Column by Richard Becker

In a column published on Sept. 22 of this year in the Kernel, Jacob Sims pointed out that “in this country we have free choice,” a point that is apparently lost on President Lee Todd as he seeks to classify students who smoke as second-class citizens.

It would be one thing if the administration set up a designated smoking area on campus where those students who do choose to indulge in nasty addictions could go to get their dastardly fix.

Instead, students, faculty and staff who smoke (or use the other many tobacco-related products banned) will be required to walk to the edges of our massive campus. But the story doesn’t stop there — with UK even going as far as attempting to get the city to help enforce the ban on sidewalks.

My father started at UK in 1966, and has vivid memories of a campus that was (perhaps a little too) friendly to tobacco use. “I can remember sitting in Chem-Phys listening to a lecture while Dr. Stanford Smith chain-smoked in front of the class,” he said.

Were the students innocent? “No. Students were smoking in class too. There were ashtrays in many of the classrooms.”

Hearing stories like this may be strange to the average student in 2009. Smoking in classrooms? Get out.

If you listen to the UK administration talk about tobacco use, you’d think it was this bad today. They’ve trotted out all kinds of half-baked statistics about everything from second-hand smoking to the rates of quitting among smokers that occur after a ban is implemented.

This ban is, plain and simple, a solution in search of a problem. Every smoker I know at UK (myself included) is quite conscientious about his or her behavior toward non-smoking students, faculty and staff. We make sure to dispose of our cigarette butts and blow our smoke as far away as possible from passers-by. Yet the university feels the situation is so dire that it requires an all-out ban, not just on smoking but on all tobacco use.

This is insane — not just on its merits but also because of the costs associated. The Kernel recently reported the university spent $25,000 on signs welcoming pedestrians to a tobacco-free university. What the sign doesn’t say is how this ban will be enforced.

The question of enforcement is perhaps the biggest thorn in the administration’s rear end. They claim to want to create a “culture of compliance,” which sounds more nefarious than I would have thought the administration is capable of being.

I’d like to personally invite those opposed to the tobacco ban to the free speech area on Thursday from 12:50 to 3 p.m. Let’s show the administration at least one last time that we’re not afraid to smoke on campus.

It may not change anything, but at least our voices may be heard. In the meantime, may the assault on personal liberties continue in our old Kentucky home.