Smoking at Keene State College is a habit on campus that’s hard not to notice. For many, it appears that everyone on Appian Way is walking around with a cigarette in their hand.
KSC freshman Nick Sweet-Mackin started smoking during his junior year in high school.
“I was hanging out with a group of friends after school and they all busted out cigarettes,” Sweet-Mackin explained, “They asked if I wanted to try it and I decided I might as well.”
After only a year of smoking, however, Sweet-Mackin said he decided to quit.
“I stopped because I noticed that a lot of people didn’t really enjoy it when I smoked around them,” Sweet-Mackin said, before adding another reason.
“A lot of good people died from smoking cigarettes. I lost my grandfather, my grandmother, my aunt and my uncle,” Sweet-Mackin said.
Jenna Barton, a freshman on campus, said she has never smoked a day in her life.
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“The smoking on campus really bothers me because secondhand smoke is so unhealthy,” Barton said, “It’s just gross.”
The law at KSC states that smoking is prohibited within 25 feet of all buildings on campus — a law which appears to be broken daily.
“I have a friend who lives in Carle, near the front of the building where everyone smokes,” Barton explained, “When she leaves her window open, all of the smoke goes in her room and makes her clothes and her bed smell like cigarettes.”
Samantha Provencher, a junior at KSC, lives off campus in Arcadia Apartments, where the rules are a little different.
“You cannot smoke inside at all but you can smoke outside,” Provencher explained, “Our landlord is not a fan at all, though. He always posts signs where the people who smoke stand, with facts about smoking cigarettes and the negative effects of it.”
Knowing the consequences, Sweet-Mackin hasn’t had a difficult time turning down cigarettes since he arrived on campus.
“I have a few friends who smoke, but I just say no when they ask me,” Sweet-Mackin said, “I’ve had a couple cigarettes since I got here and thought about smoking again, but that would just be an idiotic thing for me to do.”
Some KSC students admitted why they started in the first place.
“I had my first cigarette offered to me at work,” Robert Rein, a freshman at KSC, explained, “We’d get five or ten minutes off for a break and we’d just go out for a smoke.”
For Rein, it had started out as a social habit.
“It sounds really stupid to say, but it kind of relaxed me,” Rein admitted, noting that he had only been smoking for less than two months before he decided to quit. “It wasn’t that hard for me to stop,” Rein continued, “I’m going on two weeks without buying a pack right now.”
Freshman Nate Wolf said that he doesn’t smoke and his friends don’t either. Wolf explained that he does, however, always keep a pack of cigarettes on him.
“It’s mostly for social aspects,” Wolf noted, “If I’m at a party and someone asks me for a cigarette, I’m able to offer one up. It’s just another way of meeting people while I’m out — people I probably wouldn’t have met otherwise.”
While Wolf doesn’t mind being around those who choose to smoke, Sweet-Mackin, Barton and Provencher can agree: hanging out with students who smoke is something they’d rather avoid.
“It bothers me when people smoke as they walk to class,” Sweet-Mackin said, “All the smoke they blow goes right into the wind and into my face. If you’re going to smoke, then sit down and smoke.”
“I’ve had a couple friends that smoked and I would always discourage them,” Barton explained.
Provencher added, “I do choose to not regularly be around people who smoke.”
Provencher, despite choosing to stay away from smokers, said she doesn’t have an issue with the habit.
“I do notice a lot of smokers on campus, but I don’t really have a huge problem with it,” Provencher said, “It’s their life. Who am I to judge?”
Jill Giambruno can be contacted at jgiambruno@keene-equinox.com