Smoking ban good idea, difficult to execute

Originally Published: 02/19/12 7:12pm |Modified: 02/19/12 7:14pm |

Smoking on campus can be bothersome to students who are nonsmokers. When walking to class, it is common for students to be hit with a whiff of cigarette smoke — a smell that can be very irritating for some — or have to walk behind someone with a cigarette in their hand.

If enforced correctly, ASMSU, MSU’s undergraduate student government, could cut down on these annoyances.

At a meeting last week, ASMSU members discussed a bill that would address smoking on campus. The bill was introduced earlier in the year in an attempt to make MSU a smoke-free campus, but recent amendments are focused on reducing smoking rather than completely eliminating it. The Residence Halls Association, or RHA, and the Council of Graduate Students also are on board with the bill.

Although it’s commendable to see ASMSU addressing student concerns, taking on the task of reducing smoking on campus might be difficult to achieve.

In that vein, student government could look into designated smoker areas around campus. MSU also could enforce the rule that states students or faculty can’t smoke within 25 feet of residence halls. Although smoker areas are already in place, many smokers do not abide by it, choosing to smoke directly outside building entrances.

ASMSU made a wise move choosing to reduce smoking on campus rather than make campus smoke-free. Smoking might be irritating and even unhealthy for nonsmokers, but is not illegal for citizens over the age of 18 — which most students are — to smoke. It’s difficult to ban something that’s both legal and so widespread. Choosing to focus on limiting smoking is a much more realistic goal.

There are things ASMSU could do to achieve a campus with less smoking, but it ultimately will be hard to do without a punishment to smokers.

If students don’t face a fine or ticket for smoking on certain areas of campus, many smokers will continue to smoke regardless of any bill. Fines would give smokers incentive to change their habits, but that opens up an issue that ASMSU or any other student group wouldn’t be able to solve easily.

The East Lansing Police Department or the MSU police would need to get involved if fines were to be enforced, and that issue would then be in the hands of university officials and out of ASMSU’s control.

By working with the university to enforce current rules, ASMSU wouldn’t have to introduce new policies that might have a difficult time taking hold.

Ultimately, this bill appears to be the action of a student government that might not realize how difficult it will be to accomplish the goal of cutting back on smoking. Without stiffer punishments or a sensible alternative, it’s difficult to see how this bill would affect smoking on campus.

However, at least ASMSU is addressing the health concerns of students rather than pretending the issue doesn’t exist.