Guilford’s latest smoking policy has left many students, faculty, and staff discouraged.

First-year Olivia Tibbs is conducting a survey around campus, asking students if they are unhappy with the current state of the smoking sections. Tibbs, a smoker, is displeased with the smoking policy.

“I just started my survey,” Tibbs said, “but I’ve gotten over 40 responses. Only one person said they weren’t unhappy, and that was just because they didn’t care either way—this was a non-smoker. Everyone else is unhappy with it.”

The policy, stated in the Guilford Student Handbook, says that all buildings, their entrance areas, and the interior of the campus are all tobacco-free. Tobacco use is only permitted in designated smoking areas, and violators of this policy face written citations and judicial hearings.

The limited smoking areas have students fuming.

“They put all the smoking spots at choke points, where people are always walking by,” said James Missell, a first-year student who smokes.

One such smoking area is merely yards away from trailers that house the Early College at Guilford.

The state of the smoking areas, more so than the policy behind them, is what angers people.

“Our students are adult, so we should treat them as such,” said a faculty member in an anonymous administrative survey in 2009 on the tobacco policy. “So long as our policies are consistent with state regulations, let adults choose their own lifestyles. It is not consistent with Quaker values of diversity and tolerance to mandate lifestyle choices for others, even in the guise of a misplaced paternalism called ‘for health reasons.'”

“I am substance-free but this does not mean I presume to tell people what to do with their bodies,” said senior Ryan Sanders. “I believe all people should have the right to treat their own bodies as they choose. These rights include the choice to be a smoker.”

“I can understand not smoking in the quad, or by doors,” said Missell. “But they shouldn’t punish us for choosing to smoke. It’s not illegal. We’ll have 15 people hanging out and not enough seats.”

First-year Sam Durfee, a self-described tobacco addict, agrees. He believes that non-smokers should not have to be subjected to smoke and cigarette butts as they walk to class. He is disappointed, however, in the state of the current smoking sections, and said that merely having benches is not enough.

“We don’t want to get rained on,” Durfee said. “We’re not asking for couches. Smokers are asking for shelters.”

“I think that for the most part, smokers acknowledge that it’s invasive of other people’s space,” Vice President of Student Affairs and Dean of Students Aaron Fetrow said. “The message I’m getting is that they want more hospitable places to gather … However, part of it is that we don’t want to promote and encourage smoking. It’s a bad habit. At the same time, I don’t want to legislate morality.”

“We’re not asking for special treatment,” said Durfee. “We’re asking that the smoking sections be made fit for human beings. It’s so we won’t get rained on. Adding an umbrella to a table won’t make people want to take up the habit.”

“Improving the smoking policy will make everyone happy,” Tibbs said. “People are unhappy with the issue of littering. Cigarettes aren’t biodegradable. If they made smoking sections convenient and had more ashtrays, people would use them and we wouldn’t see this litter.”

At a time when the country is moving towards stricter smoking policies, with restaurants, airports, and businesses placing higher restrictions on smoking areas, places of higher education have begun to adopt the trend.

“If (Guilford is) about education, let’s educate,” said Fetrow. “If we’re about wellness and the whole person, let’s be healthy.”

“If smokers cannot reconcile themselves with the smoking policy as it currently is, then (adopting a smoke-free policy) may be the only choice,” Sanders said. “I realize it is not always convenient to go to a smoking area but when you live in a community there are certain sacrifices you must make for harmony’s sake.”

An overwhelming majority of the school’s population does not smoke, according to Fetrow, and many non-smokers object to people smoking around them. Health risks, personal discomfort and aversion to the smell of smoke, as well as the litter created by cigarette butts contribute to this objection.

One professor who partook in the anonymous survey in 2009 taught in King, and said, “When I taught there, I had to hold my breath going in, which meant I couldn’t speak to students.”

“My biggest problem with smoking,” said another faculty member in the survey, “is the litter people leave behind. They seem to think that cigarette butts are not trash.”