A proposed amendment to Santa Fe College rules that e-cigarettes are placed under the same tobacco rules as regular cigarettes moved closer to final approval Wednesday.
The proposed amendment would regulate e-cigarettes so people could only smoke e-cigarettes at smoking pits surrounding campus where normal cigarette smoking is restricted to.
The Career Service Council moved the amendment forward during a meeting Wednesday after little discussion regarding the matter, said the council’s chairwoman, Nina Trombi.
While there was no vote, Trombi said “it’s essentially approved.”
“Nobody said that they didn’t support it,” said Oralia Gamino, the vice chairwoman of the Career Service Council. She said discussion lasted about two minutes.
Gamino said a member of her family died of lung cancer due to smoking and because of that she supports the amendment.
“Due to the tobacco stuff, I don’t really care for having it permitted where we can breathe around it,” Gamino said.
Trombi said the final decision will be up to Santa Fe’s board of trustees, which isn’t scheduled to meet again until Jan. 19, 2016.
The amendment has received wide support from the Student and Faculty Senates.
For now, e-cigarettes are still allowed outside smoking pits. Currently, students and faculty can use e-cigarettes indoors, such as in bathrooms and classrooms.
Still, several e-cigarette users are against the amendment. While they support not allowing e-cigarettes indoors, they oppose restricting them to smoking pits.
“There’s no harmful effects of vaping,” said A.J. Petrus, adding that the restrictions could be harmful for those trying to quit smoking.
“Unless I open up your mouth and force it (the smoke) down your lungs, it isn’t going to hurt you,” the 19-year-old Santa Fe aerospace engineering freshman said about secondhand smoking.
Contact Hunter Williamson at hwilliamson@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @hunterewilliam
