Dear The Stinger,

During the debate for SGA Presidential Elections, there was a question taken from the audience asking about what each party’s views on smoking would be. The Duffy/Baumann party, who later won the SGA Election (let me extend my congratulations here), expressed interest in making UW-S a “Smoke-Free” Campus. I feel that banning smoking from the UW-S campus would be an excessive and unnecessary action, as I believe that we can create a smoking policy that can be acceptable to everyone, smokers and non-smokers alike.

Before I move on, let me explain a few things about myself. I am not a smoker. In fact, I have never even tried smoking. I once spent two years working in a restaurant that allowed smoking, which has made me hate smoking to the point that I can’t stand the smell of a burning cigarette. Also, whenever I am around someone smoking, I usually (and involuntarily) start the kind of excessive coughing that’s usually reserved for movies about a plague.

I also know about all the things that are bad about smoking. I know that not only smoking, but also second-hand smoke, is a health hazard. I know that smoking is linked to emphysema and various forms of cancer. I know that cigarettes are incredibly addictive, and are filled with harmful/disgusting ingredients (while watching Wednesday’s episode of The Colbert Report, I found out that cigarettes even contain pig’s blood in the filters!). I also do not think that anyone should have to be exposed involuntarily to second hand smoke in restaurants, buildings, and walkways. I know that many people find smoking distasteful, and are concerned about the health hazards, for both smokers and non-smokers. And I can see why those people, and people such as Duffy/Baumann, would think that banning smoking outright would be a simple solution to those concerns.

However, even if passing legislation (or whatever SGA calls the act of passing legislation) is the simplest solution, it’s not the right one. When looking at the health concerns of smoking, it can be tough to remember that smoking tobacco is legal for persons who are over the age of 18, as most (if not all) of our student body is. And as I, Duffy/Baumann (I assume), and every other non-smoker have the right to make a conscious choice to not smoke, we must recognize that the students who smoke also have the right to make that choice. Banning smoking is an action that pays no attention to the needs of our smoking population. For example, most freshmen and sophomores are required to live in campus dormitories, and it would be a major inconvenience to them if they were smokers and were suddenly forced to leave the campus each time they smoked. It would be inconsiderate of non-smokers to force those students to deal with that inconvenience, just as it would be inconsiderate for smokers to smoke right next to a Yellowjacket Union door. To come up with a solution, we should consider the feelings, wants, and needs of every party involved.

believe the smoking policy that will be acceptable to the most students would be a compromise. Currently, most smoking areas are located in walkways where most students walk through on their way to their destinations. The way we have positioned these smoking areas is a problem, as it inadvertently forces non-smokers to walk past areas where they can be exposed to second-hand smoke. Instead of going to an extreme and banning smoking, a better solution would be to establish clearly marked smoking areas (or even smoking shelters) and position them away from walkways and buildings. This way smokers would have a clear place to smoke without having to worry about infringing on anyone else’s rights, and non-smokers would be able to have access to clear air without being inconvenienced.

As I said earlier, I made a conscious choice not to smoke, and was able to be the only person to make my choice. If you don’t smoke, it’s also likely that you made a conscious choice not to smoke as well. It’s fantastic that we are able to make this choice, and I feel that just as we are able to make this choice, we should not take the choice of whether to smoke or not away from students. We promote diversity of race, religion, sexual orientation, and culture on campus, but banning smoking would infringe on the most important form of diversity of all: Diversity of Thought. The whole point of being in college is to learn to think critically and independently in hopes that we can determine the course of our own lives. Similarly, everyone who attends college is an adult that is capable of this critical, independent thinking and is thus qualified to make their own decisions. While some might not agree with someone’s choices, we must agree to accommodate everyone the best that we can.

Smoking and non-smoking people can and should work out a reasonable compromise as to where one can smoke, and doing that would be a far more fair and productive solution than banning smoking outright. If SGA takes action to bypass making such a compromise, they would be ignoring the wants and needs of a group of students which they are supposed to represent. In order to adequately represent the entire student body, SGA needs to take the initiative to make a smoking policy that is fair to all students.
                                                                
Sincerely,
Tony Abbott