Some SGA officials are looking to put a ban on smoking on campus. They cite a variety of reasons, from health concerns to the nuisance of smoking to the fact that it is damaging to the paint of many of the buildings on campus. Smoking is a harmful activity, so why not ban it? I say that the unintended consequences and the difficulty that implementing this rule would pose are good reasons not to ban smoking on campus. First, I am a non-smoker; I have no skin in this debate. I am still a bit concerned that the SGA may make a bad move. I could go on and on about how it bugs me that the SGA, or anyone else, would tell me what I can and cannot do with my own body. However, I think the pragmatic case against a ban is more compelling. The first and most obvious problem with a ban on smoking is enforcement. How is the SGA or the University going to effectively police every inch of the UA campus to make sure no one is taking a smoke break? It is not as if thousands of students addicted to nicotine are going to suddenly quit smoking or refrain for several hours a day (or the whole day, if they live on campus) simply because the SGA banned smoking. If you police the streets, people will smoke behind buildings or in their rooms where they cannot be caught. And if they smoke in their rooms, this leaves a lingering and unpleasant smell in the residence halls that the University and future students will have to contend with. ? Just as bad, in my opinion, would be the fact that the ban would be enforced to some small extent. Thousands of students would continue to smoke on campus, but probably only a handful would ever be caught and punished. Those who are caught and punished would not be flagrant offenders but simply those who were just unlucky and smoking in the wrong place at the wrong time. Rules such as this, ones that cannot be fully enforced, have been struck down by the Supreme Court when they have taken the form of federal law. A smoking ban on a single public university is a far cry from tyranny, but the idea that a rule that cannot be evenly applied to all people should not be applied to anyone is applicable to even a simple smoking ban. There is a compromise that would be much more easily enforced and go a long way to helping fight the health hazard and nuisance problem that secondhand smoke creates. Think and try to remember where you always find yourself when you are stuck inhaling large amounts of smoke. For me, it is always at the bus stops where when one person is smoking (as they frequently are), all the others at the stop must sit there and inhale all the carcinogens the person is breathing out on them. Instead of a campus-wide ban on smoking, it should be banned at bus stops. This way, it is enforceable, as officers could focus on a relatively small number of focal points. It will likely also be obeyed and will force smoking to occur in more wide-open areas where the concentration of smoke will not cause passing bystanders to choke on their own breath. I think this should work well enough for everybody.
Stephen Allen is a freshman majoring in electrical engineering.
