The College Fix

Taking away student rights in the name of “progress” has never really been my jam. It is with this in mind that I say WHAT. THE. HELL. ASS. AMELIE.

President Amelie Rousseau is gearing up to back the Smoke Free Task Force in attempting to make campus smoke-free. This is not news. But now, with an article in the Ol’ Dirty, she has made it news again.

ASUO President Amelie Rousseau is pushing for a smoke-free campus and has joined the University’s Smoke Free Task Force to start gathering support.

The task force, a group of mainly University faculty created in the 2007-08 school year, surveyed students, faculty and staff in April 2008 and found support from 75 percent of its 4,769 participants.

…

Rousseau said a major component of a potential smoking ban would be preventing second-hand smoke on campus.

“It’s about protecting students and staff from second-hand smoke, because our campus is a workplace, and people do have to travel between buildings and are exposed to second-hand smoke,” she said.

She also referenced the Smoke Free Task Force survey that said 3,576 of 4,769 University respondents, 75 percent, were “occasionally or often bothered by second-hand smoke on campus.”

So, according to the Daily Emerald, everyone who is occasionally or often bothered by second-hand smoke on campus supports making the space smoke-free. That seems like putting the cart before the horse a little, no?

Unfortunately for students at the University of Oregon, this is how our ASUO is operating right now. The folks in that office make absurd claims and leaps of logic to prove their point over and over, and I am starting to get sick of it. Just because students are frustrated by second-hand smoke does not necessarily mean they want to start taking away the rights of students. This is a slippery slope.

But students who smoke on campus say a major part of it is the convenience of a cigarette after class.

“After class, it’s really nice to just be able to walk out the door and smoke a cigarette and then walk out to the bus or something,” University freshman Ben Danner said.

Rousseau hopes a cigarette ban on campus would make this habit a chore, which would in turn discourage smokers.

“We want to make it easier for people to live healthy lives,” Rousseau said. “We want UO to be a healthy community, and that starts with being tobacco-free.”

Let’s tackle the health issue here for a minute. Our student union has a contract with the fast food company, Panda Express. Panda Express serves many meals every day. Through some quick and unscientific observation, the most commonly ordered item is a two-entree plate with Orange Chicken, Beijing Beef, and a side of Chow Mein. According to the Panda Express website, the nutrition breakdown of these items is as follows:

In the interest of not making you take out your calculator, that’s a total of 1,650 calories, 82g of fat, and 2,820mg of sodium. That is a lot. I am not suggesting that the EMU take Panda Express out of the building. I am suggesting that we allow students to make their own choices about their health on campus. Nowhere on the UO campus are cigarettes sold.

Additionally, there are designated “smoking stations” located more than 10 feet away from the entrances to buildings. People smoking by the door and under breezeways are a problem, but there is no entity on campus enforcing the current rules. I think it’s a little quick to say we need a smoke-free campus, when the intermediary steps are not being taken. Even designated smoking areas is a better idea. Overarching University-wide rule changes should be well thought out and the student government and other interested groups should take an interest in process and talking to students.

Beyond all this, I understand the desire to make campus smoke-free. But Amélie claims to want to eliminate student smoking altogether. Rousseau said she wants people to stop smoking because of what a chore it is to walk off campus. Nowhere does she address the safety issue, which I brought up in the Back to the Booze issue of the Oregon Commentator. To ban smoking on campus is to push smoking students off campus and out of Department of Public Safety jurisdiction. While the ASUO is continuing to fund a 24-hour Knight Library, it doesn’t seem entirely in the student interest to make us leave campus to smoke and subsequently put us in the path of the 3AM riff raff of the West University neighborhood. Assaults happen in the areas directly adjacent to campus a lot more often than they do on campus.

Just because you make us move, doesn’t mean you’re going to make us quit. No member of the student body — elected or not — should be able to tell another member of the student body not to exercise their rights. You won an election. You are not my mother.

A friend of mine made another point — if students are forced off campus to smoke, won’t students entering campus be faced with a lot more second-hand smoke in a lot more of a concentrated area? I guess Rousseau doesn’t care about that, because it’s not on campus. It is, however, a legitimate concern.

There is a lot to consider here. Think about it, and do some research. And pay attention for an announcement about a smoke-in happening soon. For the final word, I’m going to turn it over to President Bartlet and the championship status of Aaron Sorkin:

Lyzi Diamond is the editor of the Oregon Commentator and a student at the University of Oregon. She is a member of the Student Free Press Association.

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