NOTES FROM THE DESK

Author: Joyce Man

If Eli Berman asks, "Why does smoking exist on campus at all?" why don't we ask, why does Eli Berman exist on the Student Government Association (SGA)? This is not to question Berman's authority, but rather, to remind ourselves of the SGA president's role in the first place. The leader of the SGA serves the student body­ - the entire student body. If he wants to eliminate smoking, he's effectively negating all smokers, who, for better or worse, exist. Berman, whether he deems it to his liking or not, should acknlowledge that as they come up with alternative proposals.
While it's good that the College discourages smoking, there needs to be a balance on a healthy restriction. Community Council should consider this: smokers generally abide by the rules and keep their habit outdoors. In a place where winter lasts six months and temperatures normally drop as low as nine degrees, this is a concerted effort indeed. If smokers are to be relegated to further distances, it means they have to stand outside to do something that in most major cities - New York and Boston included - can be done comfortably in the doorway. It's difficult to see how someone can complain that their "sense of self" is being violated, as Berman said, by holding their breath for two seconds as they pass an entrance, especially when smokers do what is reasonably expected of them to virtually eliminate the negative impact of their unhealthy habit on others.
If the Council continues tightening smoking rules, the results could be far worse than a simple temporary loss of the "sense of self." We could lose the smokers themselves, who, if we peel beyond the smokey layers, are a group of talented, intelligent students like all the other Middkids.
As head of an organization is supposed to represent the entire student body, Berman should not be asking "Why is there even smoking here at all?" but rather, consider that smokers, who are themselves considerate of others, have the right to exist on campus - and not just in some snowdrift 50 feet away.
- Joyce Man
Arts Editor