The Cupertino Courier

Letters & Opinions

Speak Out

De Anza ash
trays need
to be moved

My husband and I got the biggest laugh of our lives reading in the Courier that the Breathe California gave De Anza College an official commendation for a smoke-free campus (" 'Smoke-free' colleges honored by organization," Nov. 14). The only time my husband and I smoke is when we walk to De Anza to classes (exercise classes to boot), and we are non-smokers. We walk to and from De Anza at least six times a week. We walk in from Stelling and Peppertree, and we have to pass smokers right in front of the buildings we are heading to. There are two concert ash trays right on the walkway that we have to use, and the smokers just hang around the ash trays blowing their smoke across the walkway. There are signs on the walkways saying, "No smoking past this point," but the signs are really little and they are too far into the campus.

Both my husband and I have sent the president of De Anza College messages about smoking on campus, but he doesn't seem to be interested in how the non-smokers feel. They don't really enforce the non-smoking policy. There are people walking all around the campus smoking with no enforcement. They need to move the smokers as far away from the entrances to the campus, so people can walk to their classes without breathing second-hand smoke. Move the ash trays away from the path that people walk on to get to their classes.

Sharon Mangini

Cupertino