Across the United States, college campuses, both universities and community colleges, do not provide a “designated smoking area” for students and faculty. Although there are health risks involved with smoking on campus,some students believe that San Diego Mesa College should offer a spot on campus, but out of the way of the flow of student traffic. This would allow students and faculty, who do smoke, an opportunity to do so as opposed to the unofficial areas that are somewhat on and somewhat off campus. These areas are not as easily accessible in terms of returning to class in a timely matter.
Although there are these unofficial spots, finding time to actually have a smoke break on a much needed day or afternoon is time consuming and one should not be late to class. Even though some people would argue that it is the smoker’s fault for forming the habit of smoking, it should still be an accommodation for students and staff alike.
When you think about it, there are designated areas for employees to have a proper smoking break that are given to them by the company they work for; in fact, there are even smoking areas available at Disneyland, with no question about the harmful effects that come with walking past smokers.
If anything, people that do not wish to be in front of the smoking areas can have a way to avoid the area if they wish to. A campus as large as Mesa could easily set aside a small portion of the campus to give access to smokers, instead of having them hide it on campus in fear of a security guard “busting them” or having to resort to walking off campus all together into the nearby residential areas.
If the opportunity was given, I feel as though a sense of ease would be given to any student or staff member in need of smoking a cigarette when they needed to. Also, if this small space was created, it would be highly doubtful that there would be an uprising of harmful smoke taking over the campus.
Overall, offering up an area that allows smoking to actually be on campus would make things easier for students that could use a smoke break to ease their mind and de-stress when they are at school.