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Not to sound like an old geezer here, but I remember back in the day when there still was the option to select a smoking room on your housing application. That’s right: way before first-year only housing, there was smoking housing. It was a reality in Penobscot Hall as recently as five years ago.
As recently as three years ago, you could buy cigarettes at the bookstore. Granted, they were kept behind the counter – not displayed or advertised in any way – but they were still there, and you could count on being able to buy a pack of Marlboros before heading to your next class.
Now, I understand that tobacco use and secondhand smoke have serious health consequences. As individuals, we have a responsibility to ourselves to assess those consequences. As members of our community, we have a responsibility to respect the health of others. Unfortunately, with this issue, the rights of the individual can seem to be at odds with that of the community as a whole.
Banning smoking in campus buildings? I can get behind that: Many landlords stipulate that you cannot smoke in their rental properties, either. Banning tobacco sales on campus? I doubt that was a significant deterrent to smoking anyway. But a flat-out campus-wide ban on all forms of tobacco use – and we are talking everything here? That is just plain ridiculous. This ban will affect the students, faculty and even our visitors.
I know that representatives from the Tobacco-Free Campus Committee have said the committee is working on encouraging compliance rather than punitive measures. I call that malarkey.
Punitive or not, enforcing this ban will cost money. If the ultimate goal is to get smokers to stop, what is happening here is that they are asking non-smokers to pay up to stop them.
A vigilante group from the Alcohol and Substance Abuse office is not going to stop this community from smoking under this ban. Ultimately, people are capable of making decisions regarding their own health, and for that reason smoking tobacco is legal. There exist adequate regulations to distinguish smoking areas on this campus so that non-smokers are never subjected to secondhand smoke.
As I write this, I recognize that this ban has, for the most part, come to pass. I hope that is not the case, and that the Tobacco-Free Campus Committee considers how unrealistic this goal is. If they truly want to curb students’ tobacco use, a much fairer and better approach is through education and dialog, not bans.
Pattie Barry is a fifth-year new media and French double-major.
