Student worfcs to ottiogoisti bad habits
by Lawson Reilly
The air at Texas A&M was a little
cleaner Nov. 19. That day smokers
across the nation, either on their own
or with their friends’ encouragement,
extinguished their cigarettes, cigars
and pipes and went cold turkey.
Smokers were asked to stop
smoking for a whole day during the
American Cancer Society’s Great
American Smokeout, but not
everyone made it.
One of Debra Doyle’s fellow office
workers in the Center for Drug
Prevention and Education in A.P.
Beutel Health Center gave cold turkey
a valiant try.
“Actually, he made it till five o’clock
and he considered that the end of the
day,” Doyle says.
Doyle, a graduate student in
counseling psychology, helped bring
the Great American Smokeout to
A&M last year. She came up with the
idea working as a graduate assistant at
the new drug prevention center in the
fall.
“We’d just gotten off the ground
and were thinking of new projects to
do,” she says.
Doyle says the Smokeout’s close
relation to the center’s work was only
part of the reason she decided to
pursue the project.
“I’m allergic to cigarette smoke, so
it’s kind of a personal thing, ” she says.
After the Student Affairs office
approved her suggestion, Doyle called
the American Cancer Society. The
organization gave her the materials
she needed to promote the Smokeout
on campus.
Working with Alpha Phi Omega
members, the drug center passed out
smoker survival kits in the MSC the
day of the Smokeout. The American
Cancer Society also gave the center T-
shirts and buttons with the logo, “Kiss
me, I don’t smoke,” to pass out.
Almost all the handouts were gone
at the end of the day, Doyle says.
“Certainly not everyone quits that
day, but maybe one or two do, ” she
says. “The purpose of it is to show
smokers that if they can make it
through one day, then maybe they
can make it another.”
When a smoker quits, Doyle says,
that’s great. But she believes it’s much
better to never start in the first place.
Doyle, who came to A&M in
August from the University of Texas at
San Antonio, says fewer students
smoke today than in years past. From
elementary school on, younger
people have been warned of the
hazards of smoking, she says. And
they have grown up during the health
boom, she says, a time when smoking
does not make a teenager more
socially acceptable.
“I think once people start smoking
it kind of overpowers them, ” she says.
But, with willpower, people can
kick the habit. Doyle knows one
person who managed to quit smoking
for good, thanks to the Smokeout.
“It was hard for them, very hard, ”
she says.
Next year Doyle hopes to
coordinate the center’s efforts to
promote the Smokeout with those of
other campus organizations. She says
cooperation could make the
Smokeout even more successful.
“The more you know about what
you’re doing the more effective you
are at it,’’she says.
Meanwhile, Doyle concentrates on
her classes and her job at the center.
Besides giving presentations to
schools and organizations, the Center
for Drug Prevention and Education
offers discipline referral classes to
students who have drug or alcohol
related problems, she says.
Doyle’s work at the center is in the
same line as her field of study,
although family and group therapy
interests her most. She wants to
counsel adult children of alcholics,
after she gets her doctorate degree —
she enjoys an academic setting.
As is appropriate for someone who
plans on making a career out of
helping people with their problems,
Doyle is glad her role in the Smokeout
gave her a chance to help others.
“It’s something constructive,” she
says, shrugging. “1 guess the more
productive we are, the more results
we see.”
Do you think smoking should be banned?
by Lawson Reilly
Next fall, voyeurs may be the only
ones needing to bring a cigarette
lighter to yell practice. And
concertgoers at G. Rollie White
Coliseum or DeWare Field House
may only need their lighters for a
show of silent applause.
The Texas A&M Faculty Senate
has passed a resolution and sent it to
President Frank E. Vandiver calling for
a smoke-free campus. If Vandiver
approves the bill, smoking will be
banned in all buildings on campus,
including dorms, seating areas in Kyle
Field and Olsen Field.
