Students and faculty alike continue to smoke on campus even after the smoking ban took effect on Oct. 15.
There has been confusion between the students regarding the ban, the main one being that students don’t know that it is an interim policy, which was put in place for students and faculty to transition, seek out resources if they need to and educate themselves on the new policy. This policy prevents any ticketing or consequences happening on campus if you are caught smoking.
In a previous interview with the Times on Oct. 11 Cheryl Jensen said “When the Premier announced you could smoke cannabis wherever you smoke tobacco, that changed the rules for us,” she said. “That changed the whole landscape of where we were going.” The college was looking into having a smoke-free campus before the province made it legal but did not have anything in place.
After the interim policy period, Deijanelle Simon president of Student Association, said “They [the college] do plan on hiring enforcement and security just not for the interim policy. They are coming up with a policy right now and what that will entail will come January 1st.
“Once that happens the ban is for real, you can’t smoke on campus.”
Although some students are happy about the smoking ban due to the legalization of cannabis, there are still questions of why they are banning cigarettes.
Lane Oyeyipo, a student in the practical nursing program, said “Cigarettes we know are necessarily good for our health and I have seen some posters and signs and stuff around campus saying like ‘quit smoking’ and support lines.
“I guess in a way it can be a bit unfair that they did [ban smoking cigarettes ]; I mean it feels sort of convenient that just when marijuana got legalized they enforced it.”
After the interim policy is done and the full policy starts, students and faculty can be disciplined which can include being asked to leave the premises or be removed from the premises, depending on the circumstances and if they do not comply with the regulations.
There hasn’t been much advertising for this new policy other than an odd poster here and there and an email sent out to students on Oct. 5 by Jensen.