I write regarding the recent consideration of Ohio University becoming an entirely smoke-free campus.
I have the following advice to nonsmokers who have a problem with students who smoke around places like Gordy Hall or Alden Library: Hold your breath.
I’m serious. It takes all of eight seconds to walk past Gordy. I counted. You can hold your breath for that long.
I’m not a smoker. Though I’ve had an occasional cigarette Uptown, I’ve never smoked on campus, and I believe this to be the case of many students. While smoking on Court Street might be an issue for those offended by the habit, rarely do I ever walk behind students smoking on campus. That’s essentially limited to particular areas outside of classrooms or Alden, which, as I said, take only a matter of seconds to pass.
Those “problem” students do not hang out in a cloud of cigarette smoke just to feel cool. Many of them smoke between classes because they’re addicted to the nicotine, and that’s not a problem solvable through the methods suggested in the survey we received through email.
If you know anything about addiction, you know that when a craving hits, it’s hard to focus on much else. If education is what the university really cares about — and I believe that it’s the case — the administration should be equally concerned with a smoker’s success as any other student’s.
For better or worse, some students need cigarettes to focus. I don’t believe my eight seconds of clean air is more valuable than a smoker’s ability to get through an hour-long class without choosing between dying for a cigarette or leaving campus to calm nerves, nor is it important enough that I think students (who already fork over a few hundred bucks a year on cigarettes) should pay fines over my discomfort.
Considering how little time it takes to avoid the clumps of smokers on campus, I don’t believe the problem warrants a total ban of cigarettes. On the contrary, the decision to abolish smoking would only act as an enforcement of values not all OU students share.
Additionally, I seriously doubt police officers have the time of day to deal with that paperwork, and I have more doubt that smokers will take fines seriously.
The university would be better off providing ways to help smokers kick the habit, such as selling nicotine gum in Baker or providing incentives to those who have gone week after week without a cigarette. Rewards are a much more effective way of changing behavior than consequences, and there’s no use denying the negative effects of smoking. The university should be applauded for showing concern for those effects.
But if you’re expecting a non-smoking policy to be enforced, taken seriously and actually produce results?
If I were you, I wouldn’t hold my breath.
Nikki Lanka is a junior studying journalism at Ohio University.
