Smoking bans and restrictions have been initiated around the U.S. over the past several years, and soon, the University may follow.

Student trustee Hannah Ehrenberg wants to initiate a smoke-free policy for campus, starting with a smoking ban on the Quad and later expanding the smoke-free zone to other areas on campus. Public areas like streets would not be included.

Although the desire to promote healthier living with students, especially smokers, is laudable, this is the wrong way to do it.
The main drive behind many smoking bans is to protect non-smokers from second-hand smoke. This policy would not accomplish that. Unlike the Illinois smoking ban, a University ban would only prohibit smoking on outdoor University property.

It is understandable and reasonable that people would not want to sit in a restaurant, trapped next to a smoker for an hour. But non-smokers are exposed to smoke outside for just a few seconds. The inconvenience and health risks are minimal.

For smokers, the campus-wide ban is an obvious inconvenience. Whereas the Illinois ban prohibits smoking within small parameters (specifically within business establishments), blocking off such a large area is unreasonable; it would eat up a smoker’s entire break trying to find a suitable smoking area.

Yes, encouraging smokers to quit is a worthwhile goal, but it is not the University’s role to force faculty members and students to quit.

Ehrenberg also wants to work with the McKinley Health Center to provide resources for smokers who want to quit. This is a much more effective way to encourage a healthier campus.

The best way to reduce smoking is by helping smokers who actually want to quit. The University should take every possible opportunity to help these students and faculty members, and improving McKinley’s smoking resources is a good way to do this.

But a ban on smoking won’t help anyone.

If a smoker doesn’t want to quit, they won’t. Banning their habits from campus is a futile effort to force them to do so.