Smoking ban?

Over the past few years our campus has seen a variety of changes, most benefiting students. Buildings have been erected to better facilitate both learning and recreation. New administrators have challenged students by pushing us to do our best, constantly holding us accountable. 

Positives can be drawn in many areas, and the resulting action rests in the fact that it is a great time to be a Sycamore. With our health in the university's best interest, a smoking ban was introduced July 1, 2009. This new initiative aimed at cleaning up the campus, by placing smokers in specific areas, as opposed to all around campus.

Shelters were placed around campus, giving smokers a place to be, since the rest of the campus is off limits. The documented health risks in second-hand smoke were a major reason behind the ban,that former president Lloyd Benjamin and the ISU Board of Trustees passed in the summer of 2008.

Although many of us see cigarette butts all around campus and people still smoking around campus buildings, the smoking ban worked. Sure, some of the shelters have magically disappeared, most notably the one in front of Mills Hall, but that shelter must have been collateral damage.

Students heard how the ban would help students and we went with it, so we must persevere through the adversity of those smoking outside the designated areas and believe in the ban.

We cannot simply let this wonderful initiative pass us by; we must stand firm and continue to go about our lives as if the ban began yesterday.

Enough sarcasm for one day.

Students enrolled during the implementation of the ban may not have shown excitement rivaling that of March Madness, but it was definitely a great idea. The lack of follow-thrrough on the part of the powers-that-be indirectly demonstrates the lack of versatility of our administration.

There could have easily been a variety of ways to market the ban, even years later, but unfortunately such an idea was not in the plan. Perseverance is a necessity if change is to occur.