The new smoking ban will create eyesores and limit students' rights

By Theodore Samets

Before someone had the bright idea to hire me as Opinion Editor of the Hustler, I served in Vanderbilt Student Government. I spent much of last year fighting what was at the time a "proposed" smoking ban. Along with Andrew Morse and John Gaffney, I authored a resolution opposing the ban that passed the House and Senate by wide margins, and the Torch wrote an editorial praising our work. I met with the Dean of Students to discuss this, and I thought we had made clear that opposition to the ban was widespread and that we had killed the ban.

Well, it looks like that did a lot of good.

In an email to students on Monday morning, Dean of Students Mark Bandas announced our "New Campus Smoking Policy." Vanderbilt will now be "smoke free," except for a few "designated smoking areas" in different parts of campus. Think of the big pack of smokers huddled outside of the Medical Center on 21st Avenue, except they'll all be behind Furman instead.

And to me, that's the crux of the problem. Whether or not we want to eliminate smoking on campus is one question. But the bigger question for me - if we accept that attempts will be made to discourage smoking - is how does this new policy help?

Now, instead of having to avoid one person smoking a cigarette on a pathway, someone who is averse to cigarette smoke will have to figure out how to get around twenty folks all together smoking at the same time.

As a non-smoker, I'm not particularly bothered by one person smoking in front of Branscomb. But I don't want to walk anywhere near a whole group of smokers.

I'm not proposing a complete ban on smoking on campus. I think that such a ban would be reckless and deprive students of their rights. What we should do is simply prohibit smoking within a certain perimeter of any doorway so that those who don't want to be around cigarette smoke can avoid anyone smoking. This solution doesn't group smokers together, an ugly sight and not a good way to promote community.

The administration's solution of designated smoking areas will be eyesores and ostracize students who would otherwise walk to class along with their friends while smoking a cigarette.

I also wonder what thought went into where the designated areas are. If you've got a pack a day habit, good luck figuring out how you're going to smoke a cigarette during your ten minute break between classes in Buttrick and Calhoun.

This smoking ban has been forced on students by the Faculty Senate. That's fine that they don't like smoking on campus - but they don't have to live here. Vanderbilt forces students to live in dorms, then at the same time says that if you're Sutherland and want to smoke a cigarette at 3AM, you've got to walk to the staff parking lot behind the Commons Center. Not only is that annoying, it's unsafe.

Vanderbilt calls itself a residential campus. Now they're imposing unfair restrictions on students while still mandating that we call the campus "home." Whether it's out of an effort to keep our campus looking nice, keeping our air clean and healthy, or because you think it's just not right to restrict smoking so severely, it's time to stand up and be counted. Write Dean of Students Mark Bandas (mark.bandas@vanderbilt.edu) and make your voice heard.

Theodore Samets, a senior in the College of Arts & Science, is Opinion Editor of the Vanderbilt Hustler. He can be reached at theodore.d.samets@vanderbilt.edu.