Letter to Editor by Kerry Davidson
Walking to class has always been an adventure, attempting to avoid the smoke zones created by pedestrians lighting up directly in front of you.
Although this can be unpleasant, the smoke soon dissipates, and the slight distress it causes is not a leading factor of students skipping class, nor is it affecting the grade point average of this university.
On Nov. 19, the ability for an 18-year-old to be permitted to smoke is being revoked by the university. It is becoming illegal, something which they will be written up for, as they once were in high school or just told not to do, as they were by their parents.
The smoking ban is taking away the ability for college students to feel like, college students.
Days before the smoking ban took place, it seemed to be the topic of life while passing through a large group of smokers in front of the W. T. Young Library. It was even a typical conversation to hear while walking throughout my dorm.
These students are not pleased with this ban, they are not willing to walk all the way off campus just to get their “smoke on.†Many promise this ban isn’t about to stop them from smoking at their leisure.
The ban seems a little drastic to me. The university could have found a way to compromise with the smoking student population — giving them smoking sections, or enforcing a rule to not smoke directly next to a building — instead of taking away something that for some students was a form of stress management.
This ban was created to reduce the amount of smoke in the air, but created a smokin’ topic that is found all over campus.
Kerry Davidson
agricultural communications freshman
Do not let them get away with this as they will chip away your liberty bit by bit by bit even non smokers should cry out against this.
Next it is soda then donuts then butter then perfume on and on.