The newly installed “smokers pole” ash trays along the perimeters of the Mesa College campus are a move in the right direction toward a fairer playing field for all Mesa students and faculty.

It seems that someone at Mesa has acknowledged the need for a compromise for the smoking Mesa students and faculty in the aftermath of the anti-smoking “Healthy Campus 2007 Act”.

The act states that the decision for a smoke-free campus was due to the health related problems associated with second-hand smoke. Its supporters also claimed that the litter caused by discarded cigarette butts was forcing the custodial department to focus its attention on the “smoking areas” as opposed to the rest of the campus.

The reality is that while these complaints are valid and those who helped pass the act did so with the best of intentions, its effect has been less than successful.

Student and faculty smokers who feel entitled to at least some specified area where they can light up have designated their own, unofficial places to smoke.

The undesignated smoking places are generally public passing areas where many students frequent, and are not equipped with ashtrays for the proper disposal of cigarette butts. As a result, smoking still occurs on campus, students are still exposed to the second-hand smoke, and the littering has only worsened.

The Associated Student Government has maintained the notion that there is no need to revise the current policy by allowing smokers a designated smoking area. In fact, they had nothing to do with the newly installed ashtrays and are already working to have them removed.

What the ASG and those in support of the act aren’t taking into account is the benefits that this new plan of action may create.

By allowing smokers a place to smoke and providing them the proper means of disposing cigarette butts,