Tobacco-Free FSU

For the second time in two years, Framingham State University is attempting to implement a smoke free/tobacco free policy on campus. While the absence of these substances is healthy and will make the campus cleaner, disallowing cigarettes is taking away rights of the students.

Although I do not smoke or use any tobacco products, I do not think that the school should prohibit the substance. Smoking is a legal right of adults, and with the exception of a few 17-year-old freshmen, FSU students are all legal adults. If we can legally smoke, why shouldn’t we be able to smoke around the place where many of us live? Banning tobacco use is a violation of our adult rights.

Students who are heavy smokers sometimes smoke 5 cigarettes a day. I see many students standing outside of buildings smoking before class. State Street, the street that runs through the middle of the campus, is publically owned. Smokers will have to migrate to this area when they need to smoke. There would there be a mass of people puffing the putrid smoke in the one area the majority of students walk through, while if they can smoke around campus there wouldn’t be as much smoke in one area. In addition to that, State Street is not exactly the safest street. We have all seen the people who go speeding past the throngs of students waiting to pass. Even further, students who live in Larned Hall or have classes in Whittemore Library would have to walk all the way down the hill to smoke. Administration hopes to avoid the State Street “smoke shed” by eliminating the cigarette disposal bins and enforce litter laws in an attempt to dissuade students from smoking anywhere near campus.

Enforcing this policy would be far too difficult for administrators. Students who are heavy smokers will try to have a cigarette wherever they choose to, and most likely do not have any desire to quit. Administration’s policy will make a lot of students angry, which may cause students to leave and deter possible applicants.

I see the prohibition of tobacco use as taking away the rights of students. Many people tell me that I drink soda like a smoker smokes cigarettes – to calm stress. If I were told that I could not drink soda on campus, I probably wouldn’t stay at the school. In fact, I would probably rebel against it. If this new policy were to be implemented, the fire will be lit in the eyes of the students, rather than their mouths.