Clean Air Zone
Board of Trustee Policy: 5.3
Date: March 2022
Supersedes: September 2014, February 2007, Fall 2004
Purpose
Montgomery County Community College, as an educational institution has a responsibility to its employees, students and visitors to provide a safe and healthy working and learning environment. The College recognizes the risks associated with smoking, as research shows that tobacco use, including smoking and secondhand smoke, causes a significant health hazard.
In addition to direct health risks, smoking effects added expenses for facilities maintenance and employee health insurance. Area institutions have recognized these same issues and have created smoke free environments for their patrons.
Policy
This policy prohibits students, employees, independent contractors and visitors from lighting, burning or smoking cigarettes, cigars, pipes, or any other tobacco containing items on the College’s campuses in the following areas: the interiors of all buildings, inside all College owned or leased vehicles and outside areas including the quad and other grassed areas, paved patios and walkways, the athletic field and tennis court, bus stops, special pass parking lots adjacent to Parkhouse Hall, College Hall and the Science Center on the Blue Bell Campus, as well as the parking garage at the Pottstown Campus. This Policy prohibits the use of smokeless tobacco, snuff, or similar substances, as well as smoking, vaping, or puffing devices, such as, e-cigarettes, smoking pipes (hookah), etc.
Students, employees, independent contractors and visitors are notified of this policy in advance of their enrollment, employment or visit. Coordinators of externally organized events on our campuses are responsible for communicating the policy to all attendees. (Students and employees who were already enrolled or employed as this policy became effective were given advance notice and offered cessation programs in support of their efforts to stop smoking or using tobacco.)
On each campus, Clean Air Zone signs and No Tobacco Use—Fine Imposed signs placed along walkways serve as a reminder and designate where tobacco free and smoke free areas begin. Public Safety officers enforce this policy as follows: students are subject to fines and the sanctions based on the Student Code of Conduct; and employees are subject to sanctions through the College’s disciplinary process. Visitors and independent contractors are subject to warnings and removal from our campus. If attendees of externally organized events violate this policy, the external organization will be disallowed from future use of our campuses.