Bucks County Community College adopts new smoking and vaping policy, to go into effect Jan. 1 , prohibits all students and staff from smoking on 100 percent of campus.
Tina Permar, the director of the campus’s Fitness Center, has been petitioning for a revised policy for a long time. She wants to make campus a safe space for non-smokers and smokers alike. “We are not asking anyone to quit smoking or vaping,” the goal is to make resources readily available to those who want to quit smoking, while also promoting our campus as a place where you can get a break from a cigarette.
The previous campus smoking policy, instated after the 2008 Clean Air Act, declared that campus was 90 percent smoke free, with designated areas like the parking lots to smoke and vape. A new no smoking and no vaping policy has been created to go in effect Jan. 1, 2024. The new policy adds on to the existing policy, making the parking lots a no smoke zone.
Since joining the campus in 2012, Permar has been outsourcing grants to help make Bucks campus smoke free. She applied for grants in 2015 but was turned down by campus as they were not yet ready to go in that direction.
By the time Bucks was under new leadership in 2021, she attempted to get another grant. This time, she received grants worth $30,000 from the Public Health Management Corporation and the Truth Initiative.
Before Bucks, 12 community colleges in Pennsylvania were already 100 percent smoke and vape free. Big Ten schools, such as Rutgers, have made the commitment to be 100 percent smoke and vape free in 2023.
Receiving the grants meant she could put a team of 15 together to get the word out. They organized many campus events and brought the issue to Student Affairs after having open forums on campus that were met with approval by staff and students.
Events like a “Zipping away from Tobacco” zipline were organized on campus. Permar says she has collected over 300 student signatures in favor of the new policy.
The policy was approved but will not be posted until the new year. In the meantime, Permar hopes to continue to spread the word through events, merchandise, and posters around campus.
Merchandise with the slogan “Love your Lungs” has been created to help make students aware of their goal. Posters around campus supply students with helplines to call for assistance with quitting their smoking and vaping habits.
She and her team have put together “quit kits” for students who are interested in quitting smoking and vaping. Her goal is to create a narrative around quitting that is positive rather than negative. Supplying resources to students and changing the narrative is her way of leading the campus in a healthier direction.
Keep an eye out on campus for more information on the new policy as we near the new year. If students have questions about the new policy, they are asked to contact Tina Permar in the Fitness center.
To see the current smoking and vaping policy, go to www.bucks.edu/policy/administration/cleanairzone