Newsfeed
Printer-Friendly ModeSmoking shelters a reasonable compromise
January 21, 2008 —
GOUGED -
SVSU's new smoking policy has been met with some resistance by SVSU students, some of whom smoke on campus grounds despite the new rules limiting smoking to the parking lots, but most of whom seem to obey the new policy. In our article on the smoking issue this week, we spoke with several students who said the new policy was a bit severe.
We editorialized on the policy last year, and we argued that it was fair. But the harsh winds and abusive temperatures outside (wind chill temperatures were negative as of press time Sunday night) have led us to believe that SVSU should at least accommodate smokers with a solution that was previously discarded: smoking shelters.
The shelters don't have to occupy space next to campus buildings, and for the most part, the existing policy can accommodate the shelters. But some kind of barrier between mother nature and smokers is just the humane thing to do. The current policy implies that limiting smoking to the parking lots limits non-smokers' exposure to smoke - which it does - but how about limiting smokers' exposure to the elements?
The tendency in political discourse is to polarize debate, and at the level of university politics, such discourse can be particularly vicious, as our long series of articles on the matter demonstrates.
But we're dealing with fellow human beings here. Our reporter talked with students this week who were standing in a parking lot while snow was pouring down. The current policy seems to address the health concerns of non-smokers, but it doesn't seem to reflect much concern for smokers' well being. Some might argue that smokers are disregarding their well being by smoking in the first place, however.
Still, the image of some students huddled in a circle in R-Lot fighting hypothermia can't be what university officials had in mind when they decided upon the smoking policy. Many university employees are smokers, after all, and students that smoke pay tuition like everyone else. So we're dealing with an issue wherein there is no clear right and wrong.
It seems fair to us that smokers be provided with some semblance of protection against the elements. Placing a few bus stop-type shelters around campus in places where smokers gather is, if anything, the humane thing to do. The designs of the shelters the University provided us with last year were well-suited to the job, except for the lack of a back wall. So maybe these shelters should look more like large phone booths.
Smoking is a nasty habit that research has long shown has numerous detrimental health effects. Legislation on the local level has gradually banned smoking in public places, and such legislation is now banning the practice in previously sacrosanct areas like bars and restaurants. Some states are more hostile to smoking than others, such as California, where in some counties smoking is banned just about everywhere except for private residences.
This trend is probably not going to subside. But as long as smoking remains legal in Michigan, smokers at SVSU shouldn't have to worry about catching the flu just to light up.