GW’s “smoke-free campus” strategy caught a bit of flack when administrators announced last fall that people would not be able to smoke within 25 feet of University buildings – essentially banning cigarettes anywhere on campus. The controversial rule will be officially in place Thursday.
I still have a lot of questions about the plan. Students do not know much about how, exactly, it will be enforced. Will campus police officers – in charge of keeping residence halls secure and clamping down on campus crime – be responsible for writing up a kid smoking outside of Gelman?
Such policies have been nearly impossible to enforce at many of the nearly 800 colleges that have then – and GW’s urban environment makes it an even more strenuous task. We should question why a policy without teeth is really the best way to help students quit an unhealthy habit.
But new scholarship on smoking might have me convinced that the ban will actually be worth it if GW can pull it off. A new study from behavioral science experts suggests that smokers light up despite its potentially lethal effects because they lack self-control. And policies like GW’s could help.
“Hospitals and universities have started to ban smoking not only inside buildings but also at their perimeter; while originally proposed to address secondary smoking hazards, this may also have the benefit of imposing an additional short-term inconvenience on smoking,” Eyal Ert and Eldad Yechiam wrote in the New York Times on Sunday. “If we are right that smokers tend to have poorer self-control, such manipulations may be used to help sustain their willpower.”
So, the policy is an attempt to exert some control in an area where many of us have little of our own.
It’s obvious who doesn’t like the smoking ban: smokers. Those who light up on campus have said that it encroaches for too much on their rights as tuition-paying adults. They may be right, and we should still view the policy with a skeptical eye – especially if resources are allocated away from campus security in order to enforce it.
But the bottom line is that universities are expected to do more today than they ever have before. There’s been a decades-long push for colleges, especially GW, to not only educate students, but provide top-notch amenities and serve as students’ home away from home.
And public health is, justifiably so, a big part of this effort. Students and parents at GW push for healthier food options, longer gym hours and a more accessible Student Health Service all in the name of creating a healthier campus. A smoking ban, if concretely communicated and put in place this fall, is just another tenet of this campaign.
The aggressive smoking ban might smack of administrative overreach and make us feel like nearly every aspect of our lives is being controlled. But we asked for it.
The writer, a junior majoring in political communication, is The Hatchet’s opinions editor.
