Smoke-Free Initiative Sets Off Alarms

Author: Edward Pickering

The development of a proposal to ban smoking in and on the perimeters of residence halls has sparked heated debate throughout campus. The proposal will go before the Community Council and the Student Government Association (SGA) in early December. If approved, the proposed changes will take effect on June 13, 2003, the opening day of the Language Schools.
A group of nine students, called the Students for a Smoke-Free Middlebury, has been compiling the proposal. According to Residential Systems Coordinator Mariah McKechnie '01, who is overseeing the group's efforts, "The aim of the proposal is twofold: First, to make the campus safer, and second, to protect the health of students."
In its proposal the group will ask the College to consider establishing smoke-free zones of approximately 25 feet around the perimeters of all residence halls, in addition to prohibiting smoking within the halls. The group will also recommend that the College bolster existing services to assist students in quitting smoking.
McKechnie deems the current smoking policy, as stated in the College Handbook, weak and ineffective. It reads, "Students may smoke in their rooms, provided it is mutually agreeable to their roommates and to those who may be affected in adjacent areas." She points out that smoke produced in a closed room reaches the occupants of other rooms, often traveling a great distance to do so. Smoke travels through the ventilation system, where it lingers for a considerable time.
The group has gathered almost 1,000 signatures for a petition, a prominent line of which reads, "Middlebury's current tobacco policy is at odds with current scientific knowledge about secondhand smoke."
Furthermore, according to Dr. Jeff Benson, director of Health Services at Bowdoin College, non-smoking students entering college are 40 percent less likely to start smoking if they live in smoke-free residence halls.
Smoking in residence halls is a safety concern as well as a health concern. According to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), smoking materials such as cigarettes and matches are "the number-one cause of civilian fire deaths." Moreover, students who smoke indoors have been known to cover or dismantle smoke detectors to prevent them from being set off.
Of the current policy McKechnie said, "Though in theory it should work, in practice it doesn't." Conflicts frequently arise between smokers and non-smokers living near one another. "Simply asking somebody not to smoke doesn't work," she remarked.
Financially, prohibiting smoking in residence halls is logical. Each year the College must repair smoke-damaged furniture and repaint discolored walls. Far more importantly, were Middlebury to alter its smoking policy it would be able to re-bid on insurance fees, potentially saving thousands of dollars.
The proposal, however, has its detractors. Students for a Smoke- Free Middlebury sponsored two forums, to which they invited smokers and non-smokers. The turnout was small in both cases. Generally speaking, those in attendance felt that the proposal was just, but with one important exception. They opposed the establishment of smoke-free zones around the perimeters of residence halls.
Said Phil Koretz '05, himself a non-smoker, "While ideally no one at Middlebury would smoke, people do and people will, and banning smoking outside of buildings will lead, at least in a small part, to more smoking indoors, whether it's permitted or not, the haze of marijuana smoke in many halls will attest to this fact."
Sam Rodriguez '04 seconded Koretz's opinion, adding, "A person would be hard-pressed to argue against this proposal as a fire safety issue — but not as a health issue." Specifically, Rodriguez questioned the validity of claims that smoke drifts in significant or worrisome quantities from the outside into residence halls.
Rodriguez, Koretz and others remarked that during winter especially, smokers would be loath to move a distance of 25 feet from residence halls.
McKechnie responded to such objections, saying that the imposition of smoke-free perimeters was "absolutely a secondary consideration."
McKechnie decided to pursue a policy change after attending a conference last April held by the American Cancer Society (ACS) for Vermont colleges.
The ACS encourages colleges to implement "smoke-free" policies. Indeed, the nine members of Students for a Smoke-Free Middlebury are paidinterns of the ACS. McKechnie, however, is quick to emphasize that the student-generated proposal constitutes "a Middlebury-founded agenda … The ACS is not paying [the students] to further its own designs," she said. "It is supporting them in an administrative capacity."
Several schools have recently implemented smoke-free policies, most notably the University of Vermont (UVM), which banned smoking in residence halls in 2000 and began enforcing a perimeter rule in 2001. In a 1999 ACS survey, only 27 percent of four-year residential colleges in the United States prohibited smoking everywhere on campus, including living areas in dormitories. That percentage seems likely to rise, however, due to current attitudes towards and knowledge of second hand smoke.
The University of Vermont's experience has been a positive one. According to "Going Smoke-Free: Policy Into Practice," a report issued by the Office of Residential Life and the Office of Student Affairs at UVM, the school has benefited greatly from the smoke free policy. Assigning dorm rooms and changing room assignments has become easier. The school now spends a fraction of what it used to on furniture replacement and room repair. The report also states that public relations with parents have improved.
Not surprisingly, the Middlebury College Office of Admissions thoroughly supports the proposal. Parents on guided tours often express astonishment that the College permits smoking within residence halls.
After attending the conference last spring McKechnie spoke with Middlebury College students, faculty and staff. In these informal conversations she encountered interest in, and support for, the policy change she has since pursued.
A 2001 survey revealed that close to 60 percent of Middlebury students would prefer to live in a tobacco-free residence hall unit. In the same survey, 55 percent of Middlebury students reported being exposed to secondhand smoke on one to seven occasions in the past week, while seven percent reported being exposed to smoke on a daily basis. Only 16.6 percent of Middlebury College students used tobacco products more than three times a week, as compared to the national average of 24 percent.
McKechnie and Students for a Smoke-Free Middlebury hope to receive a decision by Jan. 1. Their proposal goes before the Community Council on Dec. 2, and the SGA on Dec. 6.