Starting the day after Spring Break Ball State University will be considered a “smoke free campus.” What does that mean for us students? Well for those of us that don’t smoke it is a breath of fresh air, literally. However, the students who happened to fall into that bad habit, which is not the easiest to break, are now put into a quarantine type situation and forced into the worst parts of campus. Some areas are in unlit spaces, on the cow path, and in numerous other places which are not exactly deemed “friendly.”
I’m sure that those people who do smoke are not happy about this. In fact, the most they can be is understanding. I’m not sure exactly the percentage of students that are smokers but it’s not a small number! If it was then they wouldn’t be a “problem” and Ball State wouldn’t have had to put so much money into forcing them into their little pens called “designated smoking areas.”
So all I’ve done so far is complain. I’ve talked about how the smokers are being treated, basically, with cruelty and how Ball State has spent so much money on this new initiative. Quite frankly I’m not too happy because I think it could have been done in a much friendlier fashion which would have skipped violating the rights that any American should…especially outdoors!
Here’s what I suggest. We talked about this problem in my Cultural and Social Issues class and we decided that the university looked at this problem on too large of a scale. Yes, it does affect all of campus but why not look at it on a building to building scale? Having a smoking area designated outside of each building would not only be a fair compromise, it would allow those people who happen to light up a cigarette every once in a while to have their dignity back. Honestly, making someone walk from the Architecture building at 3 am, while they are stressed about their project, to the cow path is NOT going to make them a happy camper If anything it might cause them to just say “screw it” and smoke right then and there under the lights of the front doors of the building.
I think I’m seeing something here while writing this blog. Maybe Ball State is just looking for a way to make a little extra money. Charge a smoker $50 here…charge them $50 there. Why not, right? Well it’s because we go to a public university and because those smokers deserve to have their rights. I’m sorry, but I think this has gone too far.
-Devin Hillsdon-Smith
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March 30, 2008 at 9:32 pm
B. Schori
Regarding comments about Ball State Smoking Ban dated March 5, 2008. Let’s get basic fact straight here about smokers. Every smoker made the decision to become one. There isn’t a smoker out there today who can say they did not know that smoking was bad for their health and for the health of those around them before they took up the habit. They did not “happened to fall into that bad habit”. When they lite up that first cigarette, for whatever the stupid reason, they made the decision to take the health risks. They also accepted the restriants society may put on them to protect those that have made the wise decision to not smoke.
Medical costs associated with treating the effects of smokers in our society are huge. That’s a fact in the whole country. This is not an isolated situation on the campus of Ball State. Smoking bans are in effect throughout the country for very really reasons. The “dignity” of a smoker who is not allowed to light up and blow hazardous carcinogens into the air that those around them have to breath is not an issue. If they are smoking in any public place they are putting the health of non-smokers at risk. What about the dignity of those who have made the decision to stay away from this hazardous habit?