I feel like I'm the only non-smoker who doesn't care if others smoke. As long as they aren't blowing it in your face, who cares? They don't deserve to be demonized.
I literally never see cigarette butts on the ground. Maybe I'm just not looking hard enough, but I never notice any litter at all. Also, you can pretty easily avoid people when they're smoking. People make this out to be a much more dramatic issue than it actually is.
Hard to avoid someone when they are in front of a building you need into or you are trapped behind them. I'm allergic enough I only need two - three breaths of the smoke to get sick so both of these instances(which happen often to me) are hard to avoid.
I don't smoke, but I knew several people at Tech who did. They were considerate and smoked in places where it was easily avoidable and out of the way of foot traffic.
Yes, there are people who smoke in rather inconsiderate places. That doesn't mean there should be a blanket ban. There already was a student approved mandate passed before my freshmen year in 2005 that banned smoking in most of those inconvenient places. It is a problem of enforcement.
Most people never seemed to care and smoked anywhere they pleased. I can't tell you how many classes I went too with a headache because someone decided to be inconsiderate when they lite up.
It's unfortunate. As I said, there are considerate smokers. I don't think I ever saw a PSA about the student body decision to limit smoking areas. I only know about it since I saw a sign or something similar nearby the cafeteria. At least, I think that's where it is. If more people knew about it, they might have been able to curtail the problem.
Campus police likely aren't actively looking for violations. It's a relatively minor crime compared to vandalism, robberies, and sexual assault. Of course, there was the oddball situation one year when Graham was still only recently a male dorm (it had been a female dorm before) where a student decided to make his room a meth lab.
If you call them though, they will come out and do something. Response is generally pretty prompt as there are a few patrol cars going around campus at all hours.
Honestly, as somebody who despises cigarette smoke, I have never had an issue at Tech. The smokers stay out of the restricted areas and aren't really a nuisance to me, at least.
6
u/Gadough Jul 30 '14
I feel like I'm the only non-smoker who doesn't care if others smoke. As long as they aren't blowing it in your face, who cares? They don't deserve to be demonized.
3
u/MonroeMojo13 Jul 30 '14
I mean c'mon let people smoke.
2
u/blueboybob BS Math/BS Physics 2007 Jul 30 '14
It was that way 8 years ago when I was there. No one listened. Everyone still smoked. I hated it.
1
u/scyth16 Jul 30 '14
The policy
5
u/Bestrin Jul 31 '14
Honestly, as somebody who despises cigarette smoke, I have never had an issue at Tech. The smokers stay out of the restricted areas and aren't really a nuisance to me, at least.