The patio outside Starbucks in the Learning Resource Center is now a non-smoking area.
Faculty and students made many complaints of cigarette smoke entering the building through the air intakes on the exterior walls of the building. Signs of the smoke-free zone are located on the patio and doors leading to the patio.
“Because the patio is down in a bowl, wind is primarily from the west,” said Mike Bath, director of Public Safety. “The smoke blew right into the air handlers and entered the building.”
The Starbucks patio is currently the only outside smoke-free zone on campus. However, there have been similar issues outside Jamrich Hall. There were complaints of smoke entering the building on the Hedgcock and LRC side.
“We put in a barrier so people could not smoke right there,” Bath said. “Unfortunately we could not do that at the location outside the LRC.”
Physical barriers were put up to keep smokers from standing too close to the vents outside Jamrich.
“In the case of the LRC patio, there is no way to put up physical barriers because of the structure of the building and the location of the vents, so smoking in that area simply has to stop so that second-hand smoke does not get sucked into the building,” said Cindy Paavola, director of communications and marketing.
Smoking also is banned 30 feet from main entrances of any on-campus building.
“Part of the issue is when it gets cold, people tend to smoke right outside the door and people then have to walk through the smoke,” Bath said.
