Intentionally or not, tailgaters follow campus tobacco ban
Hours before the Central Michigan University football team’s victory against Chattanooga, the excitement building outside the Kelly/Shorts Stadium was buzzing with food and alcohol, but not tobacco.
Months after the implementation of the campus-wide ban on tobacco, the majority of CMU students and alumni tailgating before the first home football game of the season seemingly adhered to the policy Thursday.
Tailgating around Kelly/Shorts Stadium hours before kickoff traditionally draws in large crowds filled with energy and excitement as they play games, listen to loud music, drink and have fun, yet at the first game of the year, the lot was seemingly tobacco free with little to no smokers disobeying the policy in the area.
“I’m kind of glad they have the new policy,” said Grand Rapids senior Nate Swanson. “There are too many non-cordial smokers here who hang out in groups and blow smoke at you when you pass by. That’s not cool.”
Since the start of the new policy, many students have wondered how the university will enforce the new policy and why it forbids all tobacco and not just smoking.
Enforcement of the policy is mostly self-induced. CMU Police Chief William Yeagley has previously stated the police will not be touching the issue.
“I’ll follow the policy but I don’t understand why chew is included in the ban,” said smoker and Grand Rapid senior Asa Smalley as he tailgated with friends at the stadium. “How does someone using smokeless tobacco affect me?”
Smalley along with many other students said there should be designated smoking areas on campus; however, many other students have said due to how CMU is set up, creating smoking areas would be a challenge.
“CMU is a walking campus, so there really isn’t an area where people can set up an area that won’t bother someone,” Swanson said.
CMU alumnus and super fan Lauchlin Macgregor, who hasn’t missed a home football game in 39 years, said he hasn’t seen smokers on campus and tailgating as an issue.
“I’m against smoking, but it has never really been a problem, even in the ‘70s back when people really smoked," he said.
