A new policy at Georgetown University will ban smoking inside and nearby university housing. The policy, which was approved by school administrators and sponsored by Georgetown students, will go into effect by the end of the spring semester.
Georgetown spokeswoman Laura Cavender said this new regulation requires all university residence halls, apartments and townhouses to be smoke-free, while prohibiting smoking near building entrances and air intakes for the ventilation system.
Under the current policy, smoking is permitted in residence halls "only in private rooms/apartments by mutual consent of all occupants." Smoking is prohibited on floors designated as non-smoking.
Cavender said the university plans to enforce the new policy by first educating students and informing them about the new policy. They also plan to make the non-smoking signs more visible in the designated areas.
But Cavender said the students are expected to follow the new regulation without problems.
"So far the response has been positive," she said.
The new regulation was implemented after a survey conducted by the Interhall Council found that most students supported smoke-free housing.
Interhall Council, a student organization that works to improve residence life, submitted a proposal for the new policy, which was reviewed by the Housing Advisory Council and the Office of Housing and Residence Life.
Saad Abdalli, a freshman, was pleased with the administration's decision to create a smoke-free environment in the residence halls. He believes this is a positive measure to protect students' health.
"Under the old policy, students could smoke in certain rooms and you could smell the smoke in the hallways," Abdulli said. "I don't smoke and it's kind of annoying to have to smell cigarettes in the building."
Abdulli said, "I also think that prohibiting smoking near the dorms is good because sometimes you can find a huge cloud of smoke as you go out."
But other students do not completely agree with the new policy. Kathryn Nishimura, a sophomore in McDonough School of Business, said, "I agree with the fact that smoking is banned from inside the dorms, but I disagree with the part that says smoking will be banned outside of the buildings."
Nishimura said that under the new policy, smokers will have to walk as far from the building as possible to smoke, and said that is "very inconvenient."
"I don't think this is right," Nishimura said. "Some other campuses have adopted these types of measures without necessarily prohibiting smoking outside of the buildings."
Many universities are adopting smoke-free policies. A 2001 study conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health found that 81 percent of colleges prohibit smoking in all public areas, and 27 percent of colleges prohibit smoking in residence halls.
At AU, "smoking is prohibited in all residence halls," according to the Student Handbook.
