Everyone knows smoking isn’t the healthiest of habits. It’s been quite some time since cigarette ads claimed to be doctor recommended. 

Yet, many people still choose to take up the habit. These people often find themselves put in awkward situations just to be able to enjoy a cigarette, with many locations requiring smokers to stand in a specific spot to smoke, if not banning the act altogether.

Point Park’s campus is one of these locations. The school’s student handbook specifies, “It is the policy of the University to provide a smoke-free environment in all campus facilities and vehicles in which University functions or services are carried out.”   

The handbook goes on to say that not only is smoking prohibited in these places, but it is also banned outside of campus buildings and anywhere campus-adjacent where smoke could “enter and affect the internal environment or unduly affect the environment of those entering or exiting the facility.”  

The University has one designated smoking area behind West Penn Hall.  Smoking outside of this zone could result in a $100 fine, according to the handbook. 

Sophomore creative writing major Jorden Bodenschatz feels this policy is too restrictive. She said she tries to follow the guidelines, but sometimes, following the rules just is not feasible.

“I try to go to West Penn as much as I can, but when I’m going to walk to class I just light up and walk,” Bodenschatz said in a telephone interview on Dec. 6. 

She said despite this, campus police have never confronted her.

Liz Fry, a sophomore psychology major, has been asked to move along by campus police when smoking outside of campus buildings.

“We were told that we could walk and smoke, but we couldn’t stand and smoke,” she said.

Bodenschatz and Fry said that Point Park’s community is not always welcoming of smokers.  Fry recalled an incident in which a man she did not know approached her to tell her that she was “too pretty to smoke.” 

“Last year, I was sitting outside of Thayer Hall, and Point Park employees would come by and kind of snarl at me,” Bodenschatz said. “I was like, ‘I don’t know what they want me to do. I’m not going to walk a mile just to smoke.’”

The restrictions, however, are not only the work of Point Park rule-makers; the city of Pittsburgh agrees. On Oct. 1, 2008, Pittsburgh’s Smoke-Free Workplace Policy went into effect.  

This policy banned smoking in public facilities, including schools, as well as within 20 feet of the entrance of those facilities. The policy is a reference to an earlier Pennsylvania law, The Clean Indoor Air Act, which was signed into law in June of 2008.

When asked about Point Park’s current smoking restrictions, Director of Safety and Security Bernie Merrick replied that “the same policies are in place” as previous semesters.

Despite this, Fry still feels the University could do more to accommodate smoking students on its campus.

“I spend most of my time around Academic Hall and Patterson,” she said. “If there was a designated smoking area there, I would be more likely to go to it rather than having a whatever attitude about it.”