Breaking the habit
No ifs, ands or “butts:” Camden County College has extinguished smoking and the use of tobacco products on campus for students and staff.
The ban went into effect July 1 on the college’s three campuses, Blackwood, Cherry Hill and Camden, after the board of trustees voted on the policy at a June board meeting.
The ban includes cigars, cigarettes, pipes, smokeless and chewing tobacco, snuff or any tobacco-like products.
Between now and Dec. 31, 2009, students and staff will be warned about the new rule with cards providing information about the new policy and about smoking cessation opportunities offered by the college.
To generate awareness, signs will be posted on campus property informing staff, students, and visitors of the policy details. Information about the policy has also been included in newsletters and e-mails to students and on the college’s Web site (www.camdencc.edu).
Starting Jan. 1, 2010, student violators of the policy will receive a $25 ticket from the Public Safety Department for the first incident and $50 for subsequent violations of the policy.
Faculty and staff will not be fined for smoking offenses due to union agreements, but will be disciplined for the offense by a supervisor, since the policy is a part of the college’s code of conduct.
Camden County College’s vice president of institutional advancement William C. Thompson is happy to implement the campus-wide tobacco-free initiative.
“We aren’t the first college in the region, or the country for that matter, to go tobacco free. I think it’s good for everyone’s individual health on campus,” he said.
Thompson said he has received complaints from students and staff about smokers clustering at doorways and other locations on campus, thus creating walls of smoke that nonsmokers must pass through to get to a location.
“As a reformed smoker myself, I can say that having some motivation to quit external to yourself is helpful,” Thompson said.
Thompson encourages students and staff to take advantage of the smoking-cessation programs that will be offered through the college.
“We are running a series of smoke-cessation programs for employees and cessation seminars for students to take as much of the burden off them as we can,” he said.
“Hopefully, in the next six months, it will not only increase awareness but be helpful to the smokers’ health and the health of others,” he said.
Executive director of the Public Safety Department at Camden County College Ed Carney said the initiative was done to address the concerns of the college community as a whole. In addition to eliminating secondhand smoke and health hazards for students or employees with breathing problems Carney added that a side benefit will be the cleanup costs.
“It wasn’t done as a cost saving initiative, but there is a cost saving benefit to banning tobacco products. Our staff will now be able to spend more time cleaning up other parts of campus rather than cigarette butts,” Carney said.
Prior to the first day of the school year, most of the public safety department’s efforts will be providing instructional information to individuals smoking on campus to promote awareness. The warning cards that will be distributed describe the policy on one side and information about the smoking cessation programs on the other side.
The idea, he said, is to get voluntary compliance in the college community and not have negative enforcement right from the start.
“We want to tell people they can’t smoke, but we don’t want to say we don’t have any options available. What we will say is here are ways to do it and we will help you get there. If you want to smoke, it’s your business; but just don’t do it on campus,” Carney said.
For more information, visit www.camdencc.edu/tobaccofree/index.htm.
The ban went into effect July 1 on the college’s three campuses, Blackwood, Cherry Hill and Camden, after the board of trustees voted on the policy at a June board meeting.
The ban includes cigars, cigarettes, pipes, smokeless and chewing tobacco, snuff or any tobacco-like products.
Between now and Dec. 31, 2009, students and staff will be warned about the new rule with cards providing information about the new policy and about smoking cessation opportunities offered by the college.
To generate awareness, signs will be posted on campus property informing staff, students, and visitors of the policy details. Information about the policy has also been included in newsletters and e-mails to students and on the college’s Web site (www.camdencc.edu).
Starting Jan. 1, 2010, student violators of the policy will receive a $25 ticket from the Public Safety Department for the first incident and $50 for subsequent violations of the policy.
Faculty and staff will not be fined for smoking offenses due to union agreements, but will be disciplined for the offense by a supervisor, since the policy is a part of the college’s code of conduct.
Camden County College’s vice president of institutional advancement William C. Thompson is happy to implement the campus-wide tobacco-free initiative.
“We aren’t the first college in the region, or the country for that matter, to go tobacco free. I think it’s good for everyone’s individual health on campus,” he said.
Thompson said he has received complaints from students and staff about smokers clustering at doorways and other locations on campus, thus creating walls of smoke that nonsmokers must pass through to get to a location.
“As a reformed smoker myself, I can say that having some motivation to quit external to yourself is helpful,” Thompson said.
Thompson encourages students and staff to take advantage of the smoking-cessation programs that will be offered through the college.
“We are running a series of smoke-cessation programs for employees and cessation seminars for students to take as much of the burden off them as we can,” he said.
“Hopefully, in the next six months, it will not only increase awareness but be helpful to the smokers’ health and the health of others,” he said.
Executive director of the Public Safety Department at Camden County College Ed Carney said the initiative was done to address the concerns of the college community as a whole. In addition to eliminating secondhand smoke and health hazards for students or employees with breathing problems Carney added that a side benefit will be the cleanup costs.
“It wasn’t done as a cost saving initiative, but there is a cost saving benefit to banning tobacco products. Our staff will now be able to spend more time cleaning up other parts of campus rather than cigarette butts,” Carney said.
Prior to the first day of the school year, most of the public safety department’s efforts will be providing instructional information to individuals smoking on campus to promote awareness. The warning cards that will be distributed describe the policy on one side and information about the smoking cessation programs on the other side.
The idea, he said, is to get voluntary compliance in the college community and not have negative enforcement right from the start.
“We want to tell people they can’t smoke, but we don’t want to say we don’t have any options available. What we will say is here are ways to do it and we will help you get there. If you want to smoke, it’s your business; but just don’t do it on campus,” Carney said.
For more information, visit www.camdencc.edu/tobaccofree/index.htm.
