Question: How do you feel about the smoking ban and how effective do you think it will be? 

(from left to right, top to bottom)

 “Well I don’t smoke [cigarettes], so it doesn’t affect me, but my friends who do smoke are upset. I think people will smoke anyways — secretly … Weed is banned on campus and people smoke that all the time.”

Brittany Hopkins
Merrill, fourth-year
psychology

 “When you walk through Kresge, there is always somebody smoking because it’s really no big deal. If they ban [tobacco], though, people will be more upset than happy. I feel like students will protest — especially here.”

 Roxanne Kaplan
Kresge, first-year
undeclared

 “Well, that won’t fly well. I don’t smoke, but I believe people have a right to do so. It’s bad for your health, and I love my lungs. But if people want to destroy their lungs, they have a right to. It’s a stupid rule and it won’t fly.”

Daniel Hoisch
Porter, first-year
proposed literature

  “I don’t smoke, so I have no disposition to approve and it’s not a problem for me. [But] it’s not effective to tell people what they can and can’t do. They’ll take it down. There will be too many complaints and there is such a large [smoking] population. Time will tell.”

Ivan Quintero
Crown, fourth-year
chemistry

 “A lot of bio majors are going to be pulling their hair out around finals time. I mean, you hear students offering $1 for a cigarette all the time around finals. It’s not good for your health, but we’re lucky to have such an open campus where there is plenty of space. Students now can barely make it through an hour and 45-minute class without smoking. They just can’t wait to get their fix. It’ll be pretty bad for those students who are addicted, but a lot of students start smoking their first year, so for future classes as long as you don’t start — because you can’t start — that will be good for you.”

 Keri Kekkonen
Merrill, fourth-year
neuroscience

 “At a [junior college] in San Diego, the students voted [on a no-tobacco policy], and it still went through. But that campus is small and it’s not a big deal to just step off [campus]. Here, you’d have to take a bus. I don’t think it’s fair. It’s an imposition on our liberties and freedoms. I don’t think it will be effective at all. Rating its effectiveness will be a matter of ticketing students — they may make some money, but that won’t stop smoking on campus. Especially for the students who live on campus — they’re 18, they have rights. It all comes down to liberties. We pay to come to this school. I’m a 27-year-old student and I deserve freedom of choice at the very least. If [the UCs] want to corral me and smokers into a little smoking area, I can accept that. The current rule is no smoking within 20 feet of any doors or windows, and I don’t mind that. I’m a courteous smoker, I don’t smoke around children or people eating — it’s just a courtesy issue. Smokers are aware of this and they know how it affects the people around them. Most smokers don’t like littering and will use an ashtray to dispose their butts. If [the UCs] remove the ashtrays, what choice do we have? I can’t carry a butt with me into class. The policy won’t change people — people will continue to smoke.”

 Sean McGowen
Kresge, third-year
art and economics