By Wyatt Boyer
HACC Harrisburg, one of the five Campuses affected by the upcoming smoking ban.
HACC campuses and students will no longer carry the distinct odor of cigarette smoke. They will also no longer smell like the multitude of exotic flavors used in e-cigarettes. Two weeks ago HACC announced their plan to ban all tobacco products and e-cigarettes by August 10, 2015. Student reaction to the ban has been mixed. Regardless, HACC is determined to rid tobacco and e-cigarettes from all 5 of their campuses.
The ban is being passed under policy 375- HACC’s Tobacco-Free Campuses Initiative. It aims to provide healthy campuses and better prepare the student body to enter the workforce.
Chairman of the HACC Board of Trustees Timothy L. Sandoe said “Not only are we providing a healthy campus culture and sustainable environment, a tobacco-free campus better prepares our students to enter the workforce where many employers do not permit tobacco use.”
HACC plans to fully implement this policy by August 10, 2015. Before this occurs, they plan to implement a few other changes to help current smokers. HACC’s ‘Tobacco-Free FAQ’ states “HACC’s bookstores will be carrying and selling smoking cessation products prior to Aug. 10, 2015. Additionally, free smoking cessation programs will be available at all campuses during the spring 2015 term for students, employees, and members of the community.”
People are curious how HACC will be enforcing this ban. The current rule where a smoker must be 25 feet away from a building hasn’t been working.
“Most places require you to stand 25 feet or so from a building to smoke, but the problem is no one ever listens to these kind of rules. I constantly see throngs of people smoking right outside the entrance of a building where smoke is being blown right into you. It upsets people and could be a health detriment” says Alex Neason, a psychology student at HACC’s Harrisburg campus.
The college has some new policies that will assist in cementing this ban on the campuses. “Security officers, during the performance of their regular duties, will enforce this policy if it is being violated” the FAQ states.
Student reaction on the policy may vary but many students feel like they did not have a say in the decision. “It was handed down by the president. It wasn’t a question of the faculty or student body, it was just passed” says Dash Glace, a General Studies student.
However, HACC claims student were invited to be a part of the process multiple times. According to HACC, “students at the various campuses were extended invitations to participate…none of the invitations were accepted.”
Student response following the decision was also lacking. A protest was scheduled following the decision. Only one person was seen in attendance.
The American Nonsmokers’ Rights Foundation reports that there are now at least 1,543 smoke-free campuses in the U.S. today. It’s becoming an increasingly common practice to enact these policies in schools and workplaces across the nation. Not only this, the average price of a pack of cigarettes continues to rise as well. It certainly seems smoking is becoming more and more discouraged no matter where you go.
Whether this policy will achieve its goal or not is yet to be seen. College is a stressful time in one’s life, and this draws a lot of students towards picking up the habit.
“What am I supposed to do when people stress me out?” asks Danny Eversmeyer, a communications student.
Smoking is becoming less common in the United States each year. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say that only 5% of adults smoked in 2012. Compare that to the mid-1990s where 18% of the population smoked or 1965, where the number was at a staggering 42%. Many institutions simply don’t want to condone smoking any longer.
Should we be limiting what people are allowed to put in their bodies? Some argue that it’s their decision to make.
“Cigarette smoking is a right. Any man has the right to do as he pleases, even if it harms them” claims Taylor Shoemaker, HACC student.
Despite anyone’s opinion, this ban will be enforced by mid-August. Only time will tell how this ends up affecting the campuses and student body. If you have any questions or concerns, contact the Organizational Transformation at hacc.edu.
Pennsylvania Pulse 
michaeljmcfadden
May 7, 2015 at 6:36 am
How much truth and how much propaganda is in this article? Well, they don’t give much in the way of hard facts, but they *do* cite two numbers that can be checked.
1) The claim that the CDC says only 5% of adults smoked in 2012. Actually, if you look at the CDC fact sheet at http://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/yrbs/pdf/tobacco/co_tobacco_combo.pdf you’ll find that it’s 5% of HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS… the ones, like college students, that the Antismokers usually like to refer to as “The Children” in order to get listeners to imagine cute little five year olds in sandboxes being victimized by Big Tobacco and Butt-Tossing-Smokers.
