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2010 to mark MHCC’s move
to a tobacco-free environment
The Advocate
As students, we are constantly told that the MHCC District board has our best interests in mind, that our voice matters and they make decisions that will be for the benefit of the students.
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The board made a decision Wednesday that, starting Jan. 2, 2010, the campus will be entirely tobacco-free.
The process was rapid, to say the least. Only one month ago, the issue of smoking on campus was introduced to the board’s agenda. One person spoke before the board in favor of banning tobacco from the campus. Board member Ralph Yates went as far as to ask why the campus wasn’t already tobacco-free.
The atmosphere was full of agreement from Yates’ fellow board members, as not one defended smoking on campus. The board asked MHCC President John Sygielski to form a committee to investigate the ways and costs involved in going tobacco-free, hence the creation of the Tobacco-Free Task Force.
The MHCCD board agreed Wednesday to make MHCC a tobacco-free campus starting Jan. 2, 2010, but not until after the student senate complained of the lack of student involvement in the decision-making process.
Before the board meeting, ASG President Janine Johnston said, “There wasn’t appropriate student input on the matter,” a perspective echoed by numerous students during forums on the topic held Monday and Tuesday.
The Associated Student Government document provided to the board said, “The implementation of a plan to make the MHCC campus Tobacco-Free has been proposed without an appropriate avenue for receiving student input” and “The ASMHCC does not support the implementation of any plan to make the MHCC campus Tobacco Free at this time.”
Board Chair Duke Shepard said the board had asked in April that a student input committee be formed, and asked Wednesday if this had happened.
June Jacobs, assistant to the president for strategic initiatives and board relations, said there was a taskforce and two forums were held, but there were no studies or surveys because there was not enough time. Jacobs added, “There was some involvement.”
At a forum held Monday in the boardroom, Jacobs, tobacco-free task force committee head, received input from students in a “very informal” setting. Tobacco-Free Task Force committee members Johnston and Danielle Pannell were also present.
“We wanted to get as many comments as we could,” Jacobs said.
Janelle Young, a student, presented her electronic cigarette at the forum on Monday, a device that produces nicotine without smoke.
“You guys, unfortunately, would not be able to ban it,” Young said. “This would beyour next battle.”
Young asked if students could still smoke in their cars, to which Jacobs said, “There are a lot of solutions that would need to be dealt with.” Young proposed that the college move the kiosks out of the Academic Center and push “them out to the parking lots.”
Fellow student Megan Fitzsimmons agreed with Young, hoping that the board would “meet in the middle” by moving the kiosks.
Student James Henley said that if the campus goes tobacco-free, students would just find another place to smoke on the sidewalks or across the street. He asked Jacobs, Pannell and Johnston, “Who would clean that stuff up?”
Welding instructor Steven Davis was in favor of going tobacco-free and said, “I’m looking at the health issues. It’s an addiction, a terrible one. It’s really hard to stop.” However, Davis said, “We have to do this fairly.”
Both Johnston and Pannell said the dialogue at the meeting was important.
“People are asking a lot of questions,” Pannell said. “There’s just so much that goes
into this.”
Health and P.E. instructor Joseph McNeal said, “This (the decision) is being done too fast.” McNeal said the information was “slanted” and that “none of the cons
were put” in the information being passed on to the board.
“If we institute something that is so drastic and hastily done, we are going to lose students,” McNeal said. “There isn’t information that says ‘These are the negatives.’ ” McNeal said there needs to be more discussion.
Associated Student Government President-elect Bradley Best agreed with McNeal’s view on the information.
“I am glad that we have this information and it’s being distributed, but it is slanted,” Best said. Best was also concerned with the prospect of losing students. “There has to be a middle ground.”
Student P.J. Salano agreed that a compromise must be struck between smokers and non-smokers, “Smoking is a freedom.” Salano said that students come to Mt. Hood Community College with the foreknowledge that they are “accepted for who they are” and smoking is a part of that.
Environmental, Health and Safety Supervisor Karen Reynolds said that smoking was a choice. “We are all adults and we have to make choices in our lives,” she said, adding that smoking is one of these choices.
Jacobs said these were very helpful comments and that the board is concerned with the health and safety of those at the college.
“They have been very thoughtful about it,” Jacobs said.
A second meeting was held Tuesday at Vista Dining Center with Jacobs and Pannell, but only two students spoke. Student Marshall Jennings said, “I’m a non-smoker, but I still don’t think they should be banished from campus as long as they stay in their designated area.”
At Wednesday’s board meeting, board member Ralph Yates said he understands people’s concerns but that there are options for smokers.
Board member Dave Shields said, “We’ve been moving toward this” and “I do apologize if the students weren’t put in the process.”
Board member Beverly Russell said, “I hate walking on campus and smelling the smoke.”
Many of the board members reflected upon their experience with smoking and smokers in their immediate family.
Board member Brian Freeman said that by making Mt. Hood Community College a tobacco-free campus, it would discourage smoking for student many years to come.