Editorial Smoking enhanced regulation not yet needed

Author: [no author name found]

The Campus certainly does not endorse cigarettes, but the issue that emerges from the recent debates following Community Council's proposal to ban smoking at the entryways to campus buildings is not a matter of health, but one of championing personal accountability over the implementation of increasingly draconian restrictions.

Those who choose to smoke are made constantly aware of the dangers cigarettes pose to others and themselves. The College can and should educate students about the dangers of smoking by continuing to supply the flood of anti-smoking material available in the lobbies of Parton Health Center, for example. The College should not, however, approve punitive measures in regards to smoking without first giving smokers a chance to respond of their own accord to the complaints recently voiced by nonsmokers .

Middlebury students are generally responsive to such requests. Though the continuation of the Collegiate Readership Program was recently threatened by the failure of readers to return newspapers to news stands outside the dining halls, students seem to have rectified their disrespectful behavior when faced with losing their newspaper privileges all together.

Following this line of thought, the Student Government Association (SGA) idea concentrating on increasing awareness and mutual respect between smokers and non-smokers is the best course of action to pursue at this point.

Before taking another step forward in implementing legislation, the Community Council should sponsor a study to determine the key locations on campus where smoke is concentrated and bothering passersby - likely the library, Proctor terrace and the entrance to Warner Hall. All efforts should be made to make smokers aware of the discomfort they cause in these areas.

If smokers fail to respond, Public Safety officers may need the authority to give citations to students for smoking directly in the doorways of the aforementioned buildings. The situation need not even come to that, and a ban on smoking within 50 feet of all building entrances will not be necessary in any case.

Those who have decried the recent discussions should be reminded of the vastly inferior process by which the ban on smoking in residence halls was instated in the spring of 2004. Alternatives, such as a gradual process of designating some residence halls smoke free, were not discussed. At that time, there was no discussion in Community Council or the SGA either. In terms of student input and transparency, the situation has greatly improved, though the many students shocked by the mere discussion of banning smoking on campus may not realize this.