The no-smoking policy that Moorpark College enacted last fall semester hasproduced beneficial changes in both the condition of the campus, and in the overall health of students and faculty.

As a final step in a five-year long initiative to absolve smoking-related problems on campus, the ban was a solution that met the desires of the highest number of people involved with Moorpark College. The battle against nicotine is a particularly important issue for Sharon Gibbs, the MC Health Educator.

“It’s a win-win situation for everyone,” said Gibbs. She explained that the new policy is a response to cigarette butt littering, exposure of second-hand smoke, and the health risks for smokers and other tobacco users.

Gibbs said that an immediate result of the policy was a cleaner campus, because cigarette waste has been greatly reduced. Another major change that Gibbs said the policy contributed to was an increase in the number of students seeking to quit the habit.

“It’s a really fun job because I can see them become so much healthier,” Gibbs said. She said that she is now working with sixty-five students in their effort to quit smoking.

The Ventura County Public Health Department granted funds to Moorpark College that allows the heath center to provide students with nicotine replacement therapy options such as the patch, gum, and lozenges. Students are also given a “quit kit”, which is a collection of stress-reducing trinkets put together by the Associated Students. Gibbs sets up a program for each individual student’s needs, and meets with them each on a weekly basis to track their progress and guide them toward reaching their goals. The health center’s program is not really advertised, but because it is so efficient, students have spread the word about their own successes.

Over the last five years, the MC Wellness Committee developed designating smoking areas that were located away from highly-populated sections of campus, such the main walkway. Gibbs explained that the flaw in this solution was that there has been confusion about boundaries and a general disregard for the rules.

The Wellness Committee surveyed students, faculty members, and worked with the Associated Students before presenting the idea of a campus-wide ban to the school president. Gibbs said that the primary goal was to meet the needs and desires of the majority of the Moorpark College community.

Enforcement of the new policy is not at all defined or threatening. There are no assigned punishments for students who violate the rule, and Gibbs said that when she has confronted people who are smoking on campus, she has never been met with aggression or defiance.

“People are really being very considerate,” Gibbs said. She is optimistic about the attitudes of students she has encountered, and feels that the no-smoking policy will be respected, not resented.

MC student Art Benitez, 27, said he approved of the new policy. “Smoking is like if someone has bad body odor and is walking around,” he said. “I don’t want to be breathing that in.”

Other students are not inspired to quit smoking as a result of the new regulation, but are not offended by it either. “I smoke, but I respect [the policy]. I think that it’s understandable,” said Mike Champion, a 24-year-old business student in his second year at Moorpark.

“I can understand not allowing smoking by the buildings, but there are a lot of open spaces on campus,” said Brandon Baird, 22, a criminal justice major. Although no restrictions against smoking have been implemented at Oxnard or

Ventura College campuses so far, Ventura is close behind Moorpark in the dispute over cigarette smoking.

The VC health center has a Smoking Cessation Program for both staff members and students, which is funded in part by the Ventura County Public Health Department. Not only does the program offer extensive information on the risks and facts about smoking, it also provides patients with private counseling with a nurse-practitioner, and nicotine replacement therapy programs free of charge.

For more information on the no-smoking policy, or for help in quitting smoking, visit any of the campus Health Centers, located at Oxnard, Moorpark, and Ventura College campuses.