Original Smoking Policy Amended After Community Feedback

The Tobacco-Free Community Committee (TFCC) has amended its smoking policy to allow designated smoking areas in the parking lots of the AUC campus rather than outside university grounds.

Phase two of the smoking policy, which allowed smoking in the areas outside the metal detectors, came into effect on August 25.

But phase three, initially designed to ban smoking from the AUC campus altogether, has been scrapped.

“The amendment came in response to community feedback …We will only implement phase two,” TFCC head Lotfi Gaafar confirmed.

Youssef Abdel Kader, a business administration junior and the political and public relations chairperson in the Student Union (SU), said there were safety concerns raised about phase three.

“We approached phase three from a safety perspective and told the administration that any community member smoking outside campus will be the administration’s responsibility in terms of safety.”

Abdelkader said that a number of community surveys were conducted during the First Year Program and used as feedback by the committee to amend the policy.

One critical change is that policy violators will no longer be academically sanctioned.

However, they will be fined a hefty sum, an idea which frustrates Electronics Engineering junior Salma Nomier.

Nomier went on a semester abroad at Stony Brook University in New York, which also prohibits smoking and tobacco use on campus, and says policy enforcement there was very different.

“I got caught there more times than I can remember. All the security does is verbally warn me if I get caught. But it never reached the point where they fine me,” Nomier told The Caravan

For other students, like Political Science sophomore Dina Al Fayad, smoking areas in the parking lots are impractical and inconvenient.

“We only have ten minutes between each class, so I really don’t have time to go there to smoke,” said Al Fayad.

The SU proposed designated smoking areas on campus in isolated places where non-smokers won’t be affected by secondhand smoke.

“We proposed designated areas in places like the roofs,” said AbdelKader.

“I am a non smoker. The idea of a tobacco free community is nice but, the way of implementation and how to sell the idea is the area of disagreement between the SU and administration,”  Abdelkader told The Caravan

Farah Fawzi, a communication and media arts sophomore regrets the removal of the on-campus smoking areas implemented last semester as they gave her more time to smoke between classes.

“Last semester, it was accepted. At least [the designated smoking areas] were on campus and we had time to smoke between classes.”

Gaafar rejected the idea of bringing back on-campus designated smoking areas.

“Once we move forward, we don’t want to move back. On campus, there won’t be smoking again. The committee is in continuous work and whatever feedback we will receive, we will work on it,” Gafaar told The Caravan.

The feedback also led the committee to “deposit the amounts deducted [from students] into a student financial aid account,” and “the amounts deducted for faculty and staff will be directed toward employee-related activities,” according to the email sent by Lotfi Gaafar on August 9.

The committee held a meeting on September 12 to explore the possibility of enhancing the designated smoking areas by adding more seats and umbrellas.

Gaafar explained that while the first phase segregated smokers from non-smokers by having designated smoking areas on campus,  phase two helped limit smoking within the proximity of buildings

In the meeting, Gaafar tackled several issues and setbacks that primarily relate to communication and awareness, while SU representatives vouched to send updated feedback to the committee.