson. ‘I think there would be a fight for the health of the students overall, but because it’s such a big school, you can’t monitor a rule like that everywhere. Even for the people that did smoke, they should have the right to smoke. Why should they have to go off campus?’
Jessica Ngo, a fifth-year Revelle transfer student from Grossmont, says the need for smoking bans at community colleges may have been more urgent due to the lack of campus surface area.
‘You see smokers more often at Grossmont because it’s a smaller campus, so it seemed like there was a lot more smokers in the designated areas,’ said Ngo. ‘Here, everyone is all over the place. There might be the same amount of smokers but it’s not as noticeable.’
Readers can contact Ashley Lee at [email protected].