The news site of Santa Barbara City College.

The Channels

The news site of Santa Barbara City College.

The Channels

The news site of Santa Barbara City College.

The Channels

Soft stance on smoking ban hurting SBCC campus

Soft+stance+on+smoking+ban+hurting+SBCC+campus

The smoking ban has been in effect for one semester, yet we have seen little progress.

Some professors may bark at students who light up on campus, but the only real repercussion for breaking the rule is a free lollipop.

Cigarette butts litter the campus entrances; do we really want this as someone’s first impression of City College?

Either reinstate smoking areas, or start enforcing the ban.

Story continues below advertisement

Many students and administrators support the smoking ban, our Editorial Board included, but the college’s disciplinary tactics lack a backbone.

Half of our Ed Board consists of smokers who smoke less while at school, which represents many students and faculty as well.

Thanks to the initiative we no longer have to dodge plumes of smoke from the smoking areas.

But the college needs to hit harder.

Handing out one or two citations will certainly send a message to those who refuse to conform.

If giving citations for smoking is not possible, then give out tickets for littering on college property.

At no less than a hundred dollars a pop, the news of littering fines for smokers will convince people to take their business elsewhere.

If the goal was to reduce litter and second hand smoking risks, the school should be monitoring popular hideouts.

Checkpoints could be set up to find and fine smokers for not following the campuses ordinance.

The smoking areas on campus have simply moved to all of the campus entrances.

Now, after walking up many flights of stairs at the Pershing Park entrance, pedestrians walk through a cloud of smoke and litter.

The litter problem is at no fault to the custodians who keep this campus clean day and night.

Be responsible for your trash.

We know that the college will not reinstate the smoking areas we once had, although we think that is one of the better solutions.

Since this won’t happen, enforcement really needs to be beefed up, otherwise, what was the point?

More to Discover