The resolution is aimed at, among
other things, removing the hazard
exhaled smoke poses to non-smokers,
students and faculty alike. However,
students weren’t by asked initially
about their feelings on a possible ban.
Several students, obviously non-
smokers, reacted violently when
confronted with the concept of
smoking.
Junior secondary education major
Robin Reinarts clutched her neck,
thrashed her head and made odd
gargling noises to describe her
reaction when she walks by a smoker.
She is allergic to smoke.
Reinarts supports a campus-wide
ban on smoking “since it’s banned
everywhere else. ” She says in most
places non-smokers can leave if
someone nearby is smoking. At A&M,
however, she says the situation is
different
“We have no choice, ” she says.
“We have to be here. ”
Sophomore physical therapy major
Belinda Bernal and her friend Andria
Goldwire vigorously nodded and
laughed when questioned.
“Yes. Definitely. Smoking should
be banned,” Goldwire, a senior
journalism major, says. “I think it
should be banned from inside
buildings because there’s not enough
circulation. Smoke travels, and that
stuff is irritating. ”
Doug Carter, a freshman civil
engineering major, agrees with
Goldwire. Smoking, he says, should
be done outside, “where not
everyone is breathing the same air. ”
Freshman biomedical science
major Lisa Pawloski says smokers
should consider the rights of other
people. She subscribes to the smoking
outside plan.
“I don’t think it’s fair to hurt the
lungs of other people,” she says. “I
think smoking should be banned
inside, in the buildings on campus. ”
Although Mike Becnel, a
sophomore pre-veterinary major,
expressed no contempt for them, he
relegates smokers outside as well.
“Because it’s just like we’re
smoking when they’re smoking,” he
says.
Other students seem more
sympathetic to smokers’ rights.
“I’m not a smoker,” freshman
business major Jay Reeder says. “I
believe there should be certain places
for it, but not totally banned. ”
Terry King, sophomore
environmental design major, feels the
same way.
“I really don’t like it,” he says. “But
no, I don’t think you can ban it
altogether,” he says.
Junior political science major
Edward Williams agreed that a
complete ban is not necessary. The
former cigarette smoker says smoking
should be allowed in designated areas
within buildings.
“You can protect the rights of non-
smokers, but you can’t infringe upon
the rights of smokers,” he says.
Lynn Lane speaks against a
complete smoking ban on campus.
“You should be able to do what
you want,” the junior landscape
architecture major says.
However, Lane says no smoking
rules in buildings isn’t unreasonable.
Freshman industrial distribution
major Tracy Andrews says, as a
former smoker, she knows both sides
of the issue. Only allowing smoking
outside would create a litter problem,
she says.
“People don’t care where they
throw their cigarette butts,” she says.
“There should be designated areas,
definitely, and proper disposal
places.”
Junior architecture major Elizabeth
Shelton smokes, but respects the
rights of non-smokers.
“I think people who don’t smoke
have the right to not be smoked out, ”
she says.
Any bans should be limited to
classroom buildings or laboratories,
she says, but not public facilities like
the MSC.
“I don’t see how a campus-wide
banning would be feasible anyway,”
she said.
Bobby Britton, a sophomore
aerospace engineering major, says he
cannot support a smoking ban.
“I’d have to say no, since it’s legal
to do it,” he says. “Personally, I don’t
care for it (smoking).”
Freshman psychology major Karen
Bell says she opposes a smoking ban
because smoking isn’t a problem on
campus.
“Almost no one ever smokes on
campus anyway,” she says. “And no
one smokes in buildings. ”
Pawloski also seems to think the
smoking hazard on campus is
exaggerated.
“Probably more people don’t
smoke than do,” she points out.
Wade Stubblefield, a senior
accounting major, suggests a
compromise to nip the smoker-non-
smoker war at A&M in the butt.
“I think we should trade smoking
for alcohol,” he says.
Page 6/At Ease/Thursday, February 11,1988