Ban smoking on campus

By app.com,

The board of trustees at Brookdale Community College is expected to vote next month on a campuswide ban on smoking. The only place smokers could light up would be in their cars.

The policy, which would take effect in January, should be adopted, as long as the college makes a commitment to providing smoking cessation for students and staff who want to break their addiction to nicotine.

The current policy allows smoking only at six gazebos around campus. College administrators are well within their rights to pursue policies that will benefit both the campus and the health of the students. And smokers at Brookdale should be grateful that their campus does not go as far as as other colleges: Ocean County College, for example, enforces a total ban on smoking on campus.

At the Oct. 14 board of trustees meeting, Brookdale President Peter Burnham said the penalty provisions of the ban would be phased in gradually, with offenders initially being given warnings. Repeat offenses could result in fines of up to $200.

The goal here should not only be to safeguard the health of nonsmokers and the beauty of the campus, but to give those students and faculty addicted to nicotine one more incentive to quit their expensive habit.