La Voz

Editorial board: Kayla Hilton, Dan Sealan and Matthew C. Egan

Smokers seem to annoy people no matter what restrictions De Anza College puts on them. When smoking was allowed anywhere on campus, people complained about second-hand smoke. Now that smokers have been banished to the parking lots, there's uproar about the unavoidable wall of smoke people have to pass through at every entrance to the campus.

The complaints about second-hand smoke are valid. De Anza is host to many people with special needs for whom the smoke is particularly toxic. Asthma and allergy sufferers are hit the hardest when walking onto campus.

The college has a day care center, meaning that there are lots of children and minors who inevitably have to come on campus. They not only shouldn't be breathing in second-hand smoke, but the student smoking parties also set a bad example to the children.

With a mass of smokers at every entrance of the campus, it's almost guaranteed that everyone has to go through their unfiltered carcinogenic smog.

An alternative would be increasing the distance smokers have to be from campus to smoke. However, that would leave De Anza's smoking population stranded out in the middle of parking lots without cover from both sun and rain.

A fair solution? Pagodas. Yes, pagodas - little free-standing structures reminiscent of gazebos without the exuberant flair of the romantic period.

Free-standing gazebos or pagodas out in the middle of the parking lots would offer a convenient roof over smoker's heads. This would shield them from the sun in the summer and - even more important - the rain during the upcoming winter quarter.

Putting pagodas in the parking lot would give non-smokers the choice to avoid the looming smoke.

Best of all, the pagodas would eliminate the barrage of smokers at every entrance to the college and finally make De Anza a truly "smoke free" campus.

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