In response to Amanda Fallin’s letter on Nov. 20, I would like to agree that preserving the safety and health of those who live and work on campus is important, but to use it as justification for a campus-wide tobacco ban is ridiculous.
As a public institution, UK must act to preserve all the rights of citizens, no matter how unpopular those rights may be. The right of non-smokers to breathe clean air must be balanced with the right of smokers to indulge where and when they choose.
Banning smoking indoors, near building entrances and perhaps even on campus sidewalks is justified to reduce exposure to second-hand smoke. On the other hand, the concept that smokers on the campus lawns present an unacceptable health hazard strains credulity. And the belief that smokers in parking areas or near roads produce even a fraction of the air pollution of passing vehicles is comical. Yet that is the position the university has chosen to take by imposing a blanket ban.
Designated smoking areas could have been provided, but the university chose instead to present the policy in a manner that, frankly, I find to be very insulting. Judging by the number of smokers who openly violate the ban, it seems that many of my fellow students agree. All those on campus — smokers and non-smokers alike — would have been better served had the administration effectively enforced existing policy rather than imposing, and not enforcing, an unreasonably strict ban.
Tom Dodson
computer science, electrical engineering and physics senior
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