• RHA legislation on the smoking distance enforcement failed, but it hopes to do more through the new Tobacco Coalition on campus.
• The coalition was formed through Peer Health Educators of the Center of Health Education and Promotion.
• Smoke can be hazardous to students on campus who have certain health conditions.
• Some smokers believe they are inconvenienced by smoking distance regulations.

Before they were washed away with rain and snow, chalkings marked the entrances to some campus buildings indicating the rule that smokers need to be at least 25 feet away from the doors to a building when smoking.

Members of Colleges Against Cancer and the Peer Health Educators of the Center for Health Education & Promotion made the markings in conjunction with the Great American Smokeout on Nov. 20.

While people must smoke at least 25 feet from the entrances of buildings, the rule sometimes goes unenforced. So last month, the Residence Hall Association discussed legislation that would have recommended to the Office of Residence Life to fine those smoking inside the prohibited area, according to Brian Pelrine, RHA president. The legislation, however, did not pass.

"It failed because it was thought to be rather vague on how the Office of Residence Life would (enforce the policy)," said Pelrine, a sophomore in the College of Arts & Sciences.

Yet the proposal has opened up room for discussion in RHA about the issue, Pelrine said.

The newly-formed Tobacco Coalition, started by Peer Health Educators, will meet for the first time this week. The purpose of the coalition is to "unify campus-wide tobacco education and advocacy efforts," said Kathleen Blaney, a senior in the College of Nursing and member of Peer Health Educators.

Blaney said the group understands that faculty and students have been working to move forward on campus smoking policy and its enforcement.

There is still more that RHA will be doing on smoking policy, mostly through the Tobacco Coalition.

"I personally believe that this coalition is a step in the right direction," Pelrine said. "Hopefully they can work out a better way to deal with smoking too close to buildings than the current unenforced policies."

Blaney said the coalition hopes to meet monthly, but there is still a lot of ambiguity. The group will meet Friday at 3:30 p.m. in Alumni Memorial Union room 313.

Samantha Bear, a freshman in the College of Education, said she has to hold her breath every time she walks into buildings on campus when students and teachers are smoking.

"It is very frustrating," said Bear, who has vocal cord dysfunction and asthma, conditions which react negatively to smoke.

Vocal cord dysfunction is a condition in which a spasm occurs in the vocal cords in the presence of smoke. It becomes harder to breathe.

"It gives the feeling like I am being choked," Bear said.

As a smoker, Matt Bogovich, a freshman in the College of Business Administration, said it isn't difficult to follow the smoking distance rule. Though he believes the regulation should be followed, he said it's not always easy to smoke further away from protected building entrances.

"It becomes an inconvenience when it snows or rains harshly outside," Bogovich said.