The student voice of Midwestern State University
The Wichitan page 9 page 4 Working out in style Rolling to victory New student workout facility boasts top-notch equipment and visual appeal.
MSU cyclists take several top spots in the Hotter ‘N Hell bike races.
WEDNESDAY September 2, 2009
Tobacco ban: healthy move or unfair policy? Chris Collins Managing Editor
Lauren Wood Entertainment Editor
Rachel Tompkins-Rex will never forget that day the ambulance sped by her house, siren blaring, lights flashing. A strange feeling rushed over her and she knew something was wrong. Then she heard the news. The man she loved, the father of her two daughters, was dead. She thought things couldn’t get any worse. But three years later, they did. The man she’d been married to for almost three years was killed in an auto accident. Once again, she found herself alone. Except for her three children. Rachel, a graduate student in English, has become familiar with the word “suffering”. Few would guess that just by looking at the vivacious 4-foot-11-inch woman. Today, at age 27, she has two bachelor’s degrees, four children and her own art show, The Cross Section of a Shadow: A Series of Silhouettes. The path that got her to this point, though, was rocky. She was 17, a junior at Harrold High School, seven miles north of Electra, when she had her first child, Alissa. A year later in May 2001, she graduated valedictorian of her class. “It was only a class of seven but it still meant something to me,” she said. “In high school, people thought I would never amount to anything.” That, she said, was because she had a child. She was out to prove the naysayers wrong. In December 2002 she enrolled at MSU, working toward a degree in mass communication. She was pregnant with her second child, Keely. “I chose a mass communication major because I loved to write and I loved to know everything,” she said. “Some might have considered me noisy, but I just wanted to know stuff.” But in March 2003, devastation struck her and her two girls. Their father, Billy Foster, died from an accidental gunshot wound. “I heard the ambulance drive by my house and a creepy feeling came over me,” she recalled. “But it wasn’t until two of my friends came rushing to my house that I knew it was
him. I had never experienced death like that before. It was like losing a best friend.” Rachel was 20. Her daughters were only 3 years old and 18 months old at the time. “Billy and I weren’t officially married but we had been together for years. We had been split up for a year but that didn’t mean that I wasn’t affected by his death,” she said. “I loved him.” Rachel’s friends and family helped her cope with the loss but that didn’t stop her from turning to alcohol for a while. “I would have to drink three or four beers a night after my kids went to bed just to fall asleep,” she said. “I just kept seeing images of Billy when I closed my eyes and I needed something to help with the pain.” But she credits her children and college with helping her deal with her loss. Through it all, she continued attending MSU as a fulltime student. To her, school was her sanctuary. Classes and studying helped her keep her mind occupied. “If I would have quit I probably would have become a drug addict or alcoholic.” In September 2003, things were looking up and wedding bells rang for Rachel. She married Lance Rex, the soon-to-be-father of her third child, Logan. “Lance jumped into being a father for my girls,” she said. “He was great with them.” However, tragedy struck again in May 2006. “I got a phone call from my sister saying I needed to get down to the police station because there had been an accident involving Lance,” she said. Rachel and her father drove there together but the officers refused to release any information to her, she recounted. “It finally took my dad throwing a fit for them to tell me anything,” she said. Lance, she learned, was dead. He had been driving on Business 287 in Wichita County, two miles from Electra, when he hit a horse at 65 miles per hour. His car veered off the road, striking a mesquite tree. Police said he died on impact. She was 23. Her son was almost 2. See SHADOWS page 5 Photos courtesy Rachel Tompkins-Rex
Pipe smokers, cigarette rollers and blunt burners beware: as of Jan. 1, 2010, MSU will be nonicotine zone. It’s the first state university in Texas to do so. In May, the MSU Board of Regents voted to stomp out tobacco for good on campus. Starting next year, use of all tobacco products – that means dip too – will be outlawed in all university-leased buildings, vehicles and public outdoor areas. Last semester, university officials and students were talking about spearheading a tobacco ban at MSU. They weren’t just blowing smoke – the Student Government Association and others rallied support for the project and won, despite a small student protest. The ban will be implemented in an effort to promote a safe, healthy and pleasant environment for the campus community, according to the tobacco-free campus policy page on the MSU Web site. This information is located on the sidebar of the recreational sports page. “Students were saying if we’re going to talk the talk about wellness on campus, let’s do something about it,” Dr. Joey Greenwood, director of the Wellness Center, said. “The majority of students do not smoke. That’s where a lot of this policy stems from.” Greenwood, one of the key writers and planners of the new policy, said student concern about smoking was the driving force in the decision to ban tobacco at MSU. Students were complaining to the administration about cloistering smoke in front of buildings and in entryways, he said. The policy won’t be enforced by police or administrators, but
rather by peer pressure from fellow students, Greenwood said. One idea he mentioned is that students could hand out informational cards about the dangers of smoking. “It’s a responsibility of higher education as administrators to promote wellness,” Greenwood said. “We do a great job in the classroom, but to create holistic individuals we need to do it in a holistic manner. We need to promote health and wellness.” Keith Lamb, associate vice president of student affairs, made a similar statement. He said he supports the ban. “We have a responsibility to the democracy to model behavior,” Lamb said. “In higher education, we have a responsibility to prepare people in a particular discipline. Also, part of that responsibility is to promote behavior that will prepare people for a good quality of life.” Dr. Nathan Jun, professor of philosophy, has a different perspective on the responsibility of the university to its students. He thinks a tobacco ban implies that students aren’t smart enough to make decisions for themselves. “In a university, one of whose responsibilities is to educate for democracy, our goal is to enable students to make informed, intelligent decisions about their own lives for themselves,” Jun said. “This is not democracy, it’s authoritarianism.” Jun said he thinks this system will reinforce stereotypes about tobacco users. “I suspect the ban will not be effective,” Jun said. “I am convinced it’s unethical. By definition, such a policy encourages a climate of suspicion, fear, resentment and guilt.” While Greenwood and others See SMOKING page 5
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