Smoking

Here's the College Life Committee's final recommendation on a proposed smoking ban at NCC.

"Move it all to the parking lots."

That's the word from committee chair Donna Acerra, a Communications professor.

Now, NCC waits to learn whether it will be the first community college in Pennsylvania to ban smoking from its campus.

Many students are upset by the recommended smoking ban. "I think that it's ridiculous," said nursing student Denise Geroulo, 34, "I should be able to do what I want when I'm learning."

Another nursing major, Porfirio Diaz, 33, said that if the college is concerned about the effects of environmental smoke, then it also "should ban cars" from campus.

Right now, the weather is nice so smoking out in the parking lots is not a hardship. But, in winter, those lots become a wind tunnel.

"In terms of season, it's inconvenient," said nursing student Clarissa Shetler, 30.

And her classmate, pre-med major Kim Allen, 22, added as she points to the parking lots, "When it's cold out, I don't want to be walking out there."

This group of nursing students, both smokers and nonsmokers, were sitting around a picnic table studying for an anatomy and physiology exam. They mentioned that if the campus smoking policy changes, they could no longer spend a nice day on the lawn together studying and smoking.

In early March, the College Life Committee sent a proposal for banning smoking on campus to the board of trustees and the president of Northampton Community College. The president forwarded the proposal to the campus community. In