Amber Mohrmann
Staff Writer

Have you ever noticed the clear bus stop looking structures around campus? These structures have been deemed “butt huts” by many members of the Marywood community. They are meant to be used by students, faculty, and staff who smoke. Unfortunately, you may have noticed these “butt huts” are barely being used at all.

According to Marywood’s Clean Air Policy, “smoking and other uses of tobacco products are prohibited in all University buildings, on all University athletics fields and spectator areas, in any University vehicle, and at any other place on campus, unless the University has clearly designated it as a smoking area.”

There are three “butt huts” located on campus. One is located behind the Liberal Arts Center, one outside of Loughran Hall, and another in front of Madonna Hall. These structures are meant to reduce the amount of smoke around the campus by allowing people to sit inside and smoke.

Some people take advantage of the hut and sit inside, but many stand right outside the hut and smoke. Not only do students do this, but faculty and staff also. If the staff and faculty do not adhere to
the Clean Air Policy, no one will. If the structure is there for someone’s use, why would they stand right outside of it and choose not to use it?

As a resident in Madonna Hall, I often walk over to Nazareth Student Center, passing right by one of the huts. I often have to hold my breath while walking by because I do not want to inhale the smoke others are breathing right towards me.

As students, we are supposed to have the right to tell others to please use the huts to smoke in, but will others really listen to one complaint?

I asked sophomore student Eve Collins if she would ask someone to step inside the huts. “No, because I feel like it’s not by job to enforce Marywood’s rules,” Collins says. Not only do people stand outside the huts and smoke, they walk around campus with lit cigarettes. No one is enforcing this problem, and it may get worse unless it is stopped soon.

Christina Brush, a sophomore Education major, sees people smoking around campus all the time. “It really bothers me when my right to breathe clean air is stifled by people too ignorant to use the
designated smoking spots,” Brush says.

One way to solve this problem would be to add more “butt huts” around campus. When people have a break from class and need to smoke, they often do not have enough time to walk to a “butt hut,” forcing them to smoke right outside the building their class is in. If there were more of the huts around campus, this might help the problem.

But how should the problem of people who are close enough to the hut but do not go inside be handled? Stricter rules and enforcement should be put into place to avoid this. If Marywood came up with the Clean Air Policy, it should be enforced by Marywood. Without mutual respect, it is pointless for students trying to enforce this on their own, and stricter rules need to be put into place.

Not only does this problem affect the non-smokers, it also affects the beauty of the campus. Cigarette butts line the sides of the sidewalks around the Liberal Arts Center, the ground outside of the Library, and other places around campus. Marywood has a beautiful campus, and it should be kept that way through the enforcement of the Clean Air Policy.