Last year, President Neil Kerwin announced plans to become a tobacco and smoke-free campus. Touted as a move to work towards the improvement of student health on campus, the ban moved quickly with a very vocal campus-wide debate in classrooms, residence hall lounges and pretty much everywhere else at AU.
The Student Government, as always, opted to weigh in on the issue several times. The first, as The Eagle previously reported, was with a survey in the spring of 2012, which was before I was even a student here. Many proponents of the ban argue that the survey showed great results. Almost half of the undergraduate population supports it, right? 47 percent of students polled responded favorably to the proposed ban, but 53 percent either opposed or took a neutral stance. That’s not the kind of overwhelming support that I was hearing from both University and SG officials.
Following the announcement of the incoming ban, former SG President Emily Yu along with former Residence Hall Association President Fiona Erickson and former Graduate Leadership Committee Executive Chair Lauren Lane, released an open letter to Kerwin advocating for permanent on-campus smoking stations. This, however, was countered by actions from the SG Senate, of which I was a member last year. Already rigged on the voting in order to gain a stronger seat at the table for budget negotiations, opponents of the smoking ban were outnumbered 4-1 in a vote that was wholeheartedly unrepresentative of the undergraduate population. New SG policy would be to get behind the University’s policy every step of the way.
My defeat realized, I felt compelled to apply for and serve on the University Smoking Ban Implementation Committee to continue fighting for AU smokers and mitigate the damage that could possibly be caused by an overreaching and draconian policy. I was eventually selected to serve on the Subcommittee on Grounds and Facilities that was tasked with scrutinizing proposals for how far the ban would go, if there were to be transition areas, etc.
Initially, the Subcommittee was presented with an Alpha-draft of the proposed ban. The ban was to include areas ranging from Watkins building down past Nebraska Hall, including all area between the two opposite areas of campus. The Metropolitan Memorial United Methodist Church opposite the School of International Service was also included in this draft. More or less, the closest place to go to smoke would have been past the Wesley Theological Seminary for North Side residents or near Chef Geoff’s for South Side residents. Also included was one smoking transition area that would be phased out on Nov. 21. I was able to advocate for restricting the areas to encompass just the AU campus and off-campus facilities with the aid of other AU administrators and also the legal issue of whether or not the University has the ability to enforce a smoking ban off campus on non-AU owned grounds. Unfortunately, the University opted to select only three smoking transition areas that lasted only one semester, and with their disappearance, so went the associated “smoking totem poles,” as affectionately deemed by students.
Sunday night during spring break, I, an occasional smoker myself, went off campus to the D.C.-owned sidewalk next to Roper Hall where the smoking ban is in effect. What I encountered was embarrassing: cigarette butts lined the sidewalk that was also dotted with empty packs of cigarettes. In an attempt to make the University healthier, it looks like AU has not only alienated smokers by forcing students (professors and staff too) off campus to smoke, they’ve also become second-hand polluters. While the responsibility to clean up after oneself should most certainly be a personal responsibility, AU has failed in its commitment to being green by removing the receptacles dedicated to the disposal of cigarette butts.
We need to remember that we also live in the real world where cigarettes and alcohol exist. If we are to live with a tobacco-and smoke-free policy on campus, the University should reinstate smoking areas or at least replace the totem poles. The University must reevaluate the experience and the lessons that they are endeavoring to impart upon students. On the one hand, we can be smoke-free. But on the other hand, we should remain true to our commitment to being a clean school. The tobacco-and-smoke ban at AU only goes a step further to isolate students and provide the academic bubble that does not exist outside of our four years here.
Kevin M. Levy is a sophomore in the School of International Service and the College of Arts and Sciences. He is also the Speaker of the Undergraduate Senate.
