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At the General Student Senate meeting on Tuesday, a committee was formed to study the impact of banning tobacco use on campus. The Maine Campus urges this committee and the university administration to fully weigh the impact of such a drastic action.
People are capable of making decisions regarding their own health, but on the issue of second-hand smoke, their decisions and the decisions of non-smokers sometimes conflict. A balance must be met between their rights and choices. How we best achieve that balance is up for debate.
Ultimately, the threat of a campus-wide smoking ban is an example of a breakdown of communication in our community. A regulation keeping smokers 30 feet from all building entrances already stands. If the community is not respecting this consideration, then people need take responsibility and speak up to achieve enforcement of the rules that already exist. Asking the government, student or otherwise, to provide a new regulation for us shows deterioration of our own personal responsibility.
This situation is not a crisis – in fact, in as little as three years ago, we could still buy cigarettes on campus. The University of Maine community should be trusted to regulate itself, and legislation should only be a last resort.
