Students say they will smoke despite law

Students don't think law will stop their smoking habit

Despite the recent passage of the Arkansas Clean Air on Campus Act, many students say the new law won't stop people from smoking on campus.

"It'll be just like high school again, where there would be several of us in the bathroom with someone on lookout for the principal," Todd Meyer, a graduate student for the department of English and Philosophy, said. "I may be a little sarcastic here, but that's how it will be."

Act 734, approved April 1, will prohibit smoking on any campus of a state-supported institution of higher education in Arkansas beginning August 1, 2010.

Sera Koprek, a freshman advertising major from Greece, said, "It's not going to be different. I will smoke again. Everybody is going to smoke again."

Stephen Scott, a freshman from Rector, agrees that not everyone will obey the law.

"They'll be able to enforce it to certain extents, as long as they catch it," Scott said. "Other people are still going to break it. The more they tell people not to do it they're going to break it. That's just how it is."

Despite being a smoker for several years, Scott said he approves of the law and he is trying to quit.

"I think it's a good deal, for real. It'll keep the campus clean and it keeps everybody from getting sick from smoke."

Meyer, who has lived in Jonesboro for 15 years, said smokers aren't the problem.

"Most of the problems I see probably stem from campus policies themselves. Really I think it is just the way that we've positioned the signs that you can't read, positioned the ash trays, which are in sort of a counterintuitive place now, and just every once in a while have someone say 'Hey could you smoke over there please?' You know, there'd be all problems solved right there."

But if students disregard the law, they could be in for some unpleasant consequences. The penalty for a violation of the measure will be a fine of $100-$500.

The Arkansas Clean Air on Campus Act began as House Bill 2007. The house approved the bill with a 68-26 vote March 19. The senate unanimously voted in favor of the bill March 30.