2) The claim that 1,532 campuses are now 100% “smoke-free” in the US. If you take a look at the searchable campus newspapers of a number of these you’ll certainly find mentions of the bans — but usually the mentions are about how widely they are being violated. The Antismokers’ goal at this point is to simply build up the numbers with official bans in place, enforced or workable is besides the point: they want to get over half of the 5,000+ campuses under their thumb so they can then proclaim “MOST” campuses have banned it and blackmail the rest with threats that they’ll be listed as being “among the minority of schools that are still enabling Big Tobacco to addict their students.” Eventually, when they’ve finished with the numbers game (possibly by way of getting some sort of federal law to back them up, or even just by extending the pseudo-blackmail they’ve already begun: threatening Free Choice campuses with the withholding of federal research grant money) then they’ll come back with the iron fist of enforcement through snitching and expulsions. By that point the bans will have become established as a “fait accompli” — so no matter how much trouble is caused by their enforcement, the alternative of “going backwards” will seem unacceptable.
There’s a statement in the article I’d like to make note of as well: the concern that smoke outside the doors of a building could be a health detriment. There’s never been a single study done showing any such detriment from the durations and intensities of smoke being spoken about. The only claim that could be made with *any* degree of science behind it would be the Surgeon General’s claim that there is “no safe level of exposure” based on the “no threshold theory” of carcinogenesis and the EPA Report’s claim of a 19% increase in lung cancer among workers after a lifetime of “Mad Men” levels of work exposure. However, once those doorway exposures are adjusted for the EPA standards to equalize intensities and durations of exposure, even if we assume students are “forced” to walk through ten crowds of doorway smokers every single day — there’d be only one case of lung cancer produced, on average, for every TWENTY-FIVE MILLION student-years of exposure.
Meanwhile, during those 25,000,000 student-years, we’d probably see a hundred times as many dying from malignant melanoma caused by being forced to walk around from class to class while being blasted by deadly solar radiation! So should we move all classes underground and connect the buildings by tunnels?
Crazy, right? And worrying about outdoor smoking on campuses is just as crazy… except there’s a lot of money being pumped into making you think it’s not. Try checking out the funding behind this on your campus, and see what you can find out about the funding of “Smoke Free Campuses.” Then check the AMA Annual Reports for the last 15 years and see how EVERY YEAR they’ve been pumping 500 million to 900 million dollars into what they call “Tobacco Control.”
Begin doing some reading outside the usual stuff you’re handed favoring the bans. Start with a free .pdf booklet I’ve made available for printing and distribution at: http://bit.ly/SmokingBanLies
– MJM
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FudgeCremes
May 7, 2015 at 7:58 am
I’d just like to say that while I do agree with a lot of what you’re saying, I had to provide both sides of the story. Why HACC is doing it, what the students think of it. I apologize for getting some facts wrong, I’m going to look through them again and fix what I can. However, this is just an article for a class I’m taking, so I wouldn’t get too worked up over it honestly.
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michaeljmcfadden
May 7, 2015 at 8:21 am
Fudge, it’s actually very well written! I’d never have thought it was written by a student! The problem in this area of writing is that most of the material out there is very one-sided and very slick in its presentation. It’s designed to be picked up and used without question and, in reality, there are very few out there who’ve looked closely enough to raise any questions. I’ve got quite a strong research background on the subject and have written two full books on it. See http://antibrains.com and http://TobakkoNacht.com and in particular you might want to check out the excerpt from the “Endgame” section of the “Book Selections” at the latter: it focuses specifically on campus bans.
Keep on writin’ … ‘n never let the critics wear you down!
🙂
MJM
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FudgeCremes
May 7, 2015 at 8:33 am
Thank you very much for your information! I definitely have a lot of areas I can improve upon, which is why I made this site actually. I’ll make sure to check your work out and check my facts very very carefully in the future 😀
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Callie Halsey
May 7, 2015 at 8:11 am
Smoking isn’t natural, it isn’t healthy and I certainly do not agree with it. However, people have the choice to do what they want to do, especially as legal adults. <- Enough said. Some people need to get a better hobby than accusing people of "propaganda over a college smoking ban.
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