Cigarette butts litter the corner of 25th and Lexington, known to students as “The Pit”.
On November 6th, 2012 Baruch College, the City University of New York, launched its Clean Space campaign. The Clean Space Campaign is a CUNY-wide initiative to promote good health habits by making Baruch a tobacco-free campus. After a meeting that was held on January 24th, 2011, the Board of Trustees of The City University of New York have unanimously decided that the CUNY campuses would be the largest tobacco-free system in the United States.
The Clean Space campaign involves that “Clean Space” signage would be posted around campus, at high traffic areas, such as entrances of college campuses and the most frequently used elevators. The tobacco products that the campaign wishes to eliminate from the campus are cigarettes, pipes, cigars, water pipes, and hookah.
The campaign also has information online to educate the CUNY students on the effects of smoking, and their consequences, such as second hand smoking of students who do not smoke. In addition they offer assistance for students who want to quit the addictive habit, such as counseling and a smoking cessation program.
However, a year later, we see students smoking in front of the “Clean Space” posters which are pasted wherever the eye can see. It doesn’t seem that the campaign has been successful. In the comfortable fall weather, many students of Baruch have frequented our 25th Street Plaza, socializing, eating, or smoking. Those students who have chosen not to smoke unfortunately must inhale the consequences of those who smoke in the “tobacco-free” campus.
This raises the question that maybe the Clean Space campaign isn’t doing what it originally planned to do. Maybe posters and information aren’t sufficient to stop those from smoking on our campus. However, how can we tell students what they should and shouldn’t do with their own bodies? It is not in the place of the CUNY Board of Trustees to enforce this change upon students, yet they should find alternatives to help keep the campus “tobacco-free”, such as the use of the security guards, to help remind students that the campus is a smoking free zone.
Hopefully soon enough, the Clean Space campaign will be successful enough that the Baruch College campus will truly be tobacco free, making the Baruch community a better place to learn for all students.
Rose Labarre