Smoking ban to begin next fall

The Office of Residential Life and Learning (ResLife) is "making final steps" to put in place a smoking ban in dormitories that would take effect in fall 2003, according to ResLife Director Yolanda King.

The ban will be enacted "unless students come out 100 percent against it," King said. "The message we're getting loud and clear from students is that they don't want smoking in the dorms," she said.

Under the new policy, ResLife will place concrete ashtrays at what King calls "a comfortable distance" from the dormitories, so that residents are not forced to pass through a cloud of smoke. Students have also recommended benches for the smokers, an addition that may come later.

In a change from earlier proposals, ResLife will not reserve a particular dorm solely for smokers. Aside from safety concerns, "we probably couldn't fill a building," King said.

But not everyone agrees that banning smoking in dorms is a necessary or appropriate step. "If you're going to start banning smoking because of a faint scent, you've got to start banning things like microwave popcorn," sophomore Anthony Dalli said. "In terms of cigarettes as a fire danger... if you started banning everything that at one point in time or another has caused a fire, our rooms would be bare."

Such negative responses to the ban have been very minimal, King said. This conclusion is largely supported by a recent Daily poll, where 61.8 percent of students strongly or somewhat supported the smoking ban.

The ResLife staff has gauged student opinion in several different ways, King said. A fall survey of 1,946 students showed that the majority of students supported the ban, she said. In addition, ResLife held an open forum in February, though it was not very well attended as it was the same day that former President George H.W. Bush visited.

ResLife will host another open forum Thursday at 6 p.m. to give students a final chance to voice their opinions on the ban. "We don't want to overlook hearing from those who smoke," King said.

Tufts' ban is predicated on concerns about the effects of second-hand smoke and cigarettes as a fire hazard. Although ResLife was working on the ban before the recent death of junior Wendy Carman in a fire that appears to have been started by a cigarette, the tragedy "highlights even more" the need for the ban, King said.

The smoking ban is not intended to be a hardship on smokers, though. "We're not imposing upon anyone's right or choice to smoke," King said, though ResLife is working with Health Services to provide support to those students who wish to quit.

Given the difficulty of quitting smoking, Health Services is currently considering helping students obtain Zyban, a nicotine-free prescription medication designed to help smokers quit, according to Health Services Director Michelle Bowdler.

On National Smoke-Out Day, Health Services offered consultations with physicians about Zyban, though few students took advantage of the overture. Currently, through Health Services, students have access to health care providers who are familiar with nicotine addiction and can help design personalized plans to quit smoking.

Bowdler stressed that Health Services is "not the public health police," however. "It's not our job to tell everybody that they need to quit smoking," she said. "What is our job is to support people who might want to quit smoking."

Tufts' ban comes at a time when all of Boston seems to be pushing smokers out of public places. Boston smokers will no longer be able to smoke in bars and restaurants beginning May 5, when a ban passed last December takes effect.

In addition, the Faculty Senate at UMass-Amherst approved a measure last month that would complete the campus' transition to being "tobacco-free," which includes banning smoking in dormitories. Currently, students are allowed to smoke in lounges in ten dormitories on campus.

Other colleges and universities are even more restrictive of smoking. At South Florida Community College, smokers are only allowed to pursue their habits in designated kiosks, or "butt huts."

At the University of Florida this year, administrators have banned smoking within 50 feet of all campus buildings, but it is up to each building's administrator to enforce the policy. Enforcement is also voluntary at the University of Maryland, where smokers only have to stay 15 feet away from academic buildings.

A similar ban is "under consideration" at Tufts, King said, though it is unclear how it would be enforced. Tufts' new ban on smoking in dormitories will be enforced mostly by "community accountability," King said, though Resident Assistants (RA's) will also be responsible for exacting compliance.

Some campuses have looked into taking even more extreme measures. At Virginia Polytechnic Institute, a few student legislators have proposed a total ban on smoking -- inside and outside -- that would encompass the entire campus. Though students have already approved a ban on smoking in dormitories, there is not yet enough support to forbid smoking everywhere on campus.

Colleges and universities in 25 states have passed total or partial bans on smoking, according to American Nonsmokers' Rights, a national lobbying organization for nonsmokers.