Collegian

For a short time during the fall, Alexandra Morris could be seen asking people on the LCCC campus to sign a petition.  The petition asked college leaders to ban smoking on campus.

"I know people that have trouble breathing around smoke and I myself am sensitive to certain cigarette brands," said Morris.

"I didn't think it was fair to those students who don't want to be around smoke to force them to walk through it every time they go into a building."

On most days smokers can be found grouped together near the outside of building doorways around campus.

Morris said the Student Life Program Coordinator Rodger Campbell told her a week after starting the petition, "that it would violate student's smoking rights to ban smoking completely from the campus," and if she "tried to push for smoking limited to certain areas, it would never go through higher administration."

It is at that point that Morris stopped asking people to sign her petition.  At the very least, Morris said that she would like to see several smoking areas set aside well away from any doors of buildings.

Former Student Senate President Mark Layman said that during his time in office in 2003, he and former Vice

President Tom Dake surveyed 300 students.  The biggest complaint was walking through clouds of smoke created by groups of smokers outside doorways.

LCCC student Donn Worthen spends his free time at the bridge between the Business and Learning Resources buildings.  Worthen, like other students who smoke, is against an entire ban against smoking.

"I do not think it is right," said Worthen, and if they want to restrict smoking they should "put up designated smoking areas away from the doors."

The current unwritten smoking policy is simply that "smoking is done outside," said Sydney Lancaster, LCCC manager of training projects.

At this time there are no "imminent plans to change the smoking policy" on campus, LCCC President Roy Church said.

Morris' mother died last year because of ovarian cancer.

"My mom never smoked a day, but when she was diagnosed with cancer they thought it was lung cancer because of how blackened her lungs were due to exposure to secondhand smoke," said Morris.

Former Student Senate President Sarah Perrigan agrees with Morris about banning smoking on campus. Perrigan's mother died this past fall of  emphysema.  Perrigan said that her mother was exposed to secondhand smoke all of her life because of her grandfather and father, who both smoked.

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