Council debates implementing smoking ban

Author: Scott Greene

The controversial issue of cigarette smoking came before the Community Council on Monday, Feb. 27, as Council members debated possible restrictions on smoking near the doorways of campus buildings.

Reference and Instruction Librarian Brenda Ellis, the Staff Council's member at-large, presented the issue for discussion on behalf of a fellow staff member who was unable to attend the meeting. Ellis sought to amend Middlebury College's current smoking policy, which prohibits smoking in all campus buildings but allows for smoking outdoors. College students tend to gather around the doorways of buildings to smoke cigarettes, a situation that presents problems for those who need to walk through the smoke to enter buildings. Furthermore, this problem is exacerbated in places with large overhangs such as the library.

The proposal recommended that "a minimum distance requirement of 50 feet be imposed on smokers to keep them a minimum fixed distance away from building entrances." Many of Middlebury's peer institutions already have such restrictions in place, including Amherst and Williams. Each requires that smokers remain a minimum of 25 feet away from doorways.

While the Community Council did not pass a resolution, tabling it until they reconvene on April 3, the proposition prompted widespread discussion on the presence of smoking on campus in general.

"Why is there even smoking here at all?" Student Government Association (SGA) President Eli Berman '07.5 asked, noting that the Council members found smoking to be a common-sense issue. "It violates other people's sense of space, sense of self and sense of comfort," he said. The SGA will debate the issue during its meeting on Sunday, March 11.

The Council outlined five possible approaches to reforming the College's smoking policy, the first of which would be to simply retain the current policy. If the Council does develop restrictions to the policy, such restrictions may include designating at least one smoke-free entrance to every building at which smoking is prohibited. The Council could also choose to make individual specifications for each building, depending on the placements of windows or overhangs. The most extreme option would ban all smoking on campus.

The Environmental Protection Agency classifies secondhand smoke, or passive smoke, as a Class A carcinogen, regarding it as among the most deadly cancer-causing substances with no safe level of exposure. Director of the Parton Health Center and Physician Mark Peluso was asked at the meeting to give his opinions about passive smoke. While he noted that there is not a whole lot of information on the effects of second-hand smoke on entryways, the smoke usually goes in the entrance or through the open windows during warm weather.

"Why would we do anything as a College that would promote an activity that causes lung cancer and heart disease, other than respecting people's rights?" he questioned. "To have to walk through a cloud of smoke or to walk to another entrance is unacceptable."

A smoking ban on college campuses does not lack precedent. According to the American Nonsmokers' Rights Foundation, there are 20 completely smoke-free colleges and universities in the United States.

Should the College ban smoking, Peluso noted that it would need to be ready to address those who want to quit. He said that Middlebury does not have such a large cessation program, but "Porter Hospital has a better one, and it's free."

Still, the Health Center does facilitate a small handful of quitters per year and displays brochures with information about quitting at its entrance. In addition, Terry Jenny, the associate director of the Health Center, has provided a reference for smoking and other health information for Middlebury students at mystudentbody.com. Any student can register online and view information by entering "PANTHER" as the school code.

Peluso suggested that a change in the College's smoking policy should occur incrementally, a view shared by Ellis.

"We're really in the investigative stages," she said, "figuring out what the implications would be." The Staff Council met yesterday to discuss the issue as a large group, stressing the need to lend broader discourse to the issue, especially since most of the Community and Staff Councils' members do not smoke.

Berman reiterated this notion. "It's a really sensitive issue," he said, "so before we do anything we need to make sure that we have everyone on board."

Since the Community Council does not meet again until April, any new regulation will likely not go into effect until school commences again next fall. Still, it remains unclear which, if any, restrictions the College will choose to pursue.

"The question is who would enforce it and who would respect it if it was a rule," Berman said.

Though the clear resolution that many desire does not appear imminent, Ellis looks forward to the dialogue that the matter will produce.

"Even if this goes nowhere but raises smokers' awareness and they move back, I'd be happy," she claimed.