Smoking students seen as littering, lowering tone

Students "loitering" on the footpath outside Otago Polytechnic to smoke "make it look like a British council estate", one staff member says.

The polytechnic went totally smoke-free on May 31 last year, but design department staff member Simon Swale said "tribes of smoking students" were now smoking on the footpath, particularly outside H block, on the corner of Union St East and Forth St.

It was a bad look for the polytechnic and the students left their cigarette ends all over the footpath, he said in an email to the staff subcommittee.

Mr Swale suggested a separate seated and covered area be provided for smokers, but at a staff subcommittee meeting last month chief executive Phil Ker said this would have to be declined in line with the polytechnic's commitment to being smoke-free. The email was reported to yesterday's polytechnic council meeting.

Mr Swale yesterday said he was not surprised his suggestion had been turned down.

A reformed smoker - he gave up about five months ago - he said he understood smokers' need to smoke. Banning smoking on campus and pushing smokers on to public areas "seemed an odd way to address the problem".

The smokers appeared to all be students. He had never seen staff smoking there, he said.

Mr Ker said he had been encouraging staff to "call people out" when they saw them smoking on the footpath.

"We don't appreciate them littering by dropping their butts. At least they could take an ashtray with them."

Staff had been given the same message, Mr Ker said.