CAMPUS SMOKING BANS

The trend toward smoke-fee campuses is on a roll.
Emily Bazar reported in USA Today that the idea which began at commuter colleges has now being debated at larger campuses with student housing.

Although 31% of students smoke compared with 24% of the population, students like Chuck Kupchella, student president of the University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, plans to turn his campus into a smoke-free zone. “Smokers will still have rights,” he says, but just not on our campus.”

At Indiana University, Bloomington, a campus-wide smoking ban is meeting more resistance, especially after the Indiana Daily Student newspaper called the idea “an infringement on personal liberties.”

“I can vote, I can go to war, but I can’t . . . smoke a cigarette,” noted sophomore Alex Wukmer.

At the U. of Iowa, word has it that the school will be smoke-free by the summer of 2009. According to associate provost Susan Johnson: “Our goal here is not to coerce individuals to give up smoking. . . Our goal is to reduce the amount of second-hand smoke that everybody is exposed to. . .”

Deborah Lambert writes the Squeaky Chalk column for Accuracy in Academia’s monthly Campus Report newsletter.