Get your butts off TCC campuses

I saw the article "At least, clean up your mess" in the Collegian and was immediately intrigued. When I first heard about the possibility of a smoking ban being introduced on all TCC campuses I was really happy and couldn't wait to see that law in action. I have problems with cigarette smoke because when it gets into my lungs, my airways close off and I can't breathe. Not to mention it smells horrible!

Last semester I was at the south campus and went outside the science building to use my cell phone and when I walked back in, there were six or seven people smoking right in front of the door. I had to walk through a cloud of smoke to get inside. Once I was inside I noticed my hair and clothes smelled like smoke, just from walking into the building. My classmates knew I didn't smoke but they had to ask, "Did you just smoke a cigarette?" When I explained the situation everybody thought it was really unfair, especially since they had a rule (and signs) stating that smokers couldn't be within 30 feet of the building. Nobody listened to that, obviously.

This semester I was looking forward to the clean air and was really satisfied when I could actually smell it. That lasted about 2 days. By the end of the first week of school I saw students walking around smoking and even teachers standing in front of their buildings (by the doors) smoking. I was upset but thought that the campus police would do something. When I saw that they hadn't, I went online to see if there was any way to email them about the situation but was unable to find a way to contact them.

The article mentions all the butts that are in the parking lots, on the sidewalks, and in the grass. The writer says that the ban should be lifted because it would results in less butts and would allow the campus police more time to take care of other things. These arguments don't really hold up because obviously campus police aren't doing much. I saw a police officer just sitting there in his car while three students were walking around smoking. He did absolutely nothing to stop them so their time isn't necessarily wasted on the smokers, although it may be wasted just sitting there in their cars. Also, the littering of the butts hasn't started recently. I've noticed that ever since I starting coming to TCC and it's at every campus. Police need to enforce this new law because as of now, it's like the law has never existed.