Op-Ed
Take My Breath Away
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Agree to Disagree
Agree to Disagree
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After a summer spent in the confines of a cramped midtown Manhattan office, returning to Cornell was a breath of fresh air. Or so I thought … until yesterday, while making my regular trek from CTB through Ho Plaza, I inhaled swiftly ― expecting a patch of piney-fresh Ithaca air ― when a miasma of second-hand smoke instead nettled my nostrils.
After the 2003 Anti-Smoking Law amendment was added to the New York Clean Indoor Air Act, Cornell proscribed smoking from all indoor or enclosed University spaces, and restricted outdoor smoking to areas 25 feet away from buildings. That’s all well and good, but I’m wondering why a small minority of students has the lion’s share of the campus to smoke, while the vast majority of us ― non-smokers ― must seek refuge in smoke-free enclaves.
Shouldn’t it be the other way around?
As it now stands, most campus hangouts ― the Slope, the intra-library area between Uris and Olin and the outdoor quads ― are smoke-friendly. These visible and oft-visited areas, while intended for widespread campus use, are nonetheless clouded by the (ob)noxious emissions of a fumy few.
While a campus-wide smoking ban might strike some as authoritarian meddling, such an initiative would be neither unjustified nor unprecedented.
For one thing, the ban would service the great majority of students. A 2001 survey conducted by the Residential Hall Association found that about 90 percent of over 1,000 students living on-campus were non-smokers. We already protect our halls and libraries from cigarette smoke, so why not extend the same courtesy to our human population?
As Connecticut State Senator Christopher Murphy (D-5D) told the Yale Daily Herald, “If you have the right to blow smoke in my face while I eat, you have the right to punch me in the stomach.”
The University has a vested interest in its students’ health ― and that means taking preventive steps to discourage new smokers. In a survey conducted at the University of Rhode Island, 28 percent of college smokers said they first lit up regularly after age 19, meaning that they were already in college when they took up the habit. At Cornell, we could deter underclassmen from smoking by limiting on-campus exposure.
As one friend, who notoriously alternates between a cigarette and an asthma inhaler, explained, many of Cornell’s smokers are “social”: in the spirit of the hunky Marlboro Man, the phallic-nosed Camel or those Virginia Slims gals, they smoke as a status symbol.
“If they had to do it where they couldn’t be seen,” she told me, “they might not at all.”
And for those students and faculty who already smoke, the ban would make cigarette breaks increasingly difficult (if not impossible). Think of it as a Big Red Nicotine Patch.
Beyond the myriad health reasons for a ban, Cornell also has an aesthetic incentive to eliminate smoking. From its natural landscapes to its manmade landmarks, Ithaca is gorges. Why tarnish our quadrangles, walkways and hangouts with unsightly cigarette butts?
A campus-wide ban is also not as incendiary as one might think … er, you wouldn’t need to be a firebrand to support it ... we could pass it in a … blaze of glory? (puns all gleefully intended). At nearby Syracuse University, for instance, there is a plan under consideration to make the campus and all university-owned property entirely smoke-free by July 2009. Likewise, at Carnegie Mellon, a university task force has proposed a smoking ban on campus in effect by January 1, 2010.
But it’s not just about keeping up with other campuses. As it turns out, Ithaca is discussing a city-wide ban on smoking this week, so that residents can enjoy the same smoke-free environment on the street that they’re now used to in bars and restaurants. Rather than wait for the city’s lead, let’s take the initiative on our own.
All that said, people do have a right to smoke ― though not at everyone else’s expense. Why not set aside enclosed “smoking areas” out of the public eye, where the truly addicted can congregate? (I suggest the top of the clocktower.)
As for enforcement, I’m not calling for a “Puff Patrol,” but slap a J.A. punishment and a $50 fine on a public smoking violation, and you’ll see real progress toward the “community norm” becoming “non-smoking,” as Anita Barkin, director of Student Health Services at Carnegie Mellon, envisioned for her own school.
As mayors and governors across the country clamp down on smoking, so too should our university administration. This next step in the war on tobacco must be logical, since it’s the exact opposite of George Bush’s war plan ’gainst them terrorist folks: let’s smoke ’em into their caves.
Rob Fishman is a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences. He can be contacted at rfishman@cornellsun.com. Agree to Disagree appears Tuesdays.
I suggest stop walking to
I suggest stop walking to class with Gerber and his Parliaments, Rob.
I promise to stop smoking in
I promise to stop smoking in front of Olin the minute the university makes it illegal for students to drive cars on campus. How about that?