Just over a month after Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Student Zauyah Waite and Senior Vice President for Finance and Administration Walt Fowler sent a campus-wide email regarding Chatham’s new smoking policy and its plans to create a “smoking pavilion” by the ramp leading to the library, the pavilion’s overhang has been constructed.

Waite and Fowler’s initial email followed the removal of the benches on which smokers would sit to have a cigarette near the Braun, Falk, and Coolidge Building Complex.  According to their email, these benches were removed due to increased complaints from people with respiratory problems in Braun, Falk, and Coolidge.

They promised a smoking pavilion for the Shadyside campus, similar to one constructed on Chatham’s Eastside campus, which, “[seemed] to have alleviated 95 percent of the complaints of non-smokers,” at Eastside.

Although only the pavilion’s roof has been built to date, a picnic table will be installed soon.

According to Robert DuBray, Director of Facilities Management and Public Safety and the overseer of the pavilion project, the pavilion will be completed, “as quickly as we possibly can.”

The facilities crew, who is responsible for the site’s construction, plan to level the ground under the structure, stain the structure’s wood to protect it from weathering, and add a picnic table and several cigarette urns.

At the moment, Facilities is concerned with managing the fallen leaves on campus before any drastic changes in weather conditions.  However, DuBray hopes that the table and urns will be moved to the site by the end of Thanksgiving Break. They plan to level the ground and stain the structure when weather permits.

Although the pavilion is relatively close to an entrance to the library, DuBray believes this location will cause fewer complaints than the former smoking area by Braun, Falk, and Coolidge.

According to DuBray, the benches smokers used to use were too close to faculty offices.  Smoke would enter the buildings through open windows and cause discomfort to those inside.  There are no operable windows near the pavilion’s location by the library, and the pavilion is, “off the beaten path,” he said, so there are likely to be fewer complaints.

“We hope [students, faculty, and staff] will maintain [the pavilion] and use the urns provided,” said DuBray. “We hope it’ll work out for everyone.”