Mocs News Reporting the news that matters most to UTC
It is a new semester, with new classes, new friends with new ideas from UTC students on how to improve their college experience. Sixty percent of UTC student ages range from 18-21. This age bracket of student feel as though they are adults and they can make their own decisions. There has been a new policy that began on January 1, 2019 that has made UTC a smoke-free campus. Since the new ban has been implemented there has been a lot of mixed emotions regarding the ban.
Smoking is the number one causes of unnecessary deaths in the United States. UTC policy department says that is the reason why UTC decided to implement a smoke-free campus. According to Haley Wilson, UTC student, “we would see people smoking and it was just a common thing, so when everyone first heard about it, it was like is this really going to work? Is it going to actually happen? How are they actually going to implement this ban?” Seven weeks into the semester in 2020 it has been reporter that students are still smoking and vaping on campus.
These particular students feel as though they are adults and it is a free country and they can do as they please. According to Tricia Henderson with the Center for Wellbeing, “this ban shouldn’t come as a surprise as we did take a year to kind of slowly roll out the implementation and give our campus time to acclimate the fact that we are going smoke-free.” Henderson also admits that there has been some pushback from the students on campus.
The wonderful insight to this ban is the fact that it is designed with a healthier student body in mind. Not only the UTC community but also each individual’s health. The UTC Student Health Services will be happy to help any student struggling to quit smoking. This assistance is available to faculty and staff as well as students. The Student Health Center will provide a free test of smoking use and a quit plan that is designed around each individual smoker’s habits. It is a wonderful opportunity brought to students to live healthier lifestyles inside and outside of school.
