SAMANTHA TROUP | staff writer
photo | SAMANTHA TROUP
Sophomores Hannah Juarez and Samantha Jackson take advantage of new bucket ash-trays.

NICK KIPLEY | guest writer

In years past smoking has been a hush-hush topic, with students running off campus for a quick smoke in groups of two or three, rarely gathering in numbers larger than five. This year, however, the taboo on smoking seems to be lessening.

“I remember seeing smokers around campus used to be really rare, but now there seems to be a lot more,” junior psychology major Angel Gonzalez said.

The recent implementation of a large ashtray off campus by the Engstrom parking lot entrance may be the cause for recent lifting of the proscription on smoking.

The five gallon bucket filled with sand and spray-painted dark green to blend in with the shrubbery is almost always filled with cigarette butts and discarded cigarette packs.

“There’s a huge difference from when I was a student,” Deputy Chief of Campus Safety Anthony Strickland said. “Then, there were only a few students who smoked, and if a car drove by, people would hide their cigarette. Now, people just smoke everywhere, in the dorms, on campus.”

Some students think that a “smoking area” on campus would help with littering.

“If we have smokers in the area, it’s good that they have a place to clean up after themselves. I’d rather see the ashtray there being used and keeping the streets clean than [see] people just throwing their cigarette butts everywhere,” freshman theater arts major Lauren Mayfield, a non-smoker, said.

While many students think the new ashtray is helpful, several think that it should be pushed a step further, and that it would be a good idea to have a specifically designated area for students to smoke on campus. The idea of a designated smoking area would make some students feel more safe while smoking in the city.

“It’s unsafe to walk out there at night,” senior history major Jordan Vena said. “When I lived in Engstrom I used to walk out to Alosta and have a cigarette. It’s the same thing that smokers feel today. I’d walk out there at night and hope I [didn’t get mugged]. I did come across a tweaker one night. After that incident I was just like ‘I’m going to smoke on campus.’”

Strickland said that there is probably not a big difference in safety concerns if students are off-campus or on-campus.

“I imagine students feeling more safe on campus, but I wouldn’t say it’s less safe going to the curb, and if you’re really worried about your safety don’t go to the curb. [Smoking is] not something that’s necessary to do. I would say that there could be a minor difference of being on campus and off campus, so I wouldn’t say it’s a safety issue standing on the curb,” Strickland said. “I don’t remember getting a call with someone standing out on the curb smoking and saying that they don’t feel safe.”

Other students think the university has a fianancial obligation to provide for students.

“I think it’d be cool [to have a smoking section]. As far as a necessity? No. I think it would be nice though,” sophomore youth ministry major Nate Davis said. “I mean, hey, at $30,000 a year, I think they could make a little circle for us to stand in and smoke. I think that a lot of times as Christians we think we have an image we need to protect.”