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A designated non-smoking sign located at the front entrance of Conger Hall is part of the pilot program created last year to give non-smokers places to enter and smokers places to smoke. The program has proven to be only partially effective. Scott C [Click to enlarge]

The new City of Tifton Clean Air Ordinance is now in effect and may determine where smokers at ABAC choose to light up their cigarettes on campus.

The ordinance became effective Oct. 8 and prohibits smoking within 25 feet of an entrance to any public place. This means that the entrances to all buildings on the ABAC campus are covered under this rule.

"We're going to have to talk about that on this campus and see where we go with this," Tom Call, interim President, said. "We are going to have to work around it."

This adds fuel to the ongoing debate between non-smokers and smokers on campus. Due to the past debates, the Academic Assembly, which is an organization made up of faculty, and the SGA created pilot designated smoking and non-smoking sides around Conger Hall.

"Apparently [designated spots] have not worked very well," Call said. "It takes more than posting signs, that's why we are going to have to get the whole campus involved."

To put this ordinance into effect at ABAC would involve using a democratic system of letting students and staff know what is going on, getting them involved in discussions about ideas, and to getting the decisions made.

According to Vice President and Dean of Academic Affairs Caroline Helms, a smoker herself, a possible way to enforce the new ordinance at ABAC is by students reminding smokers not to smoke near the entrances and placing disposal bins away from the entrances.

The problem with smokers smoking near the entrances of buildings at ABAC has been non-smokers wanting the right to breathe smoke free air.

"[The smoking ordinance] is a good idea, that way you have a good way to walk around them if you want to, and yet still have clean air," Ryan Bowden, a non-smoking ABAC student, said. "They [smokers] crowd around the door sometimes and it's hard to deal with."

"Smokers feel like they have the right to smoke and non-smokers feel like they have the right to breathe clean air." Call said. "Everybody needs to be civil to everybody else."

One possible solution is for smokers to be respectful of the rights of non-smokers, while peacefully and politely conforming to the new ordinance. At the same time non-smokers should be polite when asking smokers not to smoke within the 25-foot perimeter of an entrance.

Helms encourages smokers to be considerate to non-smokers by not standing near the doorways to buildings on campus.

While currently following the new ordinance is based on consideration only, not every smoker may comply.

According to Call, not everybody is going to obey the rules and that not enforcing rules would be a problem. It will have to be dealt with and is being worked on.

A problem that comes from smokers smoking around the entrances of buildings is the piles of cigarette butts that pile up across the grounds damaging the aesthetic appearance of the campus.

"Anybody that smokes ought to not throw their cigarette butts on the ground. We spend a lot of time and money getting them up. It is littering and that is a lack of respect," Call said.

The trash compiled from cigarettes hurts ABAC's campus image for prospective students, donors to the college, and alumni.

With the ordinance in effect smokers are asked to honor it until a decision is made on how to enforce it at ABAC.

In Tifton, first time violation fines cannot exceed $50, second time violations within a year can be no more than $75.